Stablecoins have moved from a crypto-native experiment into regulated financial infrastructure faster than almost anyone predicted a year ago. As of 2026, seven major economies, the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, and Japan, now mandate full reserve backing, licensed issuance, and guaranteed redemption rights for stablecoin issuers, according to industry tracking from BVNK.
The US framework is the anchor. President Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, known as the GENIUS Act, into law in July 2025, creating the country’s first comprehensive federal framework for dollar-backed stablecoins. Through 2026, US regulators have been building out the implementation: the FDIC, Federal Reserve, OCC, NCUA, and FinCEN jointly advanced a proposed rule treating stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, which would require them to monitor for and halt suspicious transactions in the same way traditional banks are expected to.
Major payments companies are building directly on top of this new regulatory clarity. Stripe is preparing to launch Tempo, its own layer-1 blockchain built with crypto investment firm Paradigm, with a partner roster that already includes Anthropic, OpenAI, Shopify, Visa, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, and buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna. Klarna’s own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, is in testing ahead of a planned mainnet launch on Tempo. Separately, Revolut, now valued near $75 billion after securing a MiCA license in Europe, is expanding its crypto team with a wave of new hires focused specifically on stablecoin and crypto infrastructure.
Not everyone is comfortable with how fast this is moving. Community bank groups have raised concerns that some stablecoin issuers are sidestepping the GENIUS Act’s explicit ban on stablecoins paying interest directly, by routing yield to holders indirectly through affiliated payment partners instead, a workaround regulators have signaled they intend to close.
The Philippines has no dedicated stablecoin law yet; BSP currently handles crypto asset service providers under its existing Virtual Asset Service Provider framework, which predates this wave of bank-grade stablecoin infrastructure abroad. But remittances are exactly the kind of use case stablecoins are built to improve, cheaper, faster cross-border transfers, and with GCash, Maya, and a wave of OFW-focused fintechs all under pressure to cut transfer costs, the infrastructure now being built out by Stripe, Klarna, and Revolut abroad tends to reach Philippine payment corridors faster than most other fintech trends. BSP will likely face growing pressure to clarify its own stablecoin stance within the next year or two rather than continue treating it as a subset of general crypto regulation.
Traditional payments giants are treating this moment as a genuine inflection point rather than a niche crypto trend. PayPal and Stripe have both been described by industry press as flexing their crypto capabilities more aggressively heading into this year, with one payments analyst quoted describing 2026 as the year stablecoin infrastructure would go from experimental to essential. Revolut’s build-out reflects the same urgency: the company is adding roughly a dozen new crypto-focused roles even as it juggles a fresh $75 billion valuation and its recently secured MiCA license, signaling that even fintechs without an obvious crypto legacy now see stablecoin infrastructure as core rather than optional.
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