Stablecoins present an emerging opportunity for enterprises looking to improve payments, settlements, and liquidity. But while holding and moving stablecoins has been the dominant model, the next generation of solutions is emerging: enterprises are starting to issue their own stablecoins.

To date, stablecoins have primarily been issued by third parties like Circle or Tether, primarily facilitating transactions or payments. While this has provided access to digital assets, it has not unlocked the full potential stablecoins can offer enterprises—leaving opportunities on the table. Branded stablecoins offer control over transaction fees, reserve yield, and broad financial network effects. As regulatory clarity emerges and enterprise adoption accelerates, issuing stablecoins is no longer just innovative—it’s a strategic advantage.

Moving Beyond Traditional Financial Rails

Before getting into stablecoin use cases, we need to look at how stablecoins benefit enterprise businesses. Traditional financial systems weren’t built for today’s global, fast-moving enterprises. Over time, inefficiencies have layered on top of outdated infrastructure, creating a patchwork of fixes that add cost, complexity, and friction. Payments are slow, costly, and rely on multiple intermediaries—including correspondent banks, payment processors, and settlement networks—and they all take a cut of every transaction and cause delays. Cross-border payments can take days to settle, and transaction fees imposed by payment processors and financial institutions add up quickly. Enterprises also have limited control over their financial flows, with banks and payment networks dictating terms and costs.

Stablecoins offer a fundamental shift. By replacing outdated financial infrastructure with blockchain-powered digital assets, enterprises can move money instantly, reduce costs, and establish financial systems tailored to their needs.

The Enterprise Opportunity: Why Issuing Stablecoins Puts Businesses in Control

The real opportunity isn’t just using stablecoins—it’s issuing them. Today, most enterprises exploring stablecoins still rely on third-party issuers like Circle (USDC) or Tether (USDT). While these stablecoins improve transaction speed and cost efficiency, they don’t address deeper financial inefficiencies—businesses remain dependent on external issuers, subject to predefined fee structures, and lack control over liquidity movement.

Issuing a branded stablecoin reshapes financial control for enterprises. Instead of working within the constraints of third-party issuers, businesses can manage settlement flows directly, internalize FX costs, and design financial incentives that strengthen their ecosystem.

With a branded stablecoin, enterprises can:

• Capture transaction revenue and reserve yields by eliminating third-party fees and reinvesting reserves into yield-generating assets like T-bills, turning financial flows into a profit center.
• Optimize cross-border payments and liquidity flows by removing reliance on slow, expensive intermediaries, enabling real-time settlements, and reducing FX costs by setting internal exchange rates.
• Design financial incentives that strengthen their ecosystem. Enterprises can create a closed-loop system where value remains internal or allow stablecoin usage beyond their network to gain insights into customer spending—unlocking opportunities for partnerships and market expansion.

For decades, financial institutions have extracted value from enterprises—through transaction fees, FX spreads, and reserve yields. Stablecoin issuance allows businesses to reclaim that value, reduce external dependencies, and establish financial frameworks tailored to their needs. But realizing this potential requires working within the right regulatory frameworks.

Navigating Regulatory and Compliance Considerations

For enterprises considering stablecoin issuance, regulatory uncertainty has long been a challenge, especially for publicly traded companies facing compliance scrutiny. However, recent legislative developments—including the STABLE Act, the GENIUS Act, the Waters Draft, and the Lummis-Gillibrand Payment Stablecoin Act—are helping to define clear guardrails, making it easier for businesses to navigate compliance requirements.

But as these proposed acts show us, not all regulatory frameworks are created equal. Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs), while essential for payments, do not provide the oversight required for stablecoin issuance. Unlike payments businesses, stablecoin issuers have to safeguard reserves, manage tokenization, and ensure assets remain bankruptcy-remote—a level of security MTLs don’t guarantee.

To meet these higher standards, enterprises should seek issuing partners with trust charters, such as those under the NYDFS framework. These regulatory structures provide institutional-grade oversight, ensuring compliance while giving businesses greater confidence in stablecoin adoption.

Key Questions Enterprises Should Ask When Choosing a Stablecoin Issuance Partner:

• Do you hold a qualified custodianship status with a trust company or bank charter?
• Are stablecoin reserves held in a bankruptcy-remote trust?
• How are minting private keys managed for security?
• Which regulatory body explicitly oversees your stablecoin issuance activities?
• How will our business benefit from your ecosystem partnerships?

With NYDFS trust-chartered stablecoins aligning with emerging regulations, enterprises can issue stablecoins with confidence—provided they partner with a properly regulated issuer.

Taking the Next Step

Stablecoin issuance is shifting from an experimental concept to a strategic financial strategy. The opportunity isn’t just to use stablecoins—it’s to issue them, capture financial benefits, and take control of corporate treasury in ways previously reserved for traditional banks and payment processors.

Enterprises that move first will define the standards for the next generation of finance. Those who wait will be left navigating systems designed by their competitors.