Wall Street’s payments giants aren’t convinced of the usefulness of cryptocurrencies in everyday transactions, at least not yet.
On earnings calls this week, Visa and Mastercard executives offered cautious assessments of digital assets, especially stablecoins, indicating that consumer demand has not necessarily materialized in any meaningful way.
“As I said before, in the U.S., if a consumer wants to pay for something using a digital dollar, they have ample ways to do so today,” said Visa CEO Ryan McInerny. “They can pay from their checking account or their savings account. It’s become quite easy to do. So we don’t see many product markets suitable for stablecoin payments and consumer payments in digitally developed markets.”
Stablecoins are intended to make payments faster by allowing money to move directly between parties on a blockchain, without going through banks or card networks. Unlike traditional payments, which can take days to settle, especially across borders, stablecoin transactions can settle in seconds and operate 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays.
In a September report, JP Morgan described stablecoins as “a digital form of on-chain fiat money” that is “easy to self-custody and transact” and “fast, particularly in the context of cross-border money movement.” The bank said stablecoins could even be “a better way than fiat” in some situations, thanks to lower costs and 24-hour settlement.
But the report also warned of risks, including the potential for a destabilizing run on stablecoins. “The collapse of TerraUSD in May 2022 highlights how quickly a run can occur, in an asset class that trades 24/7,” wrote analyst Joyce Ho.
Mastercard took a more open tone than Visa, with CEO Michael Mierbach saying the company is “leaning” into emerging technologies like stablecoins and AI-powered agents, but even he framed the company’s role more as an enabling infrastructure than a transformation leader.
“For us, stablecoins are another currency that we can support within our network,” Miebach said. He noted working with MetaMask, Ripple and Gemini, but emphasized that the current dominant use case is still commerce, not payments.
“We have made good progress in enabling the purchase of these assets, facilitating transactions, and supporting stablecoins for settlement through our network,” he said.
Both companies have ventured into blockchain infrastructure: Mastercard with pilots for on-chain identity and settlement tools, and Visa with experiments in stablecoin settlement using USDC. But despite these efforts, neither treats cryptocurrencies as a near-term threat or opportunity to their core businesses.
This position contrasts with the scale of chain activity. According to data from Glassnode, bitcoin alone settled more than $25 trillion in transactions in 2025, more than Visa ($17 trillion) and Mastercard ($11 trillion) combined. While Bitcoin volume includes large, high-frequency institutional transfers, the size reflects the growing demand for blockchain across financial applications.
SoFi’s crypto push
Meanwhile, SoFi, the digital bank and fintech company, is leaning into cryptocurrencies more aggressively.
After beating Wall Street estimates in its fourth-quarter earnings, SoFi stock briefly rose before falling, now down 5%.
Just over 63,000 accounts were actively buying, selling and holding digital assets in the fourth quarter of 2025, although the option was not fully available until late December. However, the company said it sees cryptocurrencies as part of a broader strategy.
CEO Anthony Noto told investors that SoFi is “moving with urgency to lead the next phase of financial services by offering cryptocurrency and blockchain innovation backed by bank-grade stability and security.”
