The news: Fiserv will launch its own stablecoin, FIUSD, by end of year to complement its existing banking and payments infrastructure. 

To support the FIUSD rollout, Fiserv snagged key partnerships with PayPal and Mastercard.

• Fiserv and Paypal partnered to increase interoperability between FIUSD and PYUSD to coordinate domestic and international movement of funds.
• Mastercard is integrating with Fiserv’s stablecoin payment network to offer things like merchant settlement in FIUSD and even stablecoin-powered payment cards.

Stablecoins on the rise: Fiserv’s announcement follows a whirlwind of stablecoin developments, from Circle’s meteoric IPO to Square and Shopify’s acceptance of stablecoin payments. 

In an era promising regulatory clarity and enthusiasm from the Trump administration, many incumbents—from big banks like JPMorgan to big retailers like Amazon and Walmart—are trying to strike the stablecoin iron while it’s hot.

Crypto use cases: Proponents of stablecoins say they can speed up transactions through tokenization, lower merchant interchange fees, minimize friction for FX transactions (which is great for customers issuing frequent remittances), and turn traditionally static financial instruments into dynamic, programmable assets.

Incumbent pivot point: Longstanding players in the payment ecosystem are experimenting with stablecoins to avoid getting left behind. 

JP Morgan announced its JMPD token, which serves institutional clients for digital asset settlement. Zelle-owner Early Warning Services is reportedly toying with an institutional stablecoin to streamline traditional banking networks.   

Retailers like Amazon or Walmart are interested in stablecoins to avoid interchange fees at checkout. But any one retailer (or bank for that matter) would be hard-pressed to get buy-in and acceptance from other retailers and banks—which means a consortium like EWS or a financial plumber like Fiserv may be the best bet for mainstream retail adoption.