🚨 Payment Giants Feel the Heat from AI + Stablecoins
Traditional payment stocks took a hit after reports suggested autonomous AI agents may prefer low-fee stablecoin rails over legacy card networks charging 2–3.5%.
On Tuesday:
• Mastercard dropped up to 5.7%
• American Express fell 7.2%
Why?
AI-driven systems optimizing for cost and speed could increasingly settle payments via blockchains like Solana — bypassing traditional intermediaries altogether.
With stablecoin volume hitting $33T last year and supply projected to reach $1.9T by 2030, the shift could reshape a $100T B2B payments market.
Add in:
• Spot SUI ETF launch on Nasdaq
• Meta exploring stablecoins across its apps
…and the pressure on legacy rails becomes hard to ignore.
The future of payments may not run on cards — but on code.