PayPal executive: Stablecoins need bank participation to unlock their full potential

Speaking at the Consensus 2025 conference, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, senior vice-president of digital currencies at PayPal, said: "You do want banks to be involved in this space" and their infrastructure "will be critical for stablecoins to scale beyond the crypto-native layer". Anthony Soohoo, MoneyGram's chief executive, said US stablecoin legislation "will unlock huge potential" and "will answer a lot of questions about trust". The pair expect a new wave of issuance after regulation is clarified, followed by consolidation in the market. "There won't be 300 stablecoins, and there won't be just two." Fernandez da Ponte stressed that "we're looking at velocity, active wallets, number of transactions", which represent actual use. Soohoo added that in countries with high inflation, consumers see dollar stablecoins as a store of value. "Consumers don't care about stablecoins, they care about solving problems," both executives noted.