Overview of Evolving Money: Stablecoins in Practice and Policy
This sponsored episode of Evolving Money examines how stablecoins are moving from a niche crypto instrument into a practical payments tool for major financial firms, merchants, and institutions. Host Angie Lau speaks with Checkout.com executive Moran Kalbeci about how stablecoins can improve settlement speed and reduce payment friction, and with Coinbase chief policy officer Faryar Shurzad about the rapidly changing U.S. and global regulatory landscape that is enabling broader adoption.
Stablecoins in Practice: Checkout.com’s Use Case
Checkout.com is positioning stablecoins as the next upgrade to its global payments platform.
What they’re building
- Checkout.com originally offered stablecoin settlement to merchants in 2021, then wound the product down because regulation and banking partnerships were not ready.
- The company is now relaunching the service, allowing merchants to receive settlement:
- in traditional fiat, or
- directly into a stablecoin wallet.
Why merchants care
- 24/7 settlement: not limited by bank hours or legacy banking rails.
- Faster finality: immediate or near-immediate movement of funds.
- Global flexibility: especially useful for enterprise merchants operating across multiple countries.
Rollout strategy
- Although Checkout.com is UK- and Europe-based, it plans to begin the rollout in the United States.
- The company sees this as an experiment to test consumer and merchant demand, especially among businesses with cross-border customers already holding stablecoins.
Where Stablecoins Make the Most Sense
The episode highlights several use cases where stablecoins may be especially valuable:
Developing markets
- A dollar-pegged asset can help people in high-inflation or unstable-currency economies preserve value.
- Stablecoins may also help users avoid:
- cross-border fees,
- FX costs,
- limited access to credit/debit cards.
Developed markets
- In the U.S. and Europe, adoption is more likely to be driven by convenience and user preference.
- Consumers who already hold stablecoins for trading may prefer to spend them directly rather than convert back to fiat.
- For merchants, the long-term appeal is tied to broader ecosystem adoption, including:
- vendor-to-vendor payments,
- treasury management,
- cross-border settlement.
Policy Shift: From Uncertainty to Permission Structure
Faryar Shurzad argues that the policy environment has shifted dramatically.
The regulatory change
- He describes a move from a period when innovators were effectively pushed offshore or forced to pause development.
- Now, regulators are creating a “permission structure” for experimentation and product development.
The GENIUS Act
- Shurzad points to the GENIUS Act, passed by Congress and signed into law in July, as the federal framework for stablecoin issuers.
- At the same time, regulators are already allowing certain stablecoin use cases before the law is fully implemented.
Examples of regulatory movement
- The CFTC allowing stablecoins for derivatives trade settlement.
- A broader “sandbox” environment where regulators are blessing innovation while the formal rules are still being finalized.
Key Regulatory Challenges
Despite the progress, the industry still faces major operational and legal complexity.
State-by-state fragmentation in the U.S.
- Shurzad emphasizes that crypto and payments regulation can still vary across states.
- This creates a burden of:
- 50 different rules,
- different compliance expectations,
- uncertainty for developers and consumers.
Why legislation still matters
- Coinbase sees legislation as the top policy priority.
- The goal is to create durable rules that are hard for future administrations to reverse.
Incumbent resistance
- Traditional financial institutions are pushing back, not necessarily against the technology itself, but against the speed of change.
- The biggest visible fight mentioned is over crypto rewards, but a deeper issue is the move toward instant settlement and fewer intermediaries.
Global Outlook: Dollar Stablecoins and National Responses
The episode argues that U.S. action on dollar stablecoins is forcing other countries to respond.
Global implications
- Because of global demand for dollars, tokenized dollars could become highly influential in international payments.
- Other countries may need tokenized versions of their own currencies to stay relevant.
Examples mentioned
- Canada and the UK are moving toward stablecoin frameworks.
- Europe is further ahead on crypto market structure through MiCA.
- However, the EU and UK are described as more cautious on stablecoins than the U.S.
Need for interoperability
- Full global harmonization is not required, but consistency helps.
- Shurzad argues for regulatory systems that recognize one another, so firms can operate across borders more easily.
- He points to U.S.-UK coordination as a useful model.
Main Takeaways
- Stablecoins are moving from crypto trading infrastructure into real-world payments and settlement.
- Checkout.com is betting that merchants and consumers will increasingly want stablecoin-based payment options.
- The main technical challenge is manageable; the bigger barriers are regulation, banking relationships, and operational complexity.
- U.S. policy is becoming more supportive, with a push toward clearer rules and faster adoption.
- The broader industry fight is about whether stablecoins and tokenized money will reduce the role of traditional intermediaries.
- Globally, tokenized dollars may pressure other countries to modernize their own currency systems.
Bottom Line
The episode frames stablecoins as a potentially transformative layer for payments: faster, cheaper, and more borderless than legacy systems. Whether that promise becomes mainstream depends less on the technology itself and more on whether regulators and incumbent financial systems allow it to scale.