Companies like Mastercard, PayPal, and Polygon are already building infrastructure to support this shift, with Polygon reporting massive growth in small and micropayment volumes. The act is expected to accelerate mainstream adoption, particularly through user-friendly platforms and DeFi innovation.
Stablecoins Face a New Era Under the GENIUS Act
The GENIUS Act was recently passed with broad bipartisan support in the US House of Representatives, and it is poised to reshape the stablecoin landscape by establishing the country’s first federal framework for these digital assets. With over 300 House votes, including backing from 102 Democrats, the legislation creates a clear distinction between stablecoins used for generating yield and those intended for payments. This regulatory clarity is drawing comparisons to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework and is seen as a major step toward global regulatory consensus.
Fabian Dori, the chief investment officer at Sygnum, explained in an interview that the impact of the GENIUS Act goes far beyond compliance. He believes the act will give issuers and organizations the confidence to innovate and build next-generation payment applications that go beyond current use cases.
Fabian Dori
Rather than chasing returns through interest-bearing models, stablecoin issuers are now expected to lean into the utility aspects of stablecoins—like real-time settlement, low transaction fees, and programmability. Dori pointed out that tokenized money market funds are better suited for yield-seeking investors, offering stable value and daily liquidity backed by US Treasury products, while maintaining a clear separation from transactional stablecoins.
The industry is already responding to the shift. Major players like Mastercard and PayPal already began laying the groundwork for compliant stablecoin usage, and retail giants like Amazon and Walmart are exploring applications in payroll and cross-border payments.
Jason Lau, chief innovation officer at OKX, believes that in the new regulatory landscape, "utility beats yield," and the true potential of stablecoins lies in their ability to drive real-world adoption through fast, cost-efficient, and programmable transactions. He sees the growing interest from payment giants as only the beginning.
Polygon Labs’ global head of payments and fintech, Aishwary Gupta, mentioned that the trend toward payment-focused stablecoin use was already well underway before the GENIUS Act. According to Gupta, the volume of micropayments on Polygon rose 67% from February to June, reaching $110 million.
He said that real-world utility is what ultimately matters, and pointed to use cases like cross-border remittances and commerce as critical areas of growth. Polygon is actively working on stablecoin infrastructure that supports sub-cent transaction fees and enterprise-grade scaling, with some integrations already targeting over 100,000 transactions per second. The company is currently collaborating with a firm that serves 185 million phones in Africa to support cross-border B2B payments and has several million enterprise wallets poised for launch. Small payments between $100 and $1,000 on Polygon grew 190% to $563 million over the same period.
Despite the shift in focus, both Dori and Gupta agreed that retail adoption will be key to stablecoin success. They stressed that user-friendly platforms will ultimately determine the pace of integration, not just fintech initiatives.
Meanwhile, Lau pointed out that DeFi protocols could be among the biggest beneficiaries of this clarity, given the central role stablecoins already play in decentralized finance. He suggested that beyond synthetic yields and governance incentives, the ability to craft innovative, real-world use cases will be critical in driving the next wave of stablecoin demand.
