a16z's latest report "The New Stack for Global Finance: The Stablecoin Edition": The global pipeline is being rebuilt, adapt or become obsolete!

If traditional finance doesn't embrace it, it will be eliminated! Top venture capital firm a16z crypto released a comprehensive, 10,000-word report today (27th) analyzing how "stablecoins" are reshaping the underlying architecture of global finance. The report points out that stablecoins have become the foundational plumbing for a new generation of financial products, driving payment giants like Stripe and Mastercard to aggressively acquire related infrastructure. In the future, from underlying blockchains and bank connectivity to end-user applications, a brand-new "onchain finance" stack will completely disrupt the existing system and even become the ultimate weapon for consolidating the US dollar's hegemony. (Previous coverage: a16z report: Stablecoins transition to financial infrastructure, Asia has captured 2/3 of the global market) (Background supplement: US Clarity Act may be delayed until May! Banking industry dissatisfied with "stablecoin yields," Kelp DAO hit by $290 million hack) After more than a decade of cryptocurrency technology development, we are witnessing its most disruptive use case entering a period of explosive growth—this time, the protagonist is "stablecoins." Top venture capital firm a16z crypto partners Noah Levine, Guy Wuollet, and Robert Hackett jointly published an in-depth report titled "The New Stack for Global Finance: The Stablecoin Edition" on April 27, 2026. The article includes the latest Market Map, profoundly depicting this structural financial revolution currently underway. In the opening of the report, a16z points out incisively: stablecoins are no longer just a niche tool for cryptocurrency trading; they have evolved into the underlying "plumbing" of global financial infrastructure. Stablecoins have given birth to a new form of "Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)." Now, companies can build end-to-end financial products simply by leveraging onchain infrastructure, self-custody wallets, and combining primitives such as accounts, payments, FX, and credit. Business operations that previously took years to apply for multi-country licenses and find local banking partners can now be easily realized through this "new stack." Traditional financial giants have clearly smelled the blood in the water. Iconic cases, including Stripe's bold acquisitions of Bridge and Privy, as well as Mastercard's acquisition of BVNK, all demonstrate that traditional giants are rushing to position themselves in this new stack. a16z asserts that this transformation is irreversible, and traditional institutions will inevitably face elimination if they do not embrace it. What exactly does this new financial stack look like? a16z deconstructs it from the bottom up: - The tripartite division of underlying blockchains: Current underlying infrastructure falls into three categories: First, "general-purpose chains" like Solana, Ethereum (and its L2s), which remain the mainstays for trading and DeFi; second, "payment-specific chains" optimized for large-scale payments to reduce gas fees and costs (such as Stripe's Tempo, Circle's Arc); and third, "institutional networks" designed for regulated entities that balance programmability and privacy (such as Canton). - The last mile of bank connectivity and liquidity: Although stablecoins solve the problem of cross-border payments, liquidity for the exchange between local fiat currencies and stablecoins remains weak in emerging markets. This has given rise to stablecoin-compatible FX providers (such as OpenFX), regional exchanges (such as Bitso), and specialized "translation layer" facilities that help traditional core banking systems seamlessly connect with stablecoin networks. - The licensing brawl among issuers: With the passage of the US "GENIUS Act," stablecoin issuers are competing to apply for the OCC National Trust Charter. a16z believes that the winners who secure this ticket may even directly connect to the Fed system in the future, becoming the absolute core of the global financial system. The popularization of stablecoins is not just an upgrade to payment systems; it will bring profound macroeconomic and geopolitical impacts. First is the rise of "Onchain Credit." a16z points out that with the accumulation of large-scale stablecoin floats, the market will generate a huge demand for productive credit. This will form a new type of onchain credit market targeting Real World Assets (RWA), accounts receivable, and corporate working capital, with a scale and influence comparable to the rise of traditional private credit over the past decade, but more open and globalized. Second, at the macroeconomic level, stablecoins have become the strongest tool for consolidating the US dollar's hegemony. Through stablecoins, individuals and businesses in global emerging markets can directly acquire and store US dollars without needing a US bank account, protecting them from the ravages of local currency hyperinflation. This effectively establishes a more direct, real-time, and low-cost global dollar network for the United States. The era of this open, programmable, and highly interoperable "onchain