Stablecoins, Retail Giants, and the Future of Payments: Why Identity Will Decide Who Wins

The Rise of Stablecoins in Everyday Payments

Stablecoins have moved from niche trading instruments to the forefront of global financial strategy. What was once a tool for liquidity providers and hedge funds is now being positioned as a direct replacement for legacy payment rails.

Amazon and Walmart’s reported plans to launch their own USD-backed stablecoins are not just about innovation—they’re about economics. Each card swipe today carries a hidden tax:

• Visa & Mastercard: ~0.14% in network fees

• Payment processors (Stripe, Fiserv, etc.): ~0.40% in processing fees

• Issuing banks: ~1.8% in interchange fees

Last year alone, issuing banks collected $143 billion in interchange fees. By launching stablecoins, Amazon and Walmart are signaling they are done paying this toll. Stablecoins offer:

• Real-time, on-chain settlement

• Programmable, frictionless dollars

• Direct control over cash flows

• Reduced reliance on intermediaries

In short, they represent a fundamental restructuring of merchant economics.

The New Framework: GENIUS Act and Regulatory Clarity

Timing matters. In July 2025, the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins), creating a federal framework for stablecoins. The Act mandates:

• 1:1 reserves for all issued stablecoins

• Monthly audits

• AML compliance and identity safeguards

• Issuance by banks, fintechs, and qualified state entities

With this regulatory clarity, we’re now watching a new payments race unfold. Ripple has launched RLUSD, JPMorgan is moving institutional money with JPMD, and Tether is adapting products for the U.S. market. But Amazon and Walmart’s entry would catapult stablecoins from trading floors into daily consumer payments at massive scale.

The Identity Challenge: Who’s Behind the Wallet?

But here’s the catch: cutting out banks doesn’t mean cutting out trust requirements. If anything, the pressure on identity verification grows.

Every stablecoin transaction will need to meet regulatory standards. Merchants and issuers must know:

• Who is transacting?

• Are funds compliant with AML rules?

• Can fraud and bots be stopped without adding friction?

The payment rails of the future cannot rely on passwords, manual KYC checks, or centralized databases. They need real-time, wallet-based identity verification.

VALid™: Anchoring Trust in Stablecoin Payments

At Validity Worldwide, we see stablecoins and digital identity as two sides of the same coin.

Stablecoins move money. VALid™ makes sure that money can be trusted.

• Wallet-Centric Verification: VALid™ anchors verifiable identity credentials to digital wallets, ensuring every transaction originates from a verified source.

• Frictionless Compliance: AML and KYC happen at the point of transaction, not days later. Smart contracts can verify credentials in real time.

• Selective Disclosure: Merchants or issuers see only what they need—nothing more. Privacy and compliance can coexist.

• Ecosystem Trust: VALid™ prevents bots, synthetic IDs, and fraudsters from hijacking stablecoin networks, ensuring stablecoins serve humans, not exploiters.

Stablecoins will rewrite the economics of payments. But identity will determine their trustworthiness, adoption, and resilience. Without verifiable identity, stablecoins risk replicating the same vulnerabilities of legacy payments—just faster and cheaper.

Looking Ahead

If Amazon and Walmart succeed, they won’t just reduce fees—they’ll reshape the payment stack. Tokens will replace cards. Smart contracts will replace settlement networks. Programmable dollars will replace float.

But this future depends on embedding trust into every connection. As stablecoins become the foundation of consumer payments, solutions like VALid™ will ensure compliance, prevent fraud, and preserve user privacy—creating a payment ecosystem that is both efficient and secure.

Final Thought: Stablecoins aren’t hype. They’re strategic tools that will decide who controls the next era of payments. And just as stablecoins replace the rails of money movement, identity solutions like VALid™ will become the rails of trust.