For the better part of the last decade, stablecoins have been the cryptocurrency sector’s workhorse for trading and settlement in capital markets. They supply liquidity on exchanges, back DeFi protocols, power cross-border payments, and let market makers shift capital swiftly. However, looking toward 2026, leading industry figures increasingly assert that trading won’t be the source of the next wave of sustainable earnings in the crypto space.
In exclusive comments to Investing.com, executives at FS Vector and Stablecore state that stablecoins, such as USDT and USDC—digital tokens usually pegged to the US dollar and issued by private institutions on public blockchains—are evolving beyond their role as trading instruments into foundational financial infrastructure.
This shift won’t be driven by issuing more stablecoins, but by what their “rails” enable: transaction routing, coordination, and settlement between systems both on-chain and off-chain. If this migration accelerates, it could alter how banks, fintech firms, and infrastructure providers generate revenue as stablecoins penetrate deeper into real-economy flows.
From Trading Collateral to Real-World “Rails”
Nick Elledge, co-founder and COO of Stablecore, believes the initial pressure point will likely come from regional and mid-sized banks that have historically relied on large banks and correspondent networks to move dollars internationally.
“In 2026, I predict regional banks will stop depending on big banks for cross-border transfers,” Elledge commented. “They will leverage stablecoins for remittances, which are 90% cheaper and settle in seconds, upending the traditional hierarchy of correspondent banking.”
In his view, the most disruptive element isn’t cost or speed, where stablecoin benefits are already well-understood, but availability. Stablecoin “rails” can operate around the clock, typically outside conventional banking hours, granting banks a liquidity advantage when legacy payment systems are closed.
“This might look like a consortium of regional banks launching a shared tokenized deposit or stablecoin to bypass the FedWire window for weekend liquidity provisioning,” he added.
While this reflects a real use case stablecoins have long promised, it also creates a second-order effect. As institutions begin using stablecoins as their “rails,” the ecosystem becomes more intricate, generating new coordination challenges and new points where value can be captured.
A Deeper Look: The Connectivity Layer
Emily Goodman, a partner at FS Vector, suggests that while stablecoin issuance will remain fundamental, the more crucial strategic focus in 2026 will likely “shift toward orchestration.” This means greater attention to transaction routing, coordination, and settlement across a fragmented, hybrid financial system.
“Stablecoin issuance will stay an important foundation for the digital asset ecosystem,” Goodman noted. “However, by 2026, the strategic focus will begin moving toward the orchestration of transactions built on top of stablecoin infrastructure.”
The emergent opportunity, in her view, lies not just in issuing stablecoins, but in managing how stablecoin-based transactions move between blockchains, banks, payment networks, and legacy systems, especially when those systems don’t inherently talk to one another.
“Market participants will seek value from coordination, routing, and settlement across on-chain and off-chain environments,” Goodman stated. “We will see heightened attention on interoperability, meaning platforms that span payment networks, DeFi protocols, and banking systems.”
Put differently, stablecoins supply the “rails,” but the revenue opportunity resides in the infrastructure that dictates how transactions are routed, settled, and managed.
Why This Could Be a Source of Sustainable Revenue
As stablecoins continue to infiltrate core financial flows—like bank remittances, treasury movements, and platform settlements—the ecosystem is likely to become more fragmented, with numerous coexisting blockchains, issuers, on-ramps and off-ramps, and compliance regimes.
This fragmentation creates demand for services that deliver connectivity and support this orchestration: interoperability tools, routing layers, settlement coordination, and transactional monitoring that incorporates compliance.
The firms positioned to capture enduring revenue may not be those handling the highest speculative volume, but those coordinating how value moves within an increasingly hybrid system.
The 2026 Takeaway
By 2026, the most significant stablecoin story may not be the launch of a new token, but the infrastructure built around stablecoin “rails” that weaves together banks, blockchains, and payment networks into a unified transactional fabric.
If Elledge is correct, stablecoins will start undermining the economics of correspondent banking. If Goodman is right, the bigger prize will reside one level above issuance, in orchestrating how money moves across on-chain and off-chain mediums.
In this future, stablecoins are no longer the product, but the infrastructure, and revenue shifts toward the firms managing the routing, settlement, and coordination.
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