Quadrillions: Stablecoins: We’ve Only Just Begun | Mohamed Afifi
Speakers
Summary
- Stablecoins have grown from near-zero to ~$300 billion in assets, evolving from crypto-trading pairs to B2B infrastructure and cross-border payment rails.
- The "Stablecoin Sandwich" concept is emerging: Infrastructure providers abstracting the complexity of blockchain, where the user inputs fiat, the system uses stablecoins for settlement, and the recipient gets fiat.
- A major shift is occurring in "Agentic Commerce" (AI-to-AI payments) and corporate treasury management, specifically with Japanese institutions moving in and out of tokenized US Treasuries to optimize yield on idle cash.
- Incumbents (Western Union, Visa) possess a durable "last mile" advantage (physical footprint/banking rails) that new stablecoin entrants cannot easily replicate, suggesting a hybrid future rather than total displacement.
Trade Ideas
The host mentions Cloudflare's announcement regarding "Net Dollar" and their focus on "agentic commerce" (AI agents paying AI agents). Cloudflare is positioning itself not just as web security, but as the payment rail for the AI agent economy. If AI agents require micropayments or high-frequency settlement that traditional banking cannot handle, Cloudflare's edge network combined with a stablecoin mechanism could capture a new, high-growth payment flow. WATCH. It is early, but this represents a potential TAM expansion for Cloudflare into fintech. Execution risk; competition from Stripe or native crypto protocols.
When discussing PayPal's stablecoin (PYUSD), Sariniki notes it allows them "to experiment with... incentives" and maintain "agency to make those changes instead of having to rely upon somebody else." By launching a proprietary stablecoin, PayPal vertically integrates the settlement layer. Instead of paying fees to Circle (USDC) or banks, they capture the float interest and transaction fees within their own "Venmo loop." This transforms them from a payment gateway into a monetary issuer, improving margin and ecosystem lock-in. LONG. Control over the stablecoin issuance allows for better unit economics on transactions within the PayPal/Venmo ecosystem. Regulatory crackdowns on non-bank stablecoin issuers; lack of adoption compared to ubiquitous pairs like USDC/USDT.
Mohamed Afifi
Co-founder, HiFi
Japan is the second-largest holder of US Treasuries. Afifi explicitly states that "Japan into the US for tokenized treasuries is a huge opportunity" and that they are running pilots in Q1 to help large Japanese financial institutions go in and out of tokenized treasuries efficiently to earn yield on idle cash. The primary beneficiaries of this efficiency are the Japanese mega-banks (Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui) which hold massive USD reserves. By utilizing stablecoin rails and tokenized treasuries, these banks can significantly reduce friction costs and increase yield velocity on their balance sheets. LONG. These institutions are the direct customers for the enterprise-grade infrastructure HiFi and Canton are building. Regulatory hurdles in Japan or the US regarding tokenized assets; slow institutional adoption rates.
Mohamed Afifi
Co-founder, HiFi
Afifi states, "We also work closely with Visa to allow us to pay out to 170 countries." There is a misconception that stablecoins will simply replace card networks. In reality, infrastructure providers like HiFi are using Visa's "Direct" rails to solve the "last mile" problem (getting crypto back into fiat/bank accounts). Visa effectively becomes the off-ramp infrastructure for the stablecoin economy, capturing volume rather than losing it. LONG. Visa is entrenching itself as the necessary bridge between on-chain settlement and real-world spending. Development of closed-loop stablecoin payment systems that bypass card networks entirely (e.g., wallet-to-wallet commerce).
Up Next
This Empire video, published February 04, 2026, features Mike Ippolito, Eric Sariniki, Mohamed Afifi discussing NET, PYPL, MUFG, SMFG, V. 4 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Mike Ippolito, Eric Sariniki, Mohamed Afifi · Tickers: NET, PYPL, MUFG, SMFG, V