TL;DR:
- Key players: Firms like Tether (Plasma), Circle (Arc), and giants like Stripe and Paradigm are leading the transition toward proprietary settlement infrastructures.
- Recent milestones: The launch of the Plasma mainnet on September 25, 2025, and Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge for $1.1 billion.
- Market trend: The focus is shifting from general-purpose networks (L1) toward orchestration layers that control the entire payment flow.
The digital financial ecosystem in the United States is undergoing a structural shift toward the use of payment-centric blockchains. In this regard, Delphi Digital’s latest report reveals that stablecoin issuers and fintech companies are moving away from dependence on generic networks to build infrastructures that optimize asset settlement.
The motivation behind this change is the need to control financial “pipes,” seeking to capture value at every stage of the process. Currently, the stablecoin sector is consolidating as one of the strongest use cases, where cost efficiency and execution speed determine competitiveness against traditional banking systems.
Consequently, projects like Plasma—backed by Tether—and Circle’s Arc network demonstrate that the goal is no longer just to issue tokens, but to own the rail on which they circulate. These companies avoid fees from external networks like Ethereum and eliminate the operational “tax” on minting and burning assets.
Payment infrastructure as the new revenue engine
In addition to native issuers, the fintech sector has entered this competition with force. Following strategic acquisitions like Bridge and the billing platform Metronome in January 2026, Stripe is poised to dominate everything from issuance to the commercial integration of stablecoin payments.
Furthermore, industry experts suggest that real value is shifting toward the orchestration layer. This includes critical services such as regulatory compliance, foreign exchange (FX) conversion, and connectivity with fiat on/off-ramps.
In summary, during this cycle, dominance over settlement networks is emerging as the major revenue generator. Much like Visa or Mastercard in the past, companies that control interoperable infrastructures—even involving AI agents—will be the ones to capture the largest share of global financial flows.
