Stablecoins 2026: The Beginning of the End of Ramps

Plumbing to Pockets

In 2025, we saw that the stablecoin-plumbing worked.

“Stablecoin sandwiches” cut settlement times, enabled 24/7 movement, and freed up capital stuck in pre-funded accounts. And although cost hasn’t been the primary driver of uptake, stablecoins can be cheaper in some corridors, too. These trends will continue as gas fees on L2s fall and liquidity across currency pairs deepens driving down FX costs.

But the future of stablecoins goes well beyond this narrow frame. We see 2026 as the year stablecoins graduate from backend efficiency tools to something consumers and businesses hold and use.

Three trends are driving this shift from plumbing to pockets.

1. On-ramps Are Disappearing

When was the last time you “on-ramped” cash into your bank account? Most of us get paid directly: by employers, clients, friends, or family. The same thing is beginning to happen with stablecoins. Global payroll providers and remittance platforms are paying out directly in stables, straight into users’ wallets. No sandwich. Just stables.

Deel and BVNK have been doing this for years. Remote recently announced stablecoin payouts. YouTube pays US contractors in PYUSD. MoneyGram partnered with our portfolio company Crossmint to launch stable payments. Remitly announced stable payouts, while Western Union has plans for its own stablecoin.

This is happening for two reasons. First, customers want it, especially workers and remittance recipients in volatile currency markets who want to store value in dollars. Second, in many corridors, it’s cheaper for providers to remit in stables, particularly when there’s no immediate off-ramp. When the plumbing works, the building follows.

Sure, the on-ramp hasn’t truly disappeared. Payroll providers still accept USD from employers and senders. But it’s as good as gone for the user. And that’s what matters.

2. Off-ramps Are Next 

Companies like Rain, Bridge, and Flourish portfolio company Kulipa now let users spend stablecoin balances via Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Behind the scenes, this is non-trivial. Authorizing card transactions against on-chain balances in real time, especially from self-custodial wallets, is difficult. But the value proposition is simple: hold dollars until you actually need to spend them. And then spend them like you spend fiat from your bank. Stablecoin UX is achieving “fiat-parity.”

Because of this, adoption has been rapid: Visa has more than 130 stablecoin-linked card issuing programs in 40 countries. Rain announced $3B in annualised TPV (up 38x in 2025) alongside its $250m Series C in Jan. Though much earlier, we are seeing a similar exponential growth at Kulipa.

Another advantage is behind the scenes. Today, Visa authorizes transactions 24/7 but can only get fiat settlement from issuers when banks are open (once a day, Mon–Fri). That means Visa is “on risk” over weekends and needs issuers to post collateral covering those days. If issuers can settle stablecoins 24/7, collateral requirement goes down dramatically.

Of course, off-ramps haven’t literally disappeared. Most merchants still receive dollars. Someone is converting stables to fiat in the background. But again, users don’t see it. From their perspective, the off-ramp is gone. And that’s what matters.

3. Consumer Adoption Pulls in Businesses 

If your workers, customers, and vendors are getting paid in stables, holding treasury in stables stops being ideological and starts being operationally rational.

Tokenized money-market fund equivalents, such as like BlackRock’s BUIDL or VanEck’s VBILL, speed up subscriptions and redemptions providing intra-day liquidity. CFOs like that. They also like the ease with which stablecoins can be moved between subsidiaries in different countries. Adoption is still early, but the direction of travel is obvious.

Hard questions

When people receive salaries and remittances in stables and can spend directly from those balances, it’s hard to argue against rising retail adoption. This is especially true in emerging markets with volatile currencies.

That raises hard questions. What affect does digital dollarization have on local currency? What to do about taxation of salaries paid into self-custodial wallets? How can we prevent the circumvention of capital controls? These, and many others, are multi-layered topics requiring thoughtful conversations to develop nuanced solutions.

We believe consumer demand will ultimately force regulators to engage and adapt. At Flourish, we’re active participants in that conversation via our work with Alliance for Innovative Regulations, amongst others.

Where Stablecoins Go From Here

As stablecoin balances grow, we expect second-order effects. (More on all of these in future posts!):

• Hybrid payroll providers paying out in both stables and fiat
• Stable-native neobanking infrastructure
• Legitimate, compliant yield products for on-chain balances
• The emergence of local stablecoins (at least in hard-currency markets)
• Greater bank participation in custody and infrastructure
• And the trend we’re most excited about: the convergence of stablecoin balances, real-world asset tokenization, and agentic payments.