Wall Street’s Stablecoin Race Is Moving From Experiments to Payment Infrastructure

Wall Street’s stablecoin race is no longer about proving that tokenized dollars can work. The fight is shifting to who controls the regulated rails that move those dollars between banks, card networks, blockchains and customers.

A new Decrypt overview maps a rapid expansion by major banks and payment companies. The clearest signal is Project Faro, a planned U.S. stablecoin issuer backed by a 21-institution coalition that reportedly includes Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Santander and Deutsche Bank.

The group is committing roughly $270 million to fund five years of operations and is targeting a 2027 launch. That is serious money, but it is not a finished product.

Project Faro still has no final token name and no chief executive, while Tether and Circle retain the overwhelming share of today’s stablecoin market.

Decrypt reports that SoFiUSD has expanded to Polygon alongside Ethereum and Solana, giving the bank’s more than 17 million members a direct bridge into tokenized dollars. SoFi also operates a tokenized deposit product that can convert into SoFiUSD.

The same competitive map includes Anchorage Digital as a regulated custody and settlement backbone. Visa, Mastercard and Circle are each pushing beyond simple token issuance into settlement, screening, merchant infrastructure and cross-border banking connections.

How Wall Street Is Racing to Claim the Onchain Dollarhttps://t.co/ufpc5j1QFD

— Decrypt (@DecryptMedia) November 15, 2026

The real prize is the payment stack.

Issuing a dollar token is only one layer. The more valuable position may be controlling custody, minting and redemption, transaction screening, merchant settlement and the connections that let regulated money cross from one network to another.

SoFi has already expanded SoFiUSD to Polygon alongside Ethereum and Solana. Its national-bank status gives it a different starting point from a crypto-native issuer, while its existing customer base gives the token a built-in distribution channel.

Anchorage Digital is taking another route. The federally chartered crypto bank is building itself into infrastructure for institutions that want stablecoin capabilities without assembling the entire system themselves.

Its automation product can mint, burn and move stablecoins under pre-approved rules as deposits arrive.

Stablecoins, on autopilot.

Stablecoin Automation from Anchorage Digital: mint, burn, and move stablecoins between your Anchorage Digital and outside accounts as deposits arrive. You approve the rule once, and it runs every time a deposit lands. pic.twitter.com/aHf60bMkxs

— Anchorage Digital (@Anchorage) November 13, 2026

Decrypt also reports that Anchorage-backed tokens can settle over Visa’s network, beginning with Western Union’s USDPT. Mastercard has rolled out its own stablecoin tools, including payment screening and agent-payment capabilities, while Visa has broadened stablecoin settlement across multiple blockchains.

Regulation opened the gate, but distribution will decide the winner.

The GENIUS Act created a U.S. framework for dollar-pegged tokens in 2025. That clarity changed the calculation for regulated institutions.

Banks that once treated stablecoins as a crypto trading tool can now see a settlement business with global reach.

President Trump’s administration has argued that regulated dollar stablecoins can extend the dollar’s role abroad. The commercial race now matches that policy goal: banks want deposits and customer relationships, card networks want transaction flow, and crypto firms want to remain the connective tissue.

None of that guarantees Project Faro or any individual bank token will take meaningful share from USDT or USDC. Liquidity, redemption reliability, integrations and user trust matter more than a famous list of backers.

But the competitive line has moved. Stablecoins are becoming payment infrastructure, and traditional finance is no longer content to rent that infrastructure from somebody else.

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