Mastercard’s Stablecoin Sandwich Warning Comes With a Pitch

Matthew Driver, Mastercard’s executive vice president of services for Asia Pacific, made the point in an October 27 interview with CNBC.

The warning comes from the company selling the bread

Driver’s argument runs in three steps. Turning ordinary money into stablecoins can be slow, the blockchain transfer in the middle is fast, and turning the tokens back into local currency can add another delay.

“You don’t want to have a ‘stablecoin sandwich,’” Driver said.

He sees openings in selected remittance corridors and in currency pairs that trade less often, and more scope in corporate payments, including transfers triggered automatically by smart-contract conditions, for example paying a supplier once a delivery is confirmed. Where domestic payment systems already work well, he sees less for consumers to gain. Singapore, ...