Sora

Writing about stablecoins and payments

[Sora @stable_sora]

Global Finance is quietly undergoing seismic shifts.

The existing system for dollar liquidity, built on Eurodollars and banks, is starting to crack

Here's why stablecoins are the future of dollar liquidity and trade

(Thread)

[Ishaan @ishaan_dham]

Proud to be a part of this research team!

[Sora @stable_sora]

The Corpo Chains are Here.

Stripe, Circle and even Google are launching their own chains

Here's how they're are thinking about this space

(Thread)

[Sora @stable_sora]

The full post here dives into all of this in more detail

https://t.co/DFrbZsaEhp

Thanks for reading, more coming soon. Follow and retweet to be in the loop!

[Sora @stable_sora]

Risks:

- Fragmentation: 10 chains, 100s of pools, messy liquidity

- FX overreach: 99% of supply is USD, local stables struggle. Solving FX issues will take time.

- User sovereignty: extractive loyalty points, walled gardens

- Regulatory weight: old system w blockchain skin

[Sora @stable_sora]

Circle: strong liquidity + Web3 roots, weak mainstream trust/distribution.

Stripe: massive merchant/consumer network, but thin liquidity.

One needs users, the other needs tokens

[Sora @stable_sora]

Circle’s Arc
- USDC gas fees
- Sub-second finality
- Compliance-friendly privacy
- Permissioned validators
- Focused on FX & local stables

Stripe's Tempo
- Payments-first L1
- Fiat-denominated fees
- Leveraging merchant distribution
- Backed by Visa, Shopify, Anthropic, etc

[Sora @stable_sora]

The big bet is rails

Controlling the settlement layer means controlling the spreads, FX, fees, data

Visa did $13.2T volume in 2024, generating $36B in revenue.

Bringing cross border, FX, B2B, remittances on chain is a much bigger opportunity.

[Sora @stable_sora]

Defensibility is also eroding

Issuers submitted proposals to win the USDH ticker on Hyperliquid.

Just about every issuer participated, pledging all yield back to the ecosystem

Power is shifting from the issuers to the platforms (who have the volume/adoption/stickiness)

[Sora @stable_sora]

PayPal launched incentives on Solana to push PYUSD adoption

Incentives pushed mcap to $1B

When incentives fell, mcap fell by ~40%

Even with PayPal's brand, distribution and deep pockets, changing behavior in payments is very hard.

[Sora @stable_sora]

Stablecoin Issuance looks profitable on paper (T bill yields)

Examples overindex on Tether

- Revenues capped by Fed rates (which are going down)
- Growth requires massive incentives + licenses
- Users default to USDC/USDT at the slightest friction

High costs, limited upside

[Sora @stable_sora]

Why build a chain?

Enterprises betting on stablecoins have 4 options:
- Launch a stablecoin
- Launch a chain
- Form partnerships
- Wait & acquire

[Sora @stable_sora]

Before I start, here's the full post covering this in more detail:
https://t.co/DFrbZsaEhp

In this thread, we'll cover:
- Why Stablecoins are a tough business
- Motivations behind capturing the rails
- Challenges

[Sora @stable_sora]

The Corpo Chains are Here.

Stripe, Circle and even Google are launching their own chains

Here's how they're are thinking about this space

(Thread)

[Sora @stable_sora]

@zachxbt @FrankieIsLost As many saying depends on size, geo, chain, etc. but metamask does free PYUSD on ramps via PayPal in the us

[Sora @stable_sora]

Global Finance is quietly undergoing seismic shifts.

The existing system for dollar liquidity, built on Eurodollars and banks, is starting to crack

Here's why stablecoins are the future of dollar liquidity and trade

(Thread)

[Sora @stable_sora]

That's it, I hope you found that useful.

I write deep dives about stablecoins and payments, follow and retweet to be in the loop

And in case you missed it, here's my stablecoin primer
https://t.co/k9P56her7Q

[Sora @stable_sora]

Global Finance is quietly undergoing seismic shifts.

The existing system for dollar liquidity, built on Eurodollars and banks, is starting to crack

Here's why stablecoins are the future of dollar liquidity and trade

(Thread)

[Sora @stable_sora]

Here's my post that dives into this in a lot more detail

https://t.co/PzqHbzmraL

I dive into Eurodollars, Basel III, systemic fragility and the case for a new rail