‘CRYPTO HURDLE' SOLVED: SOFI IS FIRST BANK DEPLOYING STABLECOIN SETTLEMENT ACROSS MASTERCARD NETWORK

Summary from the TLDR Fintech newsletter

SoFi has moved its entire $25 billion card program onto SoFiUSD for settlement across Mastercard's global payments network, making it the first nationally chartered US bank to use stablecoins this way at scale. For consumers and merchants, little changes: payments still run through standard Mastercard cards, while settlement happens behind the scenes on blockchain rails, with merchants able to receive funds instantly without holding crypto or changing their infrastructure. SoFi is now in discussions with large US merchants about expanding the system beyond its own card business, which could turn stablecoins from a crypto product into largely invisible payment infrastructure.