When payment giants and blockchain natives come together on one stage, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that we are in an era that’s evolving from cards to chains. Stablecoins, once a mere sideshow, are now transforming into the default infrastructure for the next era of global money movement. This was a clear chorus that echoed at Binance Blockchain Week.
Moderated by CoinDesk’s Ian Allison, the panel on “The Next Era of Payment Rails” brought together Christian Rau, SVP Digital Assets at Mastercard; Reece Merrick, Managing Director MEA, Ripple; and Nikola Blais, VP Payments, TON Foundation, in a candid exchange that mixed legacy finance pragmatism with crypto-native ambition.
Mastercard’s Rau positioned the 60-year-old card network as an enthusiastic but uncompromising adopter. “We will never water down safety, security, or compliance,” he stressed. Mastercard has taken initiatives to integrate stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC, PayPal’s PYUSD, and, most recently, Ripple’s RLUSD. He said that for Mastercard, blockchain was simply the newest technology layer that can help it deliver its promise of safe, simple, and secure payments everywhere.
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Ripple’s Merrick highlighted the regulatory tailwinds in the Gulf region. Both the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and Abu Dhabi Global Market’s FSRA have formally recognized RLUSD as a designated fiat-referenced stablecoin, a first-of-its-kind approval in the region. Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin has surpassed $1.3 billion in market value, with about 35% circulating on the XRP Ledger. Merrick noted strong enterprise demand after Ripple acquired treasury-management firm G Treasury.
TON Foundation’s Nikola Blais made some striking claims about how the broader stablecoin-powered cross-border orchestration market is already processing ~$100 billion per month and growing 20–30% (YoY). “These are traditional companies that don’t care if it’s USDT or USDC,” Blais noted. “They only care about price and speed.”
The message was unanimous: that the merger between traditional finance and blockchain payments is no longer a question of if but of how fast. The panelist agreed that the UAE, with its progressive regulations, has positioned itself as the natural bridge.
