Episode 375: Can Retailers Issuing Their Own Stablecoins Threaten the Visa & Mastercard Duopoly?

The Fourth of July period is usually a pretty sleepy time in the public policy world but this year was anything but. Big beautiful bills, escalating fights over alcohol and sugary beverages and ICE becoming the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the country were just a few of the stories percolating while most of us were at backyard barbecues. We’ll discuss what happened while we were all watching fireworks.Walmart and Amazon made headlines recently as they consider issuing their own stablecoins in an effort to better serve their customers but also decrease their dependence on the traditional credit card payment systems run by Vias and Mastercard. Dan Swanson, one of the key architects of our industry’s campaign to reign in the Visa/Mastercard duopoly, stops by the pod to talk about these developments and what impact they may have on the payments landscape going forward.We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.