How Stablecoins Are Upending Traditional Reward Points and Reshaping Finance

Customers love rewards, until they try to redeem them. Points expire. Redemption programs alter. Values depreciate. However, a new model is gaining traction: stablecoins that behave like cash, move instantly across borders, and are accepted directly at checkout. That’s prompting brands to ask a simple question: why use finicky, closed-loop points when you can deliver liquid, borderless value?The rails are arriving in short order. Stripe has brought back crypto payments with a focus on USD Coin (USDC), giving companies mainstream access to be able to accept stablecoins on normal checkout workflows. (CoinDesk, TechCrunch) Visa has widened its capacity to settle to include stablecoins and other networks, suggesting that real-world merchant flows can settle on such rails. (Visa Investor Relations, Ledger Insights) In the European Union, the new MiCA regime flips the switch on strict rules for asset-referenced and e-money tokens, giving stablecoin rewards, wallets, and payouts at scale a compliance blueprint. (Norton Rose)Loyalty points balloon onto vast business balance sheet liabilities, and breakage (unutilized points) undermines customer trust and makes programme economics more difficult. Professional services guidance and industry research show brands grappling with the accounting, cost, and customer experience of legacy points. (KPMG, Deloitte)Stablecoins—fiat-backed and redeemable in near-instant time- offer a cleaner promise:

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