Stablecoins move into payouts

DoorDash is building stablecoin payout rails for Dashers and merchants, pushing crypto-linked dollars deeper into routine marketplace payments. (finance.yahoo.com) The company is using Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain, to handle payouts in more than 40 countries. DoorDash said the first targets are faster merchant settlements, lower cross-border costs, and more flexible handling of refunds and split payments. (finance.yahoo.com) Tempo says payments on its network can settle in under a second and run around the clock. DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang said the company sees “real promise” in stablecoins as financial infrastructure for a marketplace serving consumers, merchants, and Dashers at the same time. (finance.yahoo.com) A stablecoin is a digital token designed to hold a steady value, usually by tracking the U.S. dollar. Companies use them like internet-native cash: money can move on blockchain networks without waiting for bank cutoffs or pre-funded accounts in each country. (bvp.com) Bessemer Venture Partners said global fiat-backed stablecoin supply topped $273 billion in March 2026, up from $6.8 billion in March 2020. The firm said adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reached $10.9 trillion in 2025, while real-world payments volume doubled to $400 billion, with about 60% tied to business-to-business payments. (bvp.com) Bessemer also said stablecoin growth has started to decouple from crypto trading cycles. Its April 22 report argued that lower-cost, borderless, always-on transfers are moving the market from decentralized-finance plumbing into mainstream payment infrastructure. (bvp.com) The compliance side is growing just as fast. On April 23, Tether said it froze $344 million in USDT across two Tron addresses after U.S. authorities shared information tied to unlawful conduct. (tether.io) Tether said it now works with more than 340 law-enforcement agencies in 65 countries and has frozen more than $4.4 billion in assets overall. CoinDesk reported the latest freeze followed law-enforcement requests as the Financial Action Task Force warned about the growing use of dollar-backed tokens in illicit flows. (tether.io, coindesk.com) That tension is visible in the market’s biggest token. Reports on April 22 said Tether’s USDT supply had reached a record $188 billion, extending its lead as the largest stablecoin while scrutiny of monitoring and enforcement kept rising. (blockport.io) DoorDash’s move puts that tradeoff into a consumer-facing business with millions of transactions, where payout speed and compliance checks have to work together. Stablecoins are showing up less as trading chips and more as back-end payment rails that still need someone able to stop the money when regulators call. (finance.yahoo.com, tether.io, bvp.com)