# Classification of Infrastructure Participants

Updated: September 22, 2026

> Stablecoin infrastructure is the layer between the issuer and the end user: the companies and networks that let a business accept, hold, convert, move and pay out stablecoins without building its own licences, banking relationships and blockchain integrations. The section sorts participants into nine types by primary function: payment orchestration, issuance as a service, on/off-ramps, clearing and settlement, card platforms, custody and wallets, infrastructure for banks, bank and consortium initiatives, stablecoin-native blockchains. Ownership (Stripe, Mastercard, a consortium) does not change the type and is recorded separately.

## What counts as infrastructure

A stablecoin on its own is an issuer's liability circulating on a public network. For a bank, a fintech company or a corporate treasury to use it, a set of services is needed that the issuer typically does not provide: pay-in and pay-out in local currency, licensed conversion, key custody, card processing, settlement between participants, compliance. That layer is what this section defines as infrastructure.

The section covers companies and networks for which stablecoins are the core business or a separately identified line of business. Out of scope: issuers as such (Tether, Circle — their profiles sit in the Stablecoins section, under Issuers); consumer apps and neobanks with no infrastructure offering for businesses; DeFi protocols; general-purpose key and wallet infrastructure without a stablecoin specialisation; payment providers for which stablecoins are a secondary option within a fiat model. Boundary cases are resolved at the end of the article.

## Classification principle: function, not owner

One company often performs several functions: Bridge combines payment orchestration with issuance, Fireblocks combines custody with a settlement network, Paxos combines issuance as a service with the Global Dollar Network consortium. The type is assigned by the primary function the company goes to market with and earns its revenue from; other functions are listed in the company profile. Ownership — independent company, subsidiary of a payments group, bank joint venture, consortium — is recorded in the profile infobox and does not affect the type. Corporate programmes of Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, PayPal and Coinbase are classified by the function of each product: Bridge is orchestration, Privy is wallet infrastructure, Tempo is a blockchain.

## Nine types of participants

| Type | Function | Typical client | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Payment orchestration | A single API for pay-in, conversion, routing and pay-out between fiat and stablecoins | Fintech, marketplaces, payment providers, corporate treasuries | Bridge (Stripe), BVNK (Mastercard), Zerohash, Conduit, Borderless.xyz |
| 2. Issuance as a service | A token under the client's brand: licence, reserves, mint/burn and reporting stay with the provider | Corporations, fintech, banks that want their own stablecoin | Paxos, Brale, M0, Agora, Bastion, Monerium |
| 3. On/off-ramps and local corridors | Exchange between local currency and stablecoins via banks, mobile money and local payment systems | Wallets, exchanges, companies with cross-border flows | Yellow Card, Kotani Pay, Transak, MoonPay, Caliza, Triple-A |
| 4. Clearing and settlement | Multilateral networks for redemption and settlement between participants, including at par into bank accounts | Banks, issuers, payment companies | Ubyx, Partior, Fnality, Circle Payments Network, Fireblocks Network for Payments |
| 5. Card platforms | Visa and Mastercard cards settled from a stablecoin balance: BIN sponsorship, processing, network settlement | Wallets, neobanks, corporate programmes | Rain, Reap, RedotPay, DCS / DeCard |
| 6. Custody and wallet infrastructure | Key custody, MPC, access policies, treasury operations, embedded wallets | Institutional investors, fintech, issuers, application developers | Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital, Zodia Custody, Utila, Privy, Crossmint |
| 7. Infrastructure for banks | Software and APIs through which a bank offers stablecoin products inside its own perimeter | Banks, credit unions, remittance companies | Stablecore, Cybrid, Checker, Diameter Pay |
| 8. Bank and consortium initiatives | Networks and tokens built by banks or consortia themselves: tokenized deposits, consortium stablecoins, bank issuers | Consortium members, banks' corporate clients | Kinexys (JPMorgan), Citi Token Services, The Clearing House network, Global Dollar Network, Open USD, SG-FORGE |
| 9. Stablecoin-native blockchains | A settlement layer where the stablecoin is the fee unit and the base asset | Issuers, payment companies, developers | Tempo, Arc, Plasma, Stable, Codex |

## 1. Payment orchestration

An orchestration provider takes in funds in fiat or stablecoins, converts them, routes them across networks and corridors and pays out in the required form — through one API and one contract. The value to the client is not the technology as such but the set of licences, bank accounts, liquidity providers and local partners the provider has assembled. In the US this activity falls under money services business (MSB) registration with FinCEN and state money transmitter licences; in the EU, under crypto-asset service provider (CASP) authorisation under MiCA for the crypto leg and a payment institution or e-money institution licence for the fiat leg. Bridge obtained dual CASP and EMI authorisation in Luxembourg in 2026 and, in February 2026, preliminary approval of a national trust charter from the OCC.

This type became the centre of the 2025–2026 consolidation: Stripe closed its acquisition of Bridge in February 2025, Mastercard closed its acquisition of BVNK in August 2026, MoonPay acquired Iron, Modern Treasury acquired Beam, Ripple acquired Rail. Among the large independents, Zero Hash, Conduit and a group of companies founded in 2023–2025 remain.

## 2. Issuance as a service

The provider issues a token under the client's brand and takes on the regulated part: the issuer licence, reserve custody, minting and redemption, attestation and reporting. The client gets its own stablecoin without its own licence. The canonical example is Paxos, which issues PYUSD for PayPal and USDG for the Global Dollar Network; the company profile is in the Stablecoins section. The regulatory perimeter here is the strictest: in the US, the GENIUS Act limits permitted payment stablecoin issuers to subsidiaries of insured depository institutions, federal qualified nonbank issuers approved by the OCC, and state-qualified issuers; in the EU, under MiCA, only credit institutions and e-money institutions may issue e-money tokens. Providers of this type therefore either hold such licences themselves (Paxos — an NYDFS trust charter, Monerium — an EMI licence) or are built as a shared-collateral protocol that licensed participants plug into (M0).

## 3. On/off-ramps and local corridors

A ramp connects a stablecoin to local currency: bank transfer, mobile money, local instant payment systems (Pix in Brazil, SPEI in Mexico, UPI in India). The type differs from orchestration in focus: not an end-to-end flow from any form to any form, but depth in specific markets and corridors, including licences from local regulators and agent networks. Regional ramps are the main target of global networks: Yellow Card, Onafriq, Flutterwave and TruBit are members of Circle Payments Network, and Kotani Pay received a strategic investment from Tether. Large consumer ramps (MoonPay, Transak) are moving into the corporate segment — virtual accounts, payout APIs, treasury.

## 4. Clearing and settlement

Networks of this type solve a problem no single provider solves: settlement among many participants under common rules. The models differ in what the settlement asset is. Ubyx is building clearing for at-par redemption of stablecoins from different issuers into bank accounts; Partior is an interbank settlement network in tokenized commercial bank money; Fnality runs wholesale payment systems settling in money backed by funds held at the central bank. Circle Payments Network and Fireblocks Network for Payments connect financial institutions to stablecoin settlement through shared rules and a participant directory. Partior and Fnality are bank-owned but belong here by function, not under type 8.

## 5. Card platforms

A card platform lets a stablecoin balance be spent through Visa or Mastercard cards: the provider is a principal member of the network or works through a BIN sponsor bank, runs processing and settles with the network. The basis for this type is the card networks' own stablecoin settlement programmes: Visa settles with issuers and acquirers in USDC, Mastercard embeds stablecoins into Mastercard Move and its Multi-Token Network. Examples are Rain, Reap, RedotPay, DCS / DeCard. The line between this type and consumer services is the presence of an issuing API for third parties: a product sold only to end users stays outside the section.

## 6. Custody and wallet infrastructure

This type covers storage and signing: key management (MPC, hardware modules), access policies, treasury operations, embedded wallets for applications. Institutional custodians — Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital (a national trust bank under an OCC charter since January 2021), Zodia Custody — serve issuers, funds and banks; embedded wallets (Privy, Crossmint) serve application developers and AI agents. General-purpose key infrastructure vendors without a stablecoin specialisation are not included.

## 7. Infrastructure for banks

A distinct wave of 2025–2026: companies that sell infrastructure not to fintech but to banks themselves — a "digital core" through which a regional bank or credit union offers customers stablecoin accounts and transfers while remaining the licence holder and owner of the client relationship. The precondition for this type is regulatory clarity: the OCC confirmed in Interpretive Letter 1183 (March 2025) that national banks may engage in crypto-asset custody and certain stablecoin activities, and the GENIUS Act established issuance through bank subsidiaries. Examples are Stablecore, Cybrid, Checker, Diameter Pay.

## 8. Bank and consortium initiatives

This type covers infrastructure that banks and consortia build themselves rather than buy from providers. Three models. First, tokenized deposits: Kinexys (JPMorgan, the JPMD deposit token), Citi Token Services, and the shared tokenized deposit network on The Clearing House announced in June 2026. Second, consortium stablecoins that share reserve income among participants: the Global Dollar Network (USDG, operated by Paxos), Open USD (Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa, BlackRock and others, announced in June 2026), and the joint project of 21 banks and asset managers reported in September 2026. Third, a bank as the issuer of a public stablecoin: Société Générale-FORGE with EURCV and USDCV. A tokenized deposit remains a liability of a specific bank and is legally not a stablecoin — the distinction is covered in "Classification of Stablecoins".

## 9. Stablecoin-native blockchains

An adjacent category: networks designed for stablecoin payments, where the stablecoin is the fee unit and the base asset rather than one token among many on a general-purpose chain. Tempo (incubated by Stripe and Paradigm), Arc (Circle, public mainnet since September 16, 2026), Plasma and Stable (in Tether's orbit), Codex. Such networks do not provide services in the usual sense, but they set the settlement rules for every other type, which is why they are included in the section.

## Boundary cases and decisions

- Paxos. One profile, in the Stablecoins section (Issuers group); Infrastructure links to it as an example of type 2 and a participant in type 8. No duplicate pages.
- Tether and Circle. As issuers they stay in Stablecoins; their infrastructure products (Circle Payments Network, Arc, the Hadron platform) are described here under the relevant types.
- Card network partnerships. Visa and Mastercard programmes are not separate companies; they appear under types 5 and 8 and in the profiles of the providers they acquired.
- Consumer services (neobanks, wallets for freelancers) are included only when they have an infrastructure offering for businesses; otherwise they remain rows in regional tables without a separate profile.
- A company that changes owner keeps its profile; the deal is recorded in the infobox (the Ownership field) and in the profile's History section.

## Sources

- [GENIUS Act, official text of the law (P.L. 119-27)](https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PLAW-119publ27)
- [MiCA, official regulation text (EU) 2023/1114](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32023R1114)
- [FinCEN, guidance on the application of its regulations to convertible virtual currency business models (2019)](https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/FinCEN%20Guidance%20CVC%20FINAL%20508.pdf)
- [OCC, Interpretive Letter 1183 on bank crypto-asset and stablecoin activities (March 2025)](https://www.occ.gov/topics/charters-and-licensing/interpretations-and-actions/2025/int1183.pdf)
- [OCC, on granting Anchorage Digital a national trust bank charter (January 2021)](https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2021/nr-occ-2021-6.html)
- [Paxos, Stablecoin-as-a-Service page](https://paxos.com/stablecoin-as-a-service/)
- [Visa, stablecoin and crypto settlement](https://usa.visa.com/solutions/crypto.html)
- [Circle Payments Network, product page](https://www.circle.com/cpn)
- [Partior, official site](https://www.partior.com/)
- [JPMorgan, Kinexys / JPM Coin](https://www.jpmorgan.com/kinexys/jpm-coin)
- [Société Générale-FORGE, official site](https://www.sgforge.com/)
- [Arc, official network site](https://www.arc.network/)
- [TechCrunch, on Stripe closing the Bridge acquisition (February 2025)](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/05/stripe-makes-1-1-billion-crypto-bet-as-it-closes-on-bridge-acquisition/)
- [CoinDesk, on Bridge's preliminary OCC trust charter approval (February 2026)](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/02/17/stripe-s-stablecoin-firm-bridge-wins-initial-approval-of-national-bank-trust-charter)
- [Mastercard, press release on completing the BVNK acquisition (August 2026)](https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2026/august/mastercard-completes-acquisition-of-bvnk-to-advance-global-stabl.html)
- [CoinDesk, on the JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi tokenized deposit network (June 2026)](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/05/jpmorgan-bank-of-america-and-citi-are-going-on-the-blockchain-offensive-with-a-shared-tokenized-network)
- [Fortune, on the Open USD announcement (June 2026)](https://fortune.com/2026/06/30/stripe-visa-stablecoin-rival-ousd-tether-circle/)
- [CoinDesk, on the 21-bank and asset manager stablecoin venture (September 2026)](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/01/citi-goldman-other-global-banks-and-asset-managers-team-up-on-stablecoin-venture)
- [Ledger Insights, on Barclays' investment in the Ubyx clearing network (January 2026)](https://www.ledgerinsights.com/barclays-invests-in-stablecoin-clearing-network-ubyx/)

## Mentioned in the digest

- [August 2026 — JPMorgan weighs its own stablecoin, a bank consortium prepares a joint token; the BankChain Alliance of 39 banking associations](https://stblcns.xyz/reports/State_of_Stablecoins_August_2026)
- [July 2026 — the Open USD (OUSD) consortium, the tokenized deposit network and the SWIFT ledger; Bridge obtains MiCA CASP and EMI authorisation in Luxembourg](https://stblcns.xyz/reports/State_of_Stablecoins_July_2026)
- [June 2026 — Visa and Mastercard embed stablecoin settlement; US banks build a tokenized deposit network on The Clearing House](https://stblcns.xyz/reports/State_of_Stablecoins_June_2026)

Canonical: https://stblcns.xyz/en/wiki/infrastructure/classification