Stablecoin execs warn on hard part ahead
Executives from MoonPay, Ripple, and Paxos said at Consensus Miami 2026 that stablecoin regulation has accelerated institutional adoption but that major infrastructure and privacy gaps still block mainstream use.MoonPay VP Richard Harrison said the GENIUS Act gave firms a regulatory permission slip, accelerating traditional finance entry into stablecoins.Ripple SVP Jack McDonald argued that institutional adoption depends on regulated products, trusted custody, and utility beyond market capitalisation.Paxos engineer Brent Perrault warned that unresolved privacy issues on public blockchains remain a significant barrier to enterprise-scale stablecoin payments. Top executives at three of the most active stablecoin companies told the Consensus Miami 2026 audience on May 8 that new US regulation has fundamentally changed the competitive landscape for dollar-pegged tokens, bringing traditional financial institutions into a market that was previously difficult for them to enter. The shift, however, has exposed a new set of problems the industry has yet to solve. Richard Harrison, MoonPays vice president of banking and payment partnerships, said the passage of the GENIUS Act gave firms across traditional finance a regulatory framework to operate within. “What GENIUS brought us was clarity,” Harrison told the panel, noting that traditional finance firms are now entering stablecoins at a faster pace because compliance is