Metamask’s new debit card, published in February 2025.
The cryptography industry has promised a financial revolution for more than a decade, but despite all the hugs of the White House of Crypto, most detail users are always faced with a frustrating problem: you cannot buy coffee with your bitcoin or a payment rent with your USDC. This “problem of the last mile” maintained the crypto mainly relegated to speculation rather than disturbing payments.
Stablecoins: the silent revolution
While Bitcoin makes the titles, the Stablecoins have become the Killer application to the fastest growth in crypto. These digital assets fixed to fiduciary currencies (mainly the US dollar) have exploded in popularity, with more than $ 160 billion in traffic today compared to billions with a figure in 2020.
The data tells a convincing story. Each month, approximately 20 million addresses transact with stages of garnishes on public blockchains, adjusting more than 2.6 billions of dollars in value in the first half of 2024, according to the data analyzed by Castle Island Ventures. Even the governor of the federal reserve, Christopher Waller, has recognized their importance, noting that around 99% of Stablecoin’s market capitalization is linked to the US dollar.
This has created an interesting dynamic where crypto, often positioned as an alternative in dollars, actually extends the use of the dollar in the world. As Brian Brooks, a former American currency controller, argued, “Stablecoins can keep the dollar the world reserve currency” by making it more accessible worldwide.
The Metamask card brings real use of the crypto world
The critical innovation that occurs now is to link these stablescoins directly to daily payment systems without sacrificing self -sufficiency: a principle that separates the crypto from traditional finance.
In a Recent interview Simon JonesBaanx’s sales director, explained how this gap is finally filled with what he calls “non -guardian neobanking”. It could well hold the oldest promises of crypto.
“We have sort of built a coalition of people around us, ranging from our partnerships with people like Mastercard and visa to our broadcast platforms. We go from blockchain to consumer via the partner with bits in the middle.”
This can look like a technical jargon, but what is happening is revolutionary: companies like Baanx build systems that allow you to spend the crypto directly from your car-cooked portfolio without fully renouncing control to a bank or exchange.
Metamask, the most popular Ethereum portfolio with more than 100 million users, recently launched its card in partnership with Baanx and Mastercard. According to their announcement, this “allows you to pay with the crypto without additional steps, no banks, without unnecessary expenses or necessary recharges”.
How does the Metamask card work?
When you press your card in a store, a complex choreography starts behind the scenes:
- The system checks your connected portfolio for sufficient funds
- Intelligent contracts (using “account abstraction”) authorize the expenses of your crypto
- The transaction is treated on the chain in less than five seconds
- The merchant receives his local currency as usual
“You have an intelligent contract, you go out at the store, you press your card and say that I want to spend $ 50. Our system is essentially looking at your portfolio and says, okay, do you have a connected financing source? Do you have $ 50 available?” Explained Jones.
Doing this work on a global scale is not easy. Jones has mentioned that Baanx sometimes performs parachians dedicated on certain networks to ensure that transaction speeds meet the requirements of the second second of European payment regulations.
Fortunately, users do not need to understand any of this complexity. They hit and pay.
Access to dollars for the world
While users of the United States can use the Metamask card mainly to spend their cryptographic participation, where this technology really shines in emerging markets like Latin America, where local currencies are often faced with instability and inflation.
“In emerging markets such as Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, people see 25 to 30% additional purchasing power because they buy in a card worded in dollars as opposed to the local currency,” said Jones.
The non -guardian nature of the card has also released many opportunities from the point of view of companies. Metamask and Baanx were able to launch the card simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, without having to negotiate with local banking partners or financial institutions. Baanx aims to reach 80 countries this year with the Metamask card.
The use of Stablecoin is more and more motivated by countries outside the financial intermediate current. Societies like Dolarapp in Latin America, yellow card in Africa and vintu in Indonesia report a significant use of stables for real world payments, especially in countries with volatile currencies.
Stablecoins unlock more than lower costs
The common ground of cryptographic payments has focused on lower transaction costs, but it lacks the situation as a whole. As Simon Taylor maintains, “stablecoins are no less expensive; They are better. The advantages go beyond the costs to include: global accessibility without banking relations, 24/7 operation without banking hours or holidays, flexible programmability for future innovation and reduced risk of asset or banking problems
Yellow Card, a mobile monetary platform operating in 20 African countries, explains: “In Africa, they are not stables compared to other financial tools. They are stables or nothing. There is a massive currency of money hard across the continent, with many countries faced with serious crunchy liquidity.”
The changing financial landscape
As non -guardian neobobanking develops, we see the start of a fundamental change in financial infrastructure. Banks may no longer be able to depend on the money that lights up in payment networks to finance their loans. Traditional banks do not make significant benefits from current accounts or payments, but loans.
Jones underlines that the separation of loans payments “does not really change the main objective of the bank … They could become a credit provider, the only difference is that you go on a more competitive market.”
This can be optimistic because the banks benefit enormously from the deposits that these systems would divert. But given that many citizens of the world do not remain banished or sub-banized, this technology could be more complementary than competitive with traditional medium-term banks.
Regulatory challenges remain
The model is facing regulatory opposite winds, especially in the United States where clarity around the regulation of stablescoin has not yet been established. While jurisdictions like Singapore, Hong Kong and the EU created executives for the issue and use of Stablescoin, the United States has been late. That said, the current administration turns out to be much more open to stable legislation than before.
This global regulatory fragmentation creates challenges but also opportunities. As observed by Timothy Massad, former president of the CFTC, “ignore the market assuming that it is small and can be content could be risky, in particular with other jurisdictions that move to allow a wider use of stablecoins”.
Metamask card and non -guardian neobanking
Non -guardian neobanking represents an important evolution in the way we think of money and banks. By connecting the self-employed crypto to daily payment systems, he keeps the original promise of crypto financial sovereignty without sacrificing convenience.
The data shows that the stablecoins already settles thousands of transaction billions, and the infrastructure to connect them to the daily trade matures quickly. The involvement is clear: while Bitcoin aimed to replace the dollar, stablescoins and non -guardian neobanking can rather revolutionize the way we access and use it.
For billions of people who lack reliable banks or stable currencies, this could make all the difference.
