Amazon and Walmart to launch USD stablecoin to kill $143 billion in bank fees
Payment Wars: Retail Giants Amazong and Walmart Target $143B in Bank Fees with Stablecoins
Walmart and Amazon are building their own USD stablecoins.
They want to:
- own the rails
- bypass banks
- crush interchange fees
Most important :
cut $143 billion payment tax to banks.
I explain:
Every time you tap a card, three players take a cut:
- Visa and Mastercard take 0.14% (“network fees”)
- Stripe, Fiserv, etc. take 0.40% (“processing fees”)
- Biggest part? 1.8% goes to issuing banks - called “interchange fee”.
Last year:
- Visa & Mastercard: $19 billion
- Processors: $30 billion
- Banks: $143 billion
That’s real toll on U.S. merchants.
Amazon and Walmart are done paying it.
By issuing stablecoins, you get :
- Real-time, on-chain settlement
- No rewards-funded markup
- Full control of cash flows
- No middlemen
They’re not trying to kill Visa or Mastercard.
They’re trying to kill the banks making $140 billion on interchange fees.
Strategy is clear:
- Replace cards with tokens
- Replace float with programmable dollars
- Replace settlement networks with smart contracts
Now you have legal clarity in US.
GENIUS Act just passed the Senate:
- Creates a federal framework for USD stablecoins
- Issuance by banks, fintechs, and qualified state entities
- Requires 1:1 reserves, monthly audits, AML compliance
US is moving fast:
- Ripple launched RLUSD
- JPMorgan launched JPMD for institutional cash movement
- Tether is building U.S.-specific products
- Amazon and Walmart now want programmable dollars to fuel retail dominance
I’ve built exchanges and market makers.
I’ve seen where stablecoin volume comes from.
Today:
- $1T+ in monthly volume
- 90%+ used by prop shops, market makers, hedge funds
- All for rebalancing, liquidity, and settlement across exchanges
Amazon and Walmart push stablecoins into payments at scale.
If Amazon and Walmart issue their own tokens,
it’s not just a tech upgrade.
It’s a direct assault on how banks make money.
Visa and Mastercard run the rails.
But banks still make all money.
Kill the interchange, and you kill rewards economy.
You rewrite merchant economics.
You shift $100B+ in annual revenue flows.
Stablecoins aren’t hype anymore.
They’re strategic tools.
Retail is about to find out.👇