Two of the world’s largest retailers, Walmart $WMT and Amazon $AMZN, are reportedly evaluating the issuance of their own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal. While neither company has officially confirmed development efforts, the move underscores growing institutional interest in blockchain-native payment instruments as the U.S. regulatory environment for digital assets shows signs of maturing.
Stablecoins Enter Retail Payments: Strategic Rationale
The potential rollout of proprietary stablecoins by retail giants reflects a broader trend of disintermediation in financial services. With combined annual revenues exceeding $738 billion, Amazon and Walmart are uniquely positioned to drive adoption of on-chain payments at global scale. In Amazon’s case, over $447 billion of its 2024 revenue came from international e-commerce, while Walmart generated over $100 billion in fiscal 2023, according to Statista and company filings.
Stablecoin integration would allow these corporations to reduce payment processing fees, accelerate settlements, and decrease reliance on traditional financial intermediaries, potentially redistributing billions in transaction value away from legacy banks and card networks.
Regulatory Climate Favors Institutional Adoption
Recent shifts in U.S. regulatory posture toward stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies (USD) have created a more permissive environment for corporate experimentation. Legislative proposals introduced in Congress aim to clarify the legal status of stablecoins issued by private entities, including provisions for reserve transparency, issuance limits, and oversight mechanisms.
These regulatory advances lower the barrier for compliant corporate adoption, especially for entities like Amazon and Walmart with complex multi-jurisdictional retail ecosystems.
Operational Incentives for Branded Stablecoins
If implemented, branded stablecoins could create a closed-loop payments ecosystem, reducing friction across Amazon’s and Walmart’s extensive supply chains, logistics networks, and customer-facing platforms. Benefits would likely include:
Lower merchant fees vs. Visa $V and Mastercard $MA processing;
Instant settlement compared to delayed ACH and card payments;
Programmable incentives tied to loyalty and subscription services;
Enhanced control over transaction data and user flows;
Reduced cross-border friction for international e-commerce.
This strategic control over payment infrastructure may also support future integration of decentralized finance (DeFi) tools and tokenized consumer finance products.
Risks and Uncertainties Remain
Despite their appeal, corporate-issued stablecoins face non-trivial challenges. These include:
Reputational risks tied to compliance and anti-money laundering standards;
Integration complexities across legacy ERP and POS systems;
Potential friction with financial regulators and central banks;
Volatility in crypto-adjacent infrastructure, including custodians and oracles.
Moreover, the entrance of mega-cap retailers into the stablecoin arena could invite greater regulatory scrutiny or antitrust investigations, especially if adoption scales rapidly.
Institutional Stablecoin Thesis Gains Momentum
While specific timelines remain unclear, the fact that companies of Amazon’s and Walmart’s scale are even considering such a pivot illustrates a broader shift in how corporations conceptualize payments infrastructure. Stablecoins are no longer peripheral innovations; they are increasingly viewed as cost-efficient and strategically flexible tools in enterprise finance. As monetary digitalization continues, branded stablecoins could emerge not merely as payment alternatives, but as integral layers in vertically integrated business models.
A strategic shift like this could reshape industry standards for intelligent systems and operational efficiency