The rise of stablecoins will represent the most significant shift in the architecture of money since the introduction of the fiat system. That was the key message from Jan Scheele at Varrlyn’s anniversary event.
At the event in Amsterdam, Jan Scheele – a digital assets expert, entrepreneur, and Digital Leader at the World Economic Forum – immediately captured the attention of attendees with his opening slide: an image of merchants selling wallets in Venezuela. Not crafted from leather, but from bolívar banknotes (the country’s local currency).
To provide context, Scheele outlined the backdrop. Over the past decade, Venezuela has experienced hyperinflation, which caused its currency to become extremely devalued. Following a series of redenominations and currency redesigns, the smallest banknotes became practically worthless, prompting people to repurpose them for everyday items – including wallets.
Fast forward to today, and stablecoins have reshaped the country’s payments landscape. “More than 50% of transactions in Venezuela are now conducted via stablecoins,” Scheele explained. “Not because people were seeking new technology or looking to invest, but because it was a necessity. They needed a currency, a means of payment, that wouldn’t collapse overnight.”
The Venezuela case is a powerful illustration of what stablecoins actually are: digital currencies pegged to a stable asset (most commonly the US dollar, though euro-denominated stablecoins also exist), designed to maintain a consistent value – unlike the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
From ‘magic internet money’ to mainstream finance
Scheele has been fascinated by digital assets from an early stage, which helped position him as a pioneer in the space. Back in 2013, he bought his first 40 Bitcoins at a price of $20 each. Had he held them until today, that $800 investment would now be worth over $3 million.
Over the years, Scheele has witnessed the full arc of crypto’s evolution – from fringe curiosity to emerging financial infrastructure. “In 2018, major institutions, regulators, and central banks were calling it criminal money that had to be banned,” he recalled. “Now the IMF, SWIFT, ABN AMRO, ING, Visa, PayPal, and others are all rushing to take the stage to talk about stablecoins.”
According to Scheele, that shift has been driven by a combination of regulatory clarity, commercial incentives, and sheer necessity. The EU’s MiCA regulation and the US GENIUS Act have provided institutions with the legal framework to act.
The profit motive is equally difficult to ignore. Tether, for instance – the largest stablecoin issuer – takes customer deposits, invests them in US Treasury bonds yielding around 5%, and, with fewer than 100 employees, generated approximately $10 billion in profit last year. “That was a real wake-up call for most banks,” he noted.
Jan Scheele delivering his speech at Varrlyn’s 16th anniversary event
Three reasons money is moving faster
In his presentation, Scheele outlined three key use cases driving real-world adoption:
International payments, which currently take 2 to 5 business days, can be settled in seconds via stablecoin networks at a fraction of the cost. JPMorgan estimates that global payment transaction costs amount to $120 billion per year; early stablecoin adopters such as PayPal report savings of 90% to 95%.
Corporate treasury management is another major driver. Companies are increasingly parking working capital in yield-bearing stablecoins, some offering around 4%, rather than leaving cash idle. BlackRock has already allocated nearly $3 billion to a tokenised Treasury fund.
Capital market settlement may be the most transformative application. Today, trillions of dollars remain “frozen” in settlement pipelines for up to two days after transactions. Stablecoins eliminate that delay entirely. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and BNY Mellon are all now using blockchain for instant settlement. JPMorgan has even developed programmable payment systems for Siemens, processing hundreds of billions in internal transactions with near-zero friction.
A tool for criminals?
One of the most common criticisms of stablecoins – and cryptocurrencies more broadly – is that they facilitate illicit activity. For example, Iran has reportedly requested that ships pay their Hormuz passage fees in cryptocurrencies to bypass US sanctions. Major armed groups such as Hezbollah (Lebanon) and ELN (Colombia) have also been reported to use cryptocurrencies to facilitate and conceal payments from state authorities.
“Criminals are typically the most innovative users of new technologies,” Scheele noted. He pointed to striking research from the United Nations, which identified stablecoins as a preferred instrument for global criminal networks. The study found that 85% of all illicit crypto transactions flow through stablecoins, rather than Bitcoin.
A geopolitical weapon in disguise?
Another recurring debate in the digital asset space is its geopolitical impact – particularly whether it could challenge the dominance of the US dollar in global payments. At present, the US dollar remains by far the world’s most important currency.
It is involved in roughly 40% to 50% of global SWIFT transactions, appears on one side of around 88% to 90% of all foreign exchange trades, and accounts for approximately 58% to 60% of global central bank reserves.
For the United States, maintaining this position is a strategic priority. Other powers, including China and Russia, are actively seeking to reduce dollar dominance through alternative currencies or regional payment systems.
China, for instance, has been building a parallel system for over a decade – a blockchain-based network processing more than $80 trillion in yuan-denominated transactions annually, outside Western oversight.
Yet Scheele also sees a scenario in which stablecoins could actually reinforce US dollar dominance. “With 98% of stablecoins denominated in dollars, the US is using this technology to extend dollar dominance into the digital age. What is presented as financial innovation is also a form of monetary power consolidation.”
Europe, meanwhile, appears to be losing ground in this shift. “We’re being squeezed from both sides,” Scheele said. “And that seriously undermines our position in the global financial system.”
What comes next
Scheele closed his presentation with three trends to watch in the coming months: a rapid expansion in the number of stablecoins and their user base, crypto exchanges obtaining banking licences (Kraken recently becoming the first in the US), and the convergence of AI and stablecoins, with AI agents increasingly using stablecoins as their native currency for autonomous transactions.
His prediction was a clear-eyed reminder to the audience that the status quo is always there to be challenged, and improved.
The event
The keynote by Jan Scheele was delivered at Varrlyn’s 16th anniversary event, which brought together guests from its financial services network and beyond to celebrate the milestone and exchange insights.
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