Could Stablecoins Threaten Visa and Mastercard?
Yahoo Finance ·
Visa ( V +0.38% ) and Mastercard ( MA -0.07% ) , the world's two largest card payment companies, have both delivered multibagger gains since their IPOs. Visa, which went public at a split-adjusted price of $11 in 2008, trades at nearly $370 per share. Mastercard, which went public at a split-adjusted price of $3.90 in 2006, has surged to more than $560 per share. Visa and Mastercard don't issue any cards of their own. Instead, they partner with financial institutions to issue co-branded cards that are tethered to their card-processing networks. Those partners handle the accounts and take on the debt, while Visa and Mastercard charge a "swipe fee" (usually 1%-3%) for every transaction processed on their networks. Most of those fees are paid back to the card-issuing banks, while Visa and Mastercard keep a single-digit cut. That asset-light business model is well-insulated from credit crunches and recessions. Visa and Mastercard's near-duopoly in the card processing market also drives most merchants to accept their branded cards, even if they don't like to pay those swipe fees. That stable growth and wide moat made Visa and Mastercard incredible long-term investments. From fiscal 2015 to fiscal 2025 (which ended last September), Visa's EPS (adjusted for stock splits) grew at a 15% CAGR. Mastercard's EPS rose at a 16% CAGR from 2015 to 2025. However, could the rise of stablecoins threaten their evergreen business models?
DYAX Investor Sentiment
Bullish (Long) 34% · Bearish (Short) 66%
444 participants
Related News
- Palantir Stock Falls as Sovereign AI Gains an External Guardrail
- Claude and Gemini hacks bring agentic AI risks into underwriting
- JPMorgan Stock Slips 1% as Bank Agents Get an Open Safety Layer
- IonQ gets initated at Buy as BofA backs its chips-over-lasers approach
- AI safety: Is there too much industry self-interest for regulation now?
- AZO Stock Gets A Target Reduction From JPMorgan – But Analyst Believes It’s Good Time To Add To Positions At Current Levels
