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Why Circle’s “Crypto Monopoly” Feels More Like a Sad Reinvention of Visa’s Fee Machine

BBG News

It is a truth universally acknowledged—at least among those with the stamina to follow fintech news—that the gentlemen at Circle have not merely carved themselves a slice of the regulated stablecoin cake; no, they’ve gone straight for the whole dessert trolley. Their regulatory courtship dances and flirtations with the likes of Shopify, Mastercard, and, with delicious irony, Visa, have landed USDC into the arms of institutional respectability. Observers clutch their pearls, elated: My word, at last, crypto is presentable enough for polite society.

Yet, if one risks peering beneath this curtain of triumph, a ruder, stickier truth emerges—something rather more Dickens than Downton Abbey.

USDC, Circle’s pride and joy, parades itself as the plucky liberator poised to topple Visa and Mastercard, all while quietly rehearsing their old lines: fees here, restrictions there, and enough monopoly vibes to turn the average blockchain purist into a bitter satirist. Crypto was meant to set us free, or so the pamphlets promised—a great escape. Instead, USDC seems eager to hand us another pair of golden handcuffs. Bravo. 🎩

Circle’s path to dominance

Let us not pretend—stablecoins did arrive on the scene with a whiff of revolution. Emerging economies rejoiced at the prospect: down with tyrannical exchange rates, hurrah for financial sovereignty! But as Circle’s shadow looms, one fears the revolution is being quietly outsourced to a single, sleek office block.

Circle’s journey, naturally, deserves a polite golf clap—early regulatory affection in Washington, tireless public displays of compliance, all conspiring to ensure banks swoon, exchanges nod approvingly, and fintechs queue up like eager debutantes at the season’s last ball. Having donned the “trusted stablecoin” tiara, Circle now courts the global payment glitterati, embedding itself deeper than an aristocrat at Ascot. DeFi? Check. Mainstream finance? The canapés have been served.

Do we need multiple stablecoins?

Now for a question as dry as Tuesday tea: Must we endure a multiplicity of stablecoins? Each promises to be swift, affordable, safe—a veritable Boy Scout of blockchain. At the village fête, it might look like one issuer could do the lot, efficiently spinning the crypto maypole with nary a stumble. Yet these stablecoins, for all their vanilla sameness, piece together a patchwork of service peculiarities—fees here, settlement times there, an extra button to press for luck. 👀

For those who yearn for a spot of competition (and who doesn’t, outside of Eton?), the prospect of Circle’s unopposed reign offers less variety and more “take it or leave it, old sport.” Prices rise, service falters, innovation retreats for an early gin.

If the crypto greats and their regulators cannot muster the appetite to keep a few stalwart stablecoins at the table, Circle will have the field to itself. And you can be assured, where monopoly flourishes, the toll collector is never far behind.

The danger of centralization and ubiquity

And lo, a new baron enters: Circle, master of all payment gateways, soon to be keeper of the only working turnstile. What began as a blow against the old fee-ridden titans risks devolving into a tribute to them—a spiritual sequel, complete with extortionate fees, but with fewer paper receipts and more confusing jargon. 🍸

Forget governments, forget open protocols—Circle will write the menu, and every diner will pick from the same bland prix fixe. Rent-seeking becomes the order of the day, with incremental nibbles of your payment at every fork in the blockchain road.

Visa and Mastercard, for all their ubiquity, have at least the decency to be dull. Circle, meanwhile, brings panache to the prospect of a new crypto tollbooth, private and efficient, and no more avoidable than a surcharge on bottled water at a London bistro.

a messier, perhaps less photogenic, but infinitely more interesting landscape.

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Ron Tarter

Ron Tarter is the CEO of MNEE, a gasless, low-fee stablecoin for those who prefer their dollars without the garnish of random surcharges and unnecessary drama.

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2025-07-08 11:39

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