Several of the largest players in the digital asset space, including Solana, Polygon, Fireblocks, and Monad, have formed a new alliance aimed at tackling the fragmentation in on-chain payments and establishing a unified global standard for cross-chain transactions. The new group, officially named the Blockchain Payments Consortium (BPC), seeks to define a “common framework” to facilitate the transfer of stablecoins and other assets across different blockchain networks with the same speed, security, and data requirements as traditional payment rails, a news report by The Block said.
The urgency for this standardization comes as on-chain payment volume surged to nearly $20 trillion in 2024, a figure that now surpasses the combined transaction volume of Visa and Mastercard. Despite this monumental growth, the process remains complex and disjointed.
The BPC noted that the “landscape remains fragmented, with blockchain networks having different technical and compliance standards,” highlighting the core challenge that makes seamless cross-border or cross-platform payments difficult. Ran Goldi, SVP of Payments and Network at Fireblocks, stated that the industry’s focus has firmly shifted to adoption: “Over the last 18 months, our industry has achieved mainstream adoption, with payments at the forefront.”
The BPC’s founding members represent a powerful cross-section of the blockchain infrastructure and layer-1 ecosystems, including the Solana Foundation, Polygon Labs, Monad Foundation, Fireblocks, TON Foundation, Stellar Development Foundation, and Mysten Labs. The TON Foundation, the leading advocate of the TON blockchain used by the Telegram messaging app, is a key participant.
Nikola Plecas, Vice President of Payments at TON Foundation, emphasized the group’s mission to bridge the gap between traditional finance and blockchain: “Through the Blockchain Payments Consortium, we’re uniting networks, institutions, and enterprises to make blockchain payments fast, trusted, scalable, and global.” Part of the BPC’s mission statement includes addressing the difficulties faced “when moving between traditional payments and blockchain.”
The launch of the BPC underscores a rapidly accelerating institutional focus on digital asset settlement. The drive toward regulatory clarity, particularly by the U.S. government around stablecoins, has seemingly emboldened major American banks and established financial players to actively leverage blockchain technology for transaction settlement.
This follows recent moves by large financial institutions, with Coinbase and Citi announcing exploration into “fiat to onchain stablecoin payout methods,” and SWIFT planning to integrate a blockchain-based ledger into its infrastructure, initially focusing on cross-border transactions. The BPC’s success in defining a common, compliance-ready framework is seen as critical to unlocking the next phase of growth and solidifying stablecoins as a major force in the global payment system, laying the foundation for an “inclusive, borderless digital economy for everyone.”
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