Stablecoins get framed as an existential threat to traditional payment networks. But Visa Inc. (V) and Mastercard Inc. (MA) may have more room to adapt than investors assume.

Reeve Collins, co-founder of Tether and chairman at WeFi, says the networks have advantages that cheaper blockchain-based payments cannot easily replicate.

"Visa and Mastercard are better positioned than people assume," Collins told MarketDash in an exclusive email interview.

Their merchant acceptance, fraud protection and long-standing commercial relationships remain valuable even as stablecoins offer new ways to move money. Collins sees cheaper settlement as a potential way for established networks to improve their services, not just a challenge to their business models.

The Risk That Comes With It

The risk is that customers and merchants find ways to transact directly, bypassing parts of the networks that have traditionally connected them.

"Their challenge is keeping payments inside their networks as customers gain more ways to pay directly," Collins said.

That leaves investors weighing two competing possibilities: stablecoins could pressure traditional payment economics, or established networks could incorporate the technology while preserving their distribution advantages.

The key signal to watch is whether Visa and Mastercard can use blockchain-based settlement to make payments more efficient while keeping customers and merchants within their ecosystems. Stablecoin growth alone may not determine which side wins.