Two retail giants just revealed a plan that has Wall Street banks running scared.
The financial establishment thought they could milk Americans forever with hidden fees.
But Walmart and Amazon dropped one bombshell that could destroy the banking establishment forever.
Retail giants plot to bypass the banking cartel
For decades, Americans have been getting fleeced every time they swipe their credit or debit cards.
Those "small" interchange fees that Visa and Mastercard charge might seem insignificant to shoppers.
But they add up to a staggering $187.2 billion annually across all credit and debit cards that gets passed down to consumers through higher prices.
The banking establishment has gotten fat and lazy off this rigged system.
Now Walmart and Amazon are reportedly exploring a revolutionary plan that could blow up the entire corrupt financial structure.
According to the Wall Street Journal, these retail powerhouses are considering creating their own cryptocurrency called a stablecoin.
This digital currency would be pegged to the U.S. dollar and allow them to process payments without going through traditional banks.
The move would cut out the middlemen like Visa, Mastercard, and major financial institutions who have been skimming billions off the top of every transaction.
"Big retailers moving away from traditional payment systems would be a huge blow for banks and payment providers," Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at GlobalData, told the Daily Mail.
"Banks and credit card providers make huge profits from things like interchange fees. That is the reason for the interest from retailers – they want to reduce these costs."
The banking establishment is in full panic mode
This isn’t just about Walmart and Amazon saving money on processing fees.
Other major companies including Expedia and several airlines are reportedly looking into launching their own stablecoins too.
Visa and Mastercard could lose their stranglehold on the American payment system.
Interchange fees, also known as "swipe fees," increased from $172 billion in 2023 to $187.2 billion in 2024, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
That represents a massive tax on American consumers who ultimately pay these costs through higher prices.
The Merchants Payments Coalition has been meeting with lawmakers to push for the Genius Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
Visa and Mastercard alone collected $111.2 billion just for credit card interchange fees in 2024, up from $100 billion in 2023.
"More choice and more innovation is a good thing," Doug Kantor, member of the Merchants Payments Coalition’s executive committee, told the Daily Mail.
"There has been no innovation in 40 years."
For four decades, Visa and Mastercard have operated what amounts to a duopoly over American payments.
They’ve gotten comfortable charging whatever they want because merchants and consumers had no other choice.
But the rise of cryptocurrency and digital payments is threatening to shatter their monopoly.
Banks could face an existential crisis
Financial analyst Stephen Kates from Bankrate warned that a large shift away from traditional banking could create a "huge crisis" for industry giants like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
The current system allows banks to collect fees on every transaction while providing minimal value to consumers.
Stablecoins could allow retailers to process payments faster and more efficiently than the current card-based system.
Instead of waiting days for payments to settle, merchants could receive proceeds from sales almost immediately.
This would represent the biggest disruption to the financial sector since the rise of online banking.
But the banking establishment won’t go down without a fight.
As Kantor noted, Visa and Mastercard "have an incentive to stop innovation" and could try to kill or take control of any stablecoin venture to maintain their dominance.
Consumer benefits could be enormous
While banks and credit card companies would suffer, American consumers could finally catch a break from decades of hidden fees.
The billions of dollars currently siphoned off by the financial establishment could stay in consumers’ pockets instead of padding Wall Street bonuses.
Kates noted that retailers might offer discounts to consumers who use stablecoins, similar to the cash discounts some businesses already provide.
However, there are still hurdles to overcome before this payment revolution becomes reality.
The Genius Act still needs to pass both the House and Senate to provide the regulatory framework that would make stablecoins viable for major retailers.
There are also questions about consumer adoption and whether people will trust new digital payment methods.
Amazon’s efforts to integrate stablecoins are still in early stages, with some discussions centered on having the company’s own coin for online purchases, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Walmart has reportedly lobbied for adding amendments to the Genius Act that would introduce more competition in the credit card sector.
The swamp fights back
The financial establishment has spent decades building their fee-extraction empire.
They won’t give up their cash cow without deploying every weapon in their arsenal.
Expect banks and credit card companies to unleash their army of lobbyists to kill any legislation that threatens their monopoly.
They’ll claim that stablecoins are dangerous and that consumers need the "protection" of traditional financial institutions.
But the truth is that these companies are terrified of losing their ability to skim billions off every transaction.
The rise of stablecoins represents the free market finally fighting back against a rigged system.
For too long, Americans have been forced to pay tribute to the banking cartel every time they make a purchase.
Walmart and Amazon’s potential move into stablecoins could finally give consumers the choice they deserve.
The financial establishment has had a good run extracting wealth from hardworking Americans.
But their days of easy money could be numbered if retailers embrace this new technology.
The banking swamp is about to get drained, whether they like it or not.
