Stablecoins’ place in traditional finance will follow a similar path to digital music, going from “outlaw file sharing” to digital streaming services like Spotify.
Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator sees stablecoins, metaverse, and artificial intelligence technology as some of the most promising sectors for innovation.

In its annual “Requests for Startups” report shared on Feb. 15, Y Combinator said stablecoins have “immense” potential as a cost-effective cross-border payment option, while it also sees promise in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) tech applied beyond gaming. Meanwhile, AI could customize enterprise software and smoothen “back office processes."

In a section on stablecoins, Y Combinator group partner Brad Flora said stablecoins look to “be a big part of the future of money” and likened the industry to that of digital music in the early 2000s.

“It all looks a bit like digital music’s transition from the realm of outlaw file sharing in the early 2000s to becoming the norm as players like Apple entered the market.”
“Importantly, those major players were all outmatched in the end by Spotify, a startup founded during that same transition moment,” explained Flora.

“This utility is so straightforward it seems inevitable traditional finance will follow suit.”
The stablecoin market size currently sits at $140 million, but the “opportunity seems much more immense,” Flora added, noting that only seven million people have transacted with stablecoins while more than 500 million people live in countries with inflation rates above 30%.

Y Combinator has so far funded 81 cryptocurrency and Web3 startups, including Coinbase, OpenSea, TRM Labs and Quantstamp, according to the firm.

Meanwhile, advancements in AR and VR continue to unfold, adding it hopes to see startups building software on these devices that go beyond gaming, said Diana Hu, another group partner at the firm. .

“There are so many challenges still to solve with discovering best use cases, best UX/UI practices, and more — we are excited to work with founders that are at the frontier of this tech,” said Hu.

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