From Circle’s Arc to Stripe’s Tempo, Solana’s stablecoin gambit, and the rise of ‘stablecoin-as-a-service,’ the crew debates whether this flood of new stables fixes crypto’s money problem — or just fragments liquidity.

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we’re joined by Gordon Liao, Chief Economist at Circle, to dissect the Stablecoin Wars. From Circle’s Arc and Stripe + Paradigm’s Tempo, to Solana’s native stablecoin push and Hyperliquid’s deal, we unpack why everyone suddenly wants their own chain or branded stablecoin. Is this the future of crypto’s monetary layer — or just a fragmentation nightmare? We dig into FX use cases, PMF for stablecoins, collective bargaining power of ecosystems, and whether “stablecoin-as-a-service” is the next killer primitive or a liquidity trap.