CNBC's "Power Lunch" team is joined by VanEck CEO Jan van Eck to talk about the future of stablecoins, markets and more.

Industry leaders are examining the potential effects of stablecoin legislation on the broader payments system. The introduction of stablecoins is expected to put downward pressure on transaction costs, as companies like Uber and various fintech firms consider their use to bypass traditional credit card fees. While the immediate impact on established banks in developed markets is expected to be minor, the presence of stablecoins could allow new competitors to enter the payments space, challenging incumbents such as Visa and MasterCard.

The discussion highlights that, although the traditional financial system in developed countries is robust, stablecoins may offer more significant benefits in regions where banking systems are less reliable. The evolution of digital currencies is anticipated to provide consumers with more options for moving money, potentially reducing reliance on banks and traditional payment networks.

Why Stablecoin legislation may put cost pressure on payments system

So now let's kind of broaden this out, talk more about crypto, talk more about the markets. One of our favorite guests, Jan VanEck, CEO of VanEck Associates. I don't know if the arcade thing worked. It was the best I could do. Jan, good to have you on. As an asset manager yourself. Yeah. Do you read this bill as a way to broadly expand the industry in a one day that if it hasn't already is going to affect VanEck's clients? It's affecting a lot of parts of the market. If you just look at what's happened this week so far, we started off with bank earnings. It's earnings season. And the bank CEOs, what are they talking about? They're talking about bringing out stable coins. So you don't really need to know what a stable coin is. I agree that. But it can be behind the scenes. But it will be affecting all the brand name companies that are part of the indices. So not just banks, but you see Uber talking about using stable coins. They're going to use it to lower costs because right now the credit card system, which is what a lot of people use. Yes. Is expensive for people. So this is like the running theme of it. Remember when Drew Mattis yesterday talked about how the 3 percent surcharge fees aren't included in CPI and how mad everyone's getting and everyone's using cash. The argument many are making for stable coins is that they'll disintermediate. So you don't have to pay the 3 percent to be it, whether you're the merchant or the consumer. I sort of feel like people are going to get their money somehow. Do you know what I'm saying? I don't know exactly how that all shakes out, but I'd love to think, oh, yeah, just use stable coins. You don't have to pay the 3 percent. But I'm like, they're going to they're going to figure out. Well, look, there's some embedded costs in the system, right? Fraud is one of them. And it doesn't matter what technologies, if there's money there, fraudsters will try to find it. And that's one of the big costs of the banking system and the checking, check outing and all that. But I definitely think that this will put cost pressure on the payments system because it is cheaper. And it allows all these competitors to come into the market, whether it's a Kraken, whether it's a Robin Hood, whether it's an X. You know, there are going to be a lot of super apps. Yes. You know, Mark Zuckerberg really started it with the Libra, if you remember that. That was a stable coin. And Washington recoiled. And we've come a long way since then. Coinbase is now launching their kind of super app to try to maybe we can show shares of Visa and MasterCard, which, again, go back to the 2010s, like great duopoly. They probably want to use that word, but incredibly well-performing stocks. Now it's interesting because you look, they go, OK, they're they're kind of grinding. But the financial traditional financial stocks have absolutely broken out this year and have done spectacularly a lot of different reasons for that. But they don't seem scared about anything happening on the crypto front that's going to come in and take any of their business. It's it's going to be very hard. Kelly will be several quarters before it'll impact earnings either to the positive or to the negative. But stocks are kind of moving in anticipation of that, you know, kind of right now. And you see the incumbents, right? Ethereum has had a great month. Circle the stable, the one public stable coin companies had a great run since its IPO. So, you know, the market's getting ahead of it. But those are just the incumbents. The point that David made, there could be a lot of competitors coming into the space. So right now I want to buy, let's say I want to buy the OIH, right? I think you've heard of that oil and gas. I try to forget it. Yes. Yes. No. Well, investors have lately, but it was hot for a while. It was hot for a while. I put money, actual cash into, say, Schwab or Fidelity or TD Ameritrade or whatever it is. I buy that. They transfer the cash over to you or your firm. They buy the equity. Is that going to happen then to Kelly's point with stable coins? I now can kind of replace the cash aspect of it with some kind of crypto holding. The gaining factor now is you always have to touch first base and the first base is your bank account. And you won't have to do that necessarily going forward if you have digital dollars. So there'll be other ways of moving money. But listen. Does that kill banks? I'm trying to figure out what this, to Kelly's point. You mentioned disintermediation of Visa and MasterCard. Trying to understand why we need this. And if we do, what it's going to kill, because it's going to hurt something. It's having a minor impact. It will have a minor impact, in our view, on banks in the U.S. But lots of things already work pretty well in developed markets. But in other countries, right, where the banking systems are less trustworthy, consumers are going to love an alternative. And you've already seen this over the last five years.

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