Y Combinator, Startup Incubator Behind Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe, Looks to Invest in Stablecoin Finance

• Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator has included stablecoin finance in its new request for startups (RFS) list.

• The list is a YC tradition going back to 2009, offering up ideas the incubator wants to see made real.

Y Combinator (YC), the Silicon Valley incubator, has listed stablecoin finance as a category in its new and updated list of areas it would like to deploy funds in, according to its request for startups (RFS) list released last week.

The RFS is a YC tradition, the blog said, one that goes back to 2009 offering up ideas the incubator wants to see made real. It helps startups understand which areas YC would like to invest in.

“We would like to fund great teams building B2B and consumer products on top of stablecoins, tools and platforms that enable stablecoin finance and more stablecoin protocols themselves,” wrote Brad Flora, a Group Partner at YC.

Citing PayPal’s (PYPL) move to issue its own stablecoin and how major banks have started offering custody services, Flora said their “utility is so straightforward it seems inevitable traditional finance will follow suit.”

YC compared the future of stablecoins to digital music, explaining how digital music emerged from outlawed file-sharing models.

YC said that although $136 billion worth of stablecoins have been issued to date, the opportunity in the sector is “much more immense still.” Despite the massive value of the tokens issued, only about seven million people have transacted with stablecoins, and there are only a handful of major stablecoin issuers.