American Express Builds a Stablecoin Team With VP Role Paying Up to $282,000

American Express has created a senior role to lead its stablecoin and blockchain partnerships, signaling that the payments giant is moving from studying digital dollars to building with them.

• Key Takeaways:
• • American Express posted a job listing for VP of Stablecoin and Blockchain Partnerships, paying $176,750 to $282,000 a year.
• • The role sits in Amex’s Digital Labs unit and targets programmable money and tokenized settlement.
• • Amex also listed a VP of Onchain Products, signaling a wider team build-out as GENIUS Act rules near.

A Newly Created Role Inside Digital Labs

American Express is staffing up for a stablecoin push, as the company recently posted a newly created position for a vice president of stablecoin and blockchain partnerships and strategy. The job will be housed within its Digital Labs division in New York and carries a salary range of $176,750 to $282,000 a year.

According to the posting, the executive will be responsible for figuring out how to integrate stablecoins into Amex’s existing payment rails and for forging partnerships with token issuers, networks, and what the company calls “emerging commerce ecosystems.”

Image source: X Amex did not stop at one hire, with the company having also posted a companion role for a vice president of onchain products, suggesting it is assembling an entire team focused on blockchain-native capabilities rather than making a single experimental hire.

The move also goes to show how far the payments industry’s posture has shifted in a single year, given rivals Visa and Mastercard have both expanded stablecoin settlement pilots, and a string of former Amex and Visa executives have left to launch their own stablecoin ventures aimed at mainstream brands.

From Caution to Construction

American Express Chief Executive Stephen Squeri has spoken about stablecoins as an emerging alternative to traditional payment networks, even as he has cautioned that a crypto-linked Amex card remains a long way off. The new job listings suggest the company is now ready to move from public commentary to internal development.

Amex, however, is far from alone in all of this, with a wave of banks, fintechs, and card networks rushing into the stablecoin arena over the past year, spurred by clearer rules in the United States. The two largest stablecoins now carry a combined market capitalization of around $260 billion, roughly triple their value in 2023, and analysts expect the tokens to account for a growing share of dollar payments by the end of the decade.

Lastly, the timing of AMEX’s new development is no accident, as Congress passed the GENIUS Act, establishing the first federal framework for payment stablecoins and defining them as payment instruments rather than securities. Six federal agencies are now in a final sprint to publish implementing rules by a July 18 statutory deadline, after which issuers will have roughly 120 days to comply.

Bitcoin.com News reported that stablecoin issuer Circle also recently urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to finalize stronger rules backed by law. Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see whether Amex’s stablecoin team is able to produce a concrete product, be it a merchant settlement suite or cross-border transfer platform (all before the GENIUS Act rules take effect in late 2026).