Once a humble piece of plastic tied to a single merchant, gift cards have evolved into flexible ecosystems that sit at the forefront of many brands. A major driver of this transformation has been digital gift cards, which have reshaped the way the industry views prepaid products. Today, gift cards are not only central to loyalty programs and employee engagement efforts but also remain consumers’ go-to choice for gifting. Yet, the evolution of the gift card industry is far from over. In fact,...

Emerging rails like real-time payments, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies have quickly created a fragmented payments ecosystem. This environment presents both an opportunity and a challenge for digital wallet companies: they could become the nexus for all payment types if they can build mechanisms to connect disparate sources into a single solution.  Although digital wallets have gained solid momentum in peer-to-peer and e-commerce spaces, they are not yet an all-encompassing...