Stablecoins Make Inroads into Cross-Border Payments, but Corporate Adoption Remains Nascent

Corporate treasury teams have traditionally relied on SWIFT, SEPA and local ACH networks to move money across borders, often navigating correspondent banks, settlement windows and volatile exchange rates. Stablecoins, whose value is typically pegged to a fiat currency, offer near-real-time settlement and can free up cash otherwise trapped for days. Their appeal is strongest where legacy banking infrastructure is limited, although they are emerging as an additional payment rail rather than a wholesale replacement for banks.

In an analysis published by Finextra on Sept. 4, 2026, ONE.io Chief Executive Jovi Overo cited Bibby Financial Services research showing internationally trading small and medium-sized businesses lost an average of £71,600 to currency volatility over the previous 12 months. Some 69% said tougher international trading conditions had increased cash-flow pressure. Treasury teams are consequently exploring hybrid systems spanning USD, EUR, GBP and regulated digital assets, while Brazil’s recent restrictions on stablecoin-based cross-border payments underscore the risk posed by diverging regulation.

Stablecoins, digital tokens typically pegged to fiat currencies, are moving beyond crypto trading into corporate finance by enabling near-instant, round-the-clock settlement. Payroll platform Deel has adopted them for cross-border salary payments, while Siemens has used blockchain infrastructure in bond issuance and settlement. The initiatives matter because they could reduce the delays, intermediary fees and operational friction embedded in correspondent banking and conventional securities processing.

Recent examples highlight the scale and productivity gains promised by the technology. Deel is allowing companies to pay workers with stablecoins, while Tether, the sector’s dominant issuer, reportedly generates about $10 billion in annual profit with a workforce of roughly 300. As of July 2026, automation is accelerating money transfers and asset settlement, but it has not eliminated the need for human oversight in risk controls, credit assessment and regulatory compliance.

The “stablecoin sandwich” converts fiat into a stablecoin at the payment origin, moves value across a blockchain and converts it back into fiat for the recipient. The model can compress cross-border settlement from days to seconds, but the surrounding know-your-customer, know-your-business, sanctions and audit data remain split among banks, fintechs, regulators and jurisdictions. That mismatch matters because companies must verify counterparties and legal obligations before treating rapid settlement as a scalable payment system.

Open Banker published an analysis by Knight founder Bernadette Pantaleon on July 14, 2026, arguing that trust coordination, rather than settlement, is now the main bottleneck. Stablecoins processed more than $27 trillion in transaction volume in 2024, yet regulated institutional adoption remains uneven. Pantaleon said firms still need interoperable identity checks, jurisdiction-aware compliance, verifiable attestations and audit trails; without them, faster transfers can magnify operational, regulatory and reputational risk instead of unlocking broad enterprise use.

Stablecoins maintain price stability by being pegged to assets such as the U.S. dollar. In recent years, they have expanded beyond cryptocurrency trading into corporate cross-border settlement. Compared with traditional bank wires, stablecoins can accelerate settlement and reduce intermediary and foreign-exchange fees. Payments infrastructure company Cybrid says this shift is driving growth in B2B payments, though regulatory clarity remains critical to adoption at scale.

Cybrid's latest survey found that 42% of companies already use stablecoins for cross-border payments, with existing users saving an average of 47% on costs. A further 88% plan to adopt them within 12 months of the report's publication, with overall cost savings estimated at more than 35%. Despite rapidly rising corporate demand, inconsistent regulatory frameworks and compliance requirements across countries remain the main barriers to widespread adoption.

Stablecoins began as dollar-pegged instruments that allowed crypto traders to avoid price volatility. They are now gradually becoming core infrastructure for corporate cross-border payments and treasury management. Traditional high-value B2B payments rely on Swift messaging and post-transaction reconciliation, and transactions exceeding $5,000 can take days to settle. Tether's USDT, Circle and Ripple are moving into this market with real-time, around-the-clock settlement.

On March 9, 2026, First Digital CEO Vincent Chok discussed agentic payments at Abu Dhabi Finance Week. On March 16, Mansa Chief Operating Officer Nkiru Uwaje forecast that adoption among licensed providers could reach 70%–80% over the next 24 months. On May 14, CoinDesk reported that stablecoins were already being used for supplier payments and corporate treasury operations.

Stablecoins maintain a stable value against assets such as the US dollar and enable instant settlement on blockchains. They are evolving from crypto trading instruments into tools for corporate payments and treasury management. Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of payment infrastructure provider Bridge shows that major payments companies are betting on cross-border money movement. Stablecoins’ low cost and programmability also make them well suited to autonomous payments by AI agents.

Bridge executive Lindsey Einhaus and Deus X Capital CEO Tim Grant said at Consensus 2026 in Miami on May 7, 2026, that large institutions would accelerate their use of stablecoins for cross-border payments and treasury operations over the next two years. Low transaction fees could help AI micropayments overcome cost barriers, but fragmented blockchains and wallets and regulatory uncertainty over autonomous finance remain obstacles to adoption.

Stablecoins, once viewed mainly as tools for trading crypto assets, are increasingly being used for corporate payments and settlement by financial institutions. Juniper Research said they can reduce the time and cost of traditional cross-border transfers while supporting supply-chain payments, treasury management and international settlement, making them an important area of development in global B2B payment infrastructure.

Juniper Research’s latest report forecasts that cross-border B2B stablecoin payments will reach $5 trillion by 2035 and account for 85% of the value of all stablecoin transactions. The projection signals a shift in the market’s focus from speculative trading to institutional use, with stablecoins enabling businesses to make programmable cross-border payments and manage funds around the clock.

Stablecoins are typically associated with cryptocurrency trading, but Paxos Labs cofounder Chunda McCain sees greater commercial value in payments and treasury management. Businesses can use them to cut cross-border payment costs, improve settlement efficiency, gain access to credit and turn operating expenses into sources of revenue.

Paxos Labs has raised $12 million to develop enterprise-grade tools that help companies issue branded stablecoins and integrate digital assets into existing business processes. Reports did not disclose when the funding round closed, but McCain said stablecoin use was expanding beyond payments into credit and yield management.

Stablecoins maintain a steady value through backing by fiat currencies and other assets, combining round-the-clock blockchain settlement with efficient cross-border payments. They are gradually evolving from crypto trading instruments into corporate treasury tools. Ripple launched its U.S. dollar stablecoin, RLUSD, in December 2024, aiming to make payments a gateway for businesses adopting blockchain services.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said on March 27, 2026, that stablecoins were poised for a “ChatGPT moment” in the business world. Stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $33 trillion in 2025, with nearly 90% coming from USDT and USDC. Bloomberg Intelligence expects the related payment flows to grow at a compound annual rate of 80%, reaching $56.6 trillion by 2030.

Stablecoins are typically pegged to fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar and can settle cross-border transactions directly over blockchains, reducing the costs of correspondent banking, batch clearing and prefunding local currencies. Delphi Digital said total fees for traditional remittances in foreign-exchange corridors such as Argentina and Nigeria can reach as high as 8%, with 81% of those fees used to support banking infrastructure. That leaves significant room for alternatives.

Citing Delphi Digital research on March 17, 2026, Cointelegraph reported that stablecoin minting and redemption can be completed within seconds. Moving funds into bank accounts, however, remains constrained by wire-transfer batch schedules, access to banking services and regulatory restrictions, making off-ramps a bottleneck. DeFiLlama data showed that supply increased from $308 billion on February 17 to $316 billion on March 17, a monthly gain of 2.5%.