Trust Gap Slows Cross-Border Stablecoin Payments

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.