Stablecoins are booming! How can non-encryption companies "play"?
Under the catalyst of Stripe's acquisition of Bridge and progress on the "GENIUS Act", the past six months have seen an explosive growth in headlines related to stablecoins. From CEOs of major banks to product managers at payment companies, and up to high-level government officials, key decision-makers are increasingly mentioning stablecoins and promoting their advantages.
Stablecoins are built on four core pillars:
Instant settlement (T +0, significantly reduces working capital requirements); very low transaction costs (especially compared to the SWIFT system); global accessibility (available year-round, requiring only an internet connection); programmability (currencies driven by extended coding logic).
These pillars perfectly illustrate the advantages of stablecoins promoted in various headlines, blog posts, and interviews. Therefore, the argument "Why stablecoins are needed" is easy to understand, while "How to use stablecoins" is much more complex — whether it's a product manager at a fintech company or a bank CEO, there is currently very little content that specifically explains how to integrate stablecoins into existing business models.
Based on this, we have decided to write this advanced guide to provide a beginner's reference for non-encryption enterprises exploring the application of stablecoins. The following text will be divided into four independent chapters, each corresponding to different business models. Each chapter will analyze in detail: in which aspects stablecoins can create value, what the specific implementation path is, and a schematic diagram of the restructured product architecture.
Ultimately, while headline news is important, what we truly pursue is the large-scale application of stablecoins — enabling the widespread use of stablecoins in real business scenarios. I hope this article can serve as a small cornerstone in realizing this vision. Now, let’s delve into how non-encryption enterprises can utilize stablecoins.
To C Financial Technology Bank
For consumer-facing (To C) digital banks, the key to enhancing corporate value lies in optimizing the following three levers: user scale, average revenue per user (ARPU), and user churn rate. Stablecoins can currently directly support the first two metrics—by integrating partners' infrastructure, digital banks can launch stablecoin-based remittance services, which can reach new user groups and also provide additional revenue channels for existing customers.
Under the two major ongoing trends of digital interconnection and globalization that have lasted for decades, the target market of today's financial technology often has transnational characteristics. Some digital banks position cross-border financial services as their core offering (such as Revolut or DolarApp), while others treat it as a functional module to enhance ARPU (such as Nubank or Lemon). For fintech startups that focus on expatriates and specific ethnic groups (such as Felix Pago or Abound), remittance services are a basic necessity of the target market. All these types of digital banks will (or have already) benefited from remittances using stablecoins.
Compared to traditional remittance services (such as Western Union), stablecoins can achieve faster (instant transfer vs 2-5 days or more) and cheaper (as low as 30 basis points vs over 300 basis points) settlements. For example, DolarApp charges only $3 to send US dollars to Mexico with real-time delivery. This explains why in certain remittance corridors (such as the US-Mexico corridor), the penetration rate of stablecoin payments has reached 10-20%, and the growth momentum continues.
In addition to creating new revenue, stablecoins can also optimize costs and user experience, especially as internal settlement tools. Many practitioners are well aware of the pain points of weekend settlements: bank closures result in a two-day delay in settlements. Digital banks that pursue real-time services and an unparalleled experience have to fill the gap by providing operational capital credit, which incurs opportunity costs of funds (especially heavy in the current interest rate environment) and may force companies to seek additional financing. The instant settlement and global accessibility features of stablecoins completely solve this problem. One typical case is Robinhood, one of the world's largest fintech platforms, whose CEO Vlad Tenev clearly stated during the earnings call in February 2025: "We are using stablecoins to handle a large volume of weekend settlement business, and the scale of application continues to expand."
Therefore, it is not surprising that consumer-facing fintech companies like Revolut and Robinhood are all laying out plans for stablecoins. So, if you work in a consumer bank or fintech company, how should you utilize stablecoins?
After introducing stablecoins into this business model, the practical plan is as follows.
Real-time 24/7 settlement
Use stablecoins such as USDC, USDT, and USDG for instant settlement (including holidays);
Integrated wallet service providers / Coordinator combinations (such as Fireblocks or Bridge) to connect the banking system with the blockchain for US dollar / stablecoin flow;
Integrate fiat channel service providers (such as Yellow Card in Africa) in specific regions to achieve B2B/B2B2C exchange between stablecoins and fiat currency.
Fill the gap of fiat currency settlement
During the weekend, use stablecoins as a temporary substitute for fiat currency, and complete the reconciliation after the banking system is restarted.
Can cooperate with suppliers like Paxos to build an internal stablecoin settlement loop between customer accounts and enterprises;
Funds from the counterparty are available instantly.
By using the above solutions or liquidity partners, funds can be quickly allocated to exchanges/partners, bypassing the ACH/wire transfer process.
Cross-border entity automatic rebalancing
When fiat currency channels are closed, fund allocation between business units/subsidiaries is achieved through on-chain stablecoins.
The headquarters can use this to establish an automated, scalable global fund management system.
In addition to these basic functions, a new generation of banks can be envisioned that is completely based on the concept of "24/7, instant, and composable finance." Remittances and settlements are just the starting point, and subsequently, scenarios such as programmable payments, cross-border asset management, and stock tokenization will emerge. These enterprises will win the market with an exceptional user experience, a rich product matrix, and a lower cost structure.
Commercial banks and enterprise services (B2B)
Currently, business owners in markets such as Nigeria, Indonesia, and Brazil must overcome numerous obstacles to open USD accounts at local banks. Typically, only businesses with large transaction volumes or special relationships can qualify—this is also predicated on the bank having sufficient USD liquidity. Meanwhile, local currency accounts force entrepreneurs to bear both bank risks and government credit risks, making them constantly monitor exchange rate fluctuations to maintain operating capital. When making payments to overseas suppliers, business owners also incur high fees for converting local currency to USD and other mainstream currencies.
Stablecoins can significantly alleviate these frictions, and forward-looking commercial banks will play a key role in their application process. Through bank-custodied compliant digital dollars (such as USDC or USDG) platforms, enterprises can achieve:
Hold multiple currency balances without the need to establish multiple banking relationships; cross-border invoices settle in seconds (bypassing traditional correspondent bank networks); earn interest on stablecoin deposits;
Commercial banks can use this to upgrade their basic checking accounts to a global multi-currency fund management solution, offering speed, transparency, and financial resilience that traditional accounts cannot match.
After introducing stablecoins into this business model, the practical plan is as follows.
Global USD / Multi-Currency Account Services
Banks provide custody of stablecoins for enterprises through partners such as Fireblocks or Stripe-Bridge;
Reduce startup and operational costs (such as reducing licensing requirements, exempting FBO accounts);
High-yield products supported by high-quality US Treasury bonds
Banks can offer returns at the federal funds rate level (approximately 4%), with credit risk significantly lower than that of local banks (U.S. regulated money market funds vs. local banks);
Need to connect with interest-bearing stablecoin providers (such as Paxos) or tokenized government bond partners (such as Superstate/Securitize).
Real-time 24/7 settlement
For details, see the previous section on the consumer finance segment plan.
The global application scenarios we are optimistic about (stablecoin platforms / commercial banks can solve) include importers making dollar payments in seconds, overseas exporters instantly releasing goods; CFOs of enterprises reallocating funds in real-time across multiple countries, breaking free from the delays of correspondent banking systems, making bank services for large multinational groups possible; business owners in high-inflation countries anchoring their balance sheets with dollars. Example of product architecture (commercial bank services based on stablecoins)
Payroll Service Provider
For payroll platforms, the greatest value of stablecoins lies in serving employers who need to pay salaries to employees in emerging markets. Cross-border payments, or payments made in countries with underdeveloped financial infrastructure, can impose significant costs on payroll platforms—these costs may be absorbed by the platform itself, passed on to employers, or reluctantly deducted from contractor payments. For payroll service providers, the easiest opportunity to realize is to enable stablecoin payment channels.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, cross-border stablecoin transfers from the US financial system to contractors' digital wallets are almost costless and instant (depending on the fiat entry configuration). Although contractors may still need to complete fiat exchange themselves (which incurs costs), they can receive payments anchored to the world's strongest fiat currencies instantly. Multiple pieces of evidence suggest that the demand for stablecoins is surging in emerging markets:
Users are willing to pay an average premium of about 4.7% for USD stablecoins; in countries like Argentina, this premium can be as high as 30%; stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular among contractors and freelancers in regions like Latin America; applications focused on freelancers, such as Airtm, have seen exponential growth in stablecoin usage and user base; more importantly, a user base has already formed: over the past 12 months, more than 250 million digital wallets have actively used stablecoins, and more people are willing to accept stablecoin payments.
In addition to speed and cost savings for end users, stablecoins offer many benefits to business clients using payroll services (i.e., paying clients). First, stablecoins are clearly more transparent and customizable. According to a recent fintech survey, 66% of payroll professionals lack the tools to understand their actual costs with banks and payment partners. Fees are often opaque, and the processes are confusing. Secondly, the process of executing payroll payments today often involves a significant amount of manual operations, consuming resources in the finance department. In addition to the execution of payments themselves, there are a series of other matters to consider, from accounting to taxation to bank reconciliation, and stablecoins are programmable and come with built-in ledgers (encryption), which significantly enhances automation capabilities (such as batch scheduled payments) and accounting capabilities (such as automated smart contract calculations, withholding and payment, and recording systems).
In that case, how should the salary platform enable stablecoin payment functionality?
Real-time 24/7 settlement
The previous text has covered the relevant content.
closed-loop payment
Collaborate with stablecoin-based card issuance platforms (such as Rain) to allow end users to directly spend stablecoins, thereby fully inheriting their speed and cost advantages;
Collaborate with wallet providers to offer stablecoin savings and yield opportunities.
Accounting and Tax Reconciliation
Utilizing the immutable ledger characteristics of blockchain, automatically synchronize transaction records to accounting and tax systems through API data interfaces, achieving automation of withholding, bookkeeping, and reconciliation processes.
Programmable Payments and Embedded Finance
Use smart contracts to achieve automatic bulk payments and programmable payments based on specific conditions (such as bonuses). Collaborate with platforms like Airtm or use smart contracts directly.
Connect to DeFi foundational protocols to provide wage-based financing services in an affordable and globally accessible manner. In certain countries/regions, it allows bypassing the typically cumbersome, closed, and expensive local banking partners. Applications like Glim (and indirectly Lemon) are working to provide these features.
Based on the above plan, let us further elaborate on the specific implementation methods:
The salary processing platform supporting stablecoins collaborates with US fiat gateways (such as Bridge, Circle, Beam) to connect bank accounts with stablecoins. Before the payment date, funds are transferred from the client's corporate account to the on-chain stablecoin account (these accounts can be hosted by the aforementioned companies or institutions like Fireblocks). Payments are fully automated and batch broadcasted to all contractors worldwide. Contractors receive USD stablecoins instantly, which can be spent using stablecoin-supporting Visa cards (such as Rain) or saved in on-chain accounts (like USTB or BUIDL) through tokenized government bonds. With this new architecture, the overall system costs have significantly decreased, the coverage of contractors has greatly expanded, and the degree of system automation has been greatly enhanced.
Issuer
Currently, many companies are generating core revenue through card issuance. For example, Chime, which just launched on June 12, achieved over $1 billion in annual revenue in the U.S. market solely through transaction fees. Although Chime has built a large business in the U.S., its partnerships with Visa, banking partners, and technological infrastructure are almost unable to support expansion into overseas markets.
Traditional card issuance requires applying for direct licenses from institutions like Visa on a country-by-country basis, or collaborating with local banks. This cumbersome process severely hinders companies' cross-regional expansion. Taking the publicly listed company Nubank as an example, after operating for over 10 years, it only began its overseas expansion in the past three years.
In addition, issuers are required to pay a deposit to card organizations such as Visa to mitigate default risks. The card organizations use this to assure merchants like Walmart that cardholder payments will still be honored even if the bank or fintech company goes bankrupt. The card organizations will review the transaction volume from the last 4-7 days to calculate the deposit amount that the issuer needs to pay. This poses a heavy burden on banks/fintech companies, creating a significant barrier to entry in the industry.
Stablecoins have completely changed the possibilities of issuance services. Firstly, stablecoins are nurturing a new type of issuance platform, such as Rain, where businesses can leverage their major membership with Visa to provide global issuance services through stablecoins. Examples include enabling fintech companies to issue cards simultaneously in Colombia, Mexico, the United States, Bolivia, and many other countries. Additionally, due to the 24/7 settlement capability of stablecoins, a new class of issuance partners can now settle on weekends. Weekend settlements greatly reduce the risks for partners, effectively decreasing collateral requirements and freeing up funds. Finally, the on-chain verifiability and composability of stablecoins create a more efficient collateral management system, reducing the working capital requirements for issuance institutions.
After introducing stablecoins into this business model, the practical plan is as follows.
Launch a global issuance program priced in US dollars in collaboration with Visa and card issuers;
1. Flexible card network settlement options; 2. Direct settlement using stablecoins (enabling weekend and overnight settlements); the card network generates daily settlement reports containing bank account and routing numbers, which will show the stablecoin address after using stablecoins; it is also possible to choose to exchange stablecoins back to fiat currency before settling with the card network; lowering collateral requirements (thanks to 24/7 settlement capabilities). 3. The following is an example process of a global card product architecture supporting stablecoins:
Conclusion
Stablecoins are no longer a future promise that requires strenuous imagination - they have become a practical technology with exponential growth in usage. The question now is not 'whether' to adopt, but 'when' and 'how' to adopt. From banks to fintech companies to payment processors, developing a stablecoin strategy has become imperative.
Companies that have moved beyond the proof-of-concept stage and have truly integrated and deployed stablecoin solutions will far surpass their competitors in cost savings, revenue enhancement, and market expansion. It is worth mentioning that the actual benefits mentioned above are supported by numerous existing integration partners and upcoming legislative clarity, both of which will significantly reduce execution risks. Now is the best time to build stablecoin solutions.
Note: The materials in this article are sourced from publicly available information on the internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us for deletion. The above content only represents the author's personal views.