Stablecoin Payments: Reshaping the Global Financial Transaction Landscape

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement periods, and high costs. Stablecoins are rapidly revolutionizing cross-border value flow models, business transaction paradigms, and the ways individuals access financial services.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become an important underlying infrastructure for global payments. Large financial technology companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are gradually integrating stablecoins into consumer-facing applications and enterprise cash flows. At the same time, emerging financial tools such as payment gateways, deposit and withdrawal channels, and programmable yield products have greatly enhanced the convenience of using stablecoins.

This report provides a deep analysis of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and commercial perspectives. It studies the key participants shaping this field, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demand driving its applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins give rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economic process.

1. Why choose stablecoin payments?

To explore the influence of stablecoins, we first need to examine traditional payment solutions. These traditional systems include cash, checks, debit cards, credit cards, international wire transfers ( SWIFT ), Automated Clearing House ( ACH ), and peer-to-peer payments. Although they have become integrated into daily life, many payment channels, such as the infrastructure of ACH and SWIFT, have existed since the 1970s. While they were groundbreaking at the time, much of this global payment infrastructure is now outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods are plagued by high fees, high friction, long processing times, inability to achieve 24/7 settlement, and complex backend processes. Additionally, they often require payments ( for unnecessary additional services such as bundled identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and bank integration.

Stablecoin payments are effectively addressing these pain points. Compared to traditional payment methods, using blockchain for payment settlement greatly simplifies the payment process, reduces intermediaries, and achieves real-time visibility of cash flow, which not only shortens settlement time but also lowers costs.

The main advantages of stablecoin payments can be summarized as follows:

• Real-time settlement: Transactions are completed almost instantaneously, eliminating delays in traditional banking systems.
• Safe and reliable: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures the security and transparency of transactions, providing protection for users.
• Cost reduction: Removing intermediaries significantly lowered transaction fees, saving expenses for users.
• Global Coverage: The decentralized platform can reach markets underserved by traditional financial services, including unbanked populations, achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of the Stablecoin Payment Industry

The stablecoin payment industry can be divided into four technical stack layers:

) 1. First Layer: Application Layer

The application layer is mainly composed of various payment service providers ( PSP ), which integrate multiple independent deposit and withdrawal payment institutions into a unified aggregation platform. These platforms provide users with convenient access to stablecoins, offer tools for developers developing at the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is a service that securely processes payments and facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers.

Notable companies innovating in this field include:

• Stripe: A traditional payment provider that integrates stablecoins like USDC for global payments.
• MetaMask: does not provide direct fiat currency exchange functionality itself, users can perform deposit and withdrawal operations through integration with its third-party services.
• Helio: 450,000 active wallets and 6,000 merchants. With the Solana Pay plugin, millions of Shopify merchants can settle payments using cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY into other stablecoins, such as USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Web2 payment applications such as Apple Pay, PayPal, Cash App, Nubank, and Revolut also allow users to complete payments using stablecoins, further expanding the application scenarios of stablecoins.

The field of payment gateway providers can be clearly divided into two categories ### with some overlap (.

1. developer-oriented payment gateway; 2( consumer-oriented payment gateway. Most payment gateway providers tend to focus more on one type, thus shaping their core products, user experience, and target market.

The developer-oriented payment gateway is designed to serve enterprises, fintech companies, and businesses that need to integrate stablecoin infrastructure into their workflows. They typically provide application programming interfaces )API), software development kits )SDK(, and developer tools for integration into existing payment systems, enabling features such as automated payments, stablecoin wallets, virtual accounts, and real-time settlement. Some emerging projects focused on providing such developer tools include:

• BVNK: Provides enterprise-level payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. BVNK offers API solutions that ensure seamless processes, featuring a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, as well as corporate accounts allowing businesses to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies, along with merchant services that provide the necessary tools for enterprises to accept customer payments in stablecoins. Processing over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a growth rate of 200% and a valuation of $750 million, clients include emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
• Iron )in beta(: Provides an API to seamlessly integrate stablecoin trading into existing businesses. It offers enterprises global deposit and withdrawal channels, stablecoin payment infrastructure, wallets, and virtual accounts, supporting customized payment workflows) including recurring payments, invoicing, or on-demand payments(.
• Juicyway: Provides a range of corporate payment, payroll, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including Nigerian Naira )NGN(, Canadian Dollar )CAD(, US Dollar )USD(, Tether )USDT(, and USD Coin )USDC(. Mainly targeting the African market, with no operational data available.

Consumer-oriented payment gateways focus on the user, providing a simple and easy-to-use interface that facilitates stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects that focus on providing users with this simple payment experience include:

• Decaf: An on-chain banking platform that enables personal consumption, remittances, and stablecoin transactions in over 184 countries; Decaf collaborates with local channels in Latin America, including Western Union) and MoneyGram(, achieving nearly zero withdrawal fees, with over 10,000 South American users and high ratings among Solana developers.
• Meso: Deposit and withdrawal solutions, integrated directly with merchants, enabling users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoin with minimal friction. Meso also supports Apple Pay for purchasing USDC, simplifying the process for consumers to acquire stablecoin.
• Venmo: The stablecoin wallet feature of Venmo utilizes stablecoin technology, but its functionality is integrated into its existing consumer payment application, allowing users to easily send, receive, and use digital dollars without directly interacting with the blockchain infrastructure.

U Card

Cryptocurrency cards are payment cards that allow users to spend cryptocurrencies or stablecoins at traditional merchants. These cards are typically integrated with traditional credit card networks like Visa or Mastercard, enabling seamless transactions by automatically converting cryptocurrency assets to fiat currency at the point of sale.

The project includes:

• Reap: An Asian card issuer with clients including Infini, Kast, Genosis pay, Redotpay, Ether.fi and over 40 other companies, selling white-label solutions, primarily relying on transaction fee commissions ) such as Kast 85%-Reap 15% ( cooperating with Hong Kong banks, covering most areas outside the United States, supporting multi-chain deposits; transaction volume reached $30M in July 2024.
• Raincards: American card issuer, supports card issuance for multiple companies including Avalanche, Offramp, takenos, with the main feature being the ability to serve users in the US and Latin America. Issued a USDC corporate card to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business expenses using on-chain assets ) such as USDC(.
• Fiat24: European card issuer + web3 bank, business model similar to the above two, supports card issuance for companies like ethsign, safepal; Swiss license, mainly serving European + Asian users, currently does not support full-chain transactions and can only recharge on Arbitrum. Growth is slow with a total of 20,000 users, monthly revenue $100K-150K.
• Kast: A rapidly growing U card on Solana, with over 10,000 cards issued, 5-6k monthly active users, a transaction volume of $7m in December 2024, and revenue of $200k.
• 1Money: stablecoin ecosystem has recently launched a credit card supporting stablecoins and provides a software development kit for easy L1 and L2 integration, currently in beta with no data available.

There are many cryptocurrency card providers, and they mainly differ in terms of service areas and supported currencies, often offering low fees to end users to enhance their enthusiasm for using cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Second Layer: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin technology stack, payment processors are the backbone of payment channels, mainly covering two categories: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They act as a crucial intermediary layer in the payment lifecycle, connecting Web3 payments to traditional financial systems.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

• Moonpay: Supports over 80 cryptocurrencies, provides various deposit and withdrawal methods as well as token swap services to meet users' diverse cryptocurrency trading needs.
• Ramp Network: Covers over 150 countries and provides deposit and withdrawal services for more than 90 types of crypto assets. The network handles all KYC( identity verification), AML( anti-money laundering), and compliance requirements, ensuring the compliance and security of deposit and withdrawal services.
• Alchemy Pay: a hybrid payment gateway solution that supports bidirectional exchange and payment between fiat currency and cryptocurrency assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and cryptocurrency payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination Processors

• Bridge: The core products of Bridge include Coordination API and Issuance API. The former helps enterprises integrate various stablecoin payments and exchanges, while the latter supports enterprises in quickly issuing stablecoins. The platform is currently licensed in the United States and Europe and has established significant partnerships with the U.S. State Department and the Treasury, possessing strong compliance operational capabilities and resource advantages.
• Brale ###in beta(: Similar to the Bridge product, it is a regulated stablecoin issuance platform that provides stablecoin coordination and reserve management APIs. It has compliance licenses in various states across the United States, and partner enterprises are required to pass KYB) business identity verification(, while users need to create an account on Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are mostly on-chain OG) such as Etherfuse, Penera, etc., which are slightly less backed by investors and business development compared to Bridge.
• Perena ( in beta ): Perena's Numeraire platform reduces the barrier to entry for niche stablecoin issuance by encouraging users to provide centralized liquidity in a single pool. Numeraire adopts a "central hub-radiating" model, with USD* as the central reserve asset, serving as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism enables the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of multiple stablecoins linked to different assets or jurisdictions, with each stablecoin connected to USD* as similar "spokes." Through this system structure, Numeraire ensures deep liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as small stablecoins can interoperate through USD* without the need to provide separate liquidity pools for each trading pair. The ultimate design goal of the system is not only to enhance price stability and reduce slippage but also to achieve seamless conversion between stablecoins.

( 3. Layer Three: Asset Issuer

Asset issuers are responsible for creating, maintaining, and redeeming stablecoins. Their business model typically relies on the balance sheet.