Stablecoin Payment: Reshaping the Global Financial Transaction Landscape

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks are facing a comprehensive challenge from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement periods, and high costs. These digital assets are revolutionizing the way cross-border value flows, corporate transactions, and personal financial services are accessed.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become an important underlying infrastructure for global payments. Large fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are gradually integrating stablecoins into consumer-facing applications and corporate funding flows. Meanwhile, 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 an in-depth analysis of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and business perspectives. It studies the key players shaping this space, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demand driving their applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins are giving rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face as they become increasingly integrated into the global economic process.

1. Why choose stablecoin payments?

To explore the influence of stablecoins, we must first 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 been integrated into daily life, many payment channels, such as ACH and SWIFT, have been in existence since the 1970s. While they were groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods are plagued by high costs, high friction, long processing times, the inability to achieve round-the-clock settlements, and complex backend procedures. Additionally, they often require payment for unnecessary extra 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 fund flows, not only shortening settlement times but also lowering costs.

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

• Real-time settlement: Transactions are completed almost instantly, eliminating delays found in traditional banking systems.
• Secure and Reliable: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures the security and transparency of transactions, providing protection for users.
• Cost reduction: By removing intermediaries, transaction fees have been significantly reduced, saving expenses for users.
• Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets that are underserved by traditional financial services, including the unbanked population, achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of the Stablecoin Payment Industry

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

( 1. Layer 1: 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 working at the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

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

Well-known 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 achieve 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 with cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY into other stablecoins, such as USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Other Web2 payment applications also allow users to make payments using stablecoins, further expanding the application scenarios of stablecoins.

The field of payment gateway providers can be clearly divided into two categories with certain overlaps ).

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

The developer-focused payment gateway is designed to serve enterprises, fintech companies, and businesses that need to embed 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 to enable features such as automated payments, stablecoin wallets, virtual accounts, and real-time settlements. Some emerging projects that focus 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 that allow businesses to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies, along with merchant services that provide the necessary tools for businesses 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 transactions into its existing business. It offers businesses 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 enterprise payment, salary disbursement, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including Nigerian Naira )NGN(, Canadian Dollar )CAD(, US Dollar )USD(, Tether )USDT(, and USD Coin )USDC(. Primarily targeting the African market, with no operational data available yet.

Consumer-facing payment gateways are user-centric, providing an easy-to-use interface that facilitates stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects focused on providing this simple payment experience for users 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, achieving nearly zero withdrawal fees, with over 10,000 South American users and a high rating among Solana developers.
• Meso: Deposit and withdrawal solution, directly integrated with merchants, enabling users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoins with minimal friction. Meso also supports the purchase of USDC, simplifying the process for consumers to acquire stablecoins.
• 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.

b. U Card

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

The project includes:

• Reap: A card issuer in Asia, with clients including various enterprises, selling white-label solutions, primarily relying on transaction fee commissions in collaboration with Hong Kong banks, covering most regions outside the U.S., supporting multi-chain deposits; transaction volume reached $30M in July 2024.
• Raincards: Card issuer in the Americas, supporting multiple companies for issuing cards, with the main feature being the ability to serve users in the US and Latin America. I 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, the business model is similar to the above two companies, supporting multiple enterprises to issue cards; Swiss license, mainly serving European + Asian users, does not yet support full-chain transactions and only allows Arbitrum deposits. Growth is slow with a total user base of 20,000, monthly revenue of $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, recently launched a credit card that supports 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, which mainly differ in terms of service areas and supported currencies. They usually offer low-fee services to end-users to enhance the enthusiasm for using cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Layer Two: 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 intermediate layer in the payment lifecycle, connecting Web3 payments with traditional financial systems.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

• Moonpay: Supports over 80 cryptocurrencies, providing various deposit and withdrawal methods as well as token swap services to meet users' diverse cryptocurrency trading needs.
• Ramp Network: covering over 150 countries, 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 two-way exchange and payment between fiat currencies and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination of Processors

• Bridge: The core products of Bridge include the Coordination API and the 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. Department of State and the Department of 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 companies are required to undergo KYB### corporate identity verification(, while users need to set up an account with Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are mostly on-chain OGs, and compared to Bridge, its investment endorsements and business development are slightly weaker.
• Perena )in beta(: The Numeraire platform of Perena lowers the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide concentrated liquidity in a single pool. Numeraire employs 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 various stablecoins pegged 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 via USD* without needing 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 Issuers

Asset issuers are responsible for creating, maintaining, and redeeming stablecoins. Their business model typically centers around the balance sheet, similar to bank operations - accepting customer deposits and investing funds in high-yield assets like U.S. Treasury bonds to earn interest spreads. At the asset issuer level, stablecoin innovations can be divided into three tiers: static reserve-backed stablecoins, interest-bearing stablecoins, and revenue-sharing stablecoins.

1. Static reserve supported stablecoin