The Rise of Stablecoin Payments: Resonance of Technological Architecture and Business Ecosystem

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 Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement periods, and high costs. These digital assets are revolutionizing cross-border value flow patterns, corporate 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 fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are gradually integrating stablecoins into consumer-facing applications and enterprise funding flows. Meanwhile, emerging financial tools, from payment gateways to 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 examines the key participants shaping this field, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demand driving its applications. Furthermore, it explores how stablecoins give rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in integrating into the global economic process.

1. Why choose stablecoin payment?

To understand 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 become integrated into daily life, many payment channels, such as ACH and SWIFT, have been in existence since the 1970s. While groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented.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 back-end processes. 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, 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 instantly, eliminating delays found 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 lowers transaction fees, saving expenses for users.
• Global Reach: Decentralized platforms 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. 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 on the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is a service that securely processes payments to facilitate 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: It does not provide direct fiat currency exchange functionality itself; users can perform deposits and withdrawals 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 like USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Web2 payment applications such as Apple Pay, PayPal, Cash App, Nubank, and Revolut also allow users to make payments using stablecoins, further expanding the use cases for stablecoins.

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

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

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

• BVNK: Provides enterprise-level payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. BVNK offers API solutions for seamless process integration, has a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, and allows enterprises to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies through enterprise accounts, along with merchant services that provide the necessary tools for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. 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 their 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 distribution, 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 yet.

Consumer-focused payment gateways prioritize users, offering 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 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 partners 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, directly integrated with merchants, enabling users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currencies and stablecoins with minimal friction. Meso also supports Apple Pay for purchasing 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 blockchain infrastructure.

b. 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, automatically converting cryptocurrency assets to fiat currency at the point of sale for seamless transactions.

The project includes:

• Reap: A card issuer in Asia, clients include Infini, Kast, Genosis pay, Redotpay, Ether.fi, and over 40 other companies, selling white-label solutions, mainly relying on transaction volume commissions ) like Kast 85%-Reap 15%( cooperating with Hong Kong banks, can cover most areas outside the US, supports multi-chain deposits; by July 2024, the transaction volume reached $30M.
• Raincards: A card issuer in the Americas, supporting card issuance for companies like Avalanche, Offramp, takenos, etc., with the main feature of serving 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, does not yet support full-chain transactions, only arbirtum deposits. Growth is slow with a total of 20,000 users and a monthly income of $100K-150K.
• Kast: A rapidly growing U Card on Solana, currently has issued over 10,000 cards, with 5-6k monthly active users. In December 2024, the transaction volume is projected to be $7m, with 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, which mainly differ in the regions they serve and the currencies they support, and they usually offer low-fee services to end users to enhance the enthusiasm of users for using cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Second Layer: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin tech stack, payment processors are the backbone of payment channels, mainly covering two types: 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 with traditional financial systems.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

• Moonpay: Supports over 80 cryptocurrencies, offering various deposit and withdrawal methods as well as token swapping services to meet users' diverse cryptocurrency trading needs.
• Ramp Network: Covers over 150 countries, providing deposit and withdrawal services for more than 90 types of cryptocurrencies. 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 currencies and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination Processors

• Bridge: The core products of Bridge include the 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 partnering enterprises need to undergo KYB### corporate identity verification(, while users need to create an account with Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are mostly on-chain OG) such as Etherfuse, Penera, etc., which are slightly less endorsed by investors and BD compared to Bridge.
• Perena (in beta): Perena's Numeraire platform lowers the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide concentrated liquidity in a single pool. Numeraire adopts a "central hub-radiating" model, where USD* serves as the central reserve asset and acts as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism allows for the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of multiple stablecoins linked to different assets or jurisdictions, with each stablecoin connected to USD* as a similar "spoke". 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.