Stablecoin Payments: Analyzing the Ecosystem from Technical and Business Perspectives

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement cycles, and high costs. These digital assets are revolutionizing the ways in which cross-border value flows, corporate transactions, and access to personal financial services are conducted.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become an important infrastructure for global payments. Large fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are gradually integrating them into consumer-facing applications and corporate cash flows. At the same time, emerging financial tools, from payment gateways to deposit and withdrawal channels, to 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 players shaping this field, the core infrastructure, and the demand dynamics driving applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins are giving rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economy.

1. Why choose stablecoin payments?

To understand the influence of stablecoins, one must first examine traditional payment solutions. These 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 had their infrastructure in place since the 1970s. While groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods suffer from high costs, high friction, long processing times, lack of 24/7 settlement, and complex backend processes. In addition, they often require fees ( for bundling unnecessary additional services such as identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and banking integration.

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

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

• Real-time settlement: Transactions are nearly completed instantaneously, eliminating delays in traditional banking systems.
• Safe and Reliable: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures transaction security and transparency, providing protection for users.
• Cost reduction: Eliminating intermediaries significantly lowers transaction fees, saving expenses for users.
• Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets that are underserved by traditional financial services, including unbanked populations, achieving financial inclusion.

2. Stablecoin Payment Industry Landscape

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 developing 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, facilitating transactions between buyers and sellers.

Renowned 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 with cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY into other stablecoins, such as USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Certain payment applications, certain electronic wallets, certain mobile payment applications, certain digital banks, certain online banks and 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 some overlap existing.

1### payment gateway for developers; 2( payment gateway for consumers. Most payment gateway providers tend to focus more on one of these categories, thus shaping their core products, user experience, and target markets.

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 Interface )API(, Software Development Kit )SDK), and developer tools for integration into existing payment systems, enabling features such as automatic payments, stablecoin wallets, virtual accounts, and real-time settlements. Some emerging projects focused on providing such developer tools include:

• A payment infrastructure: provides enterprise-level payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. The company offers API solutions to seamlessly connect processes, has a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, and allows enterprises to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies through enterprise accounts, as well as merchant services that provide the tools needed for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. Processing over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a growth rate of 200% year-on-year, a valuation of $750 million, and clients including emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
• A certain API provider ) testing phase (: provides an API to seamlessly integrate stablecoin transactions into its existing business. 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 (.
• A cross-border payment platform: offers a range of corporate payment, payroll, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including Nigerian Naira )NGN(, Canadian Dollar )CAD(, US Dollar )USD(, Tether )USDT(, USDC )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 currency deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects focusing on providing users with this simple payment experience include:

• A certain blockchain-based banking platform: enabling personal consumption, remittances, and stablecoin transactions in over 184 countries; the platform collaborates with local channels, including a well-known remittance company, in Latin America to achieve almost zero withdrawal fees, has over 10,000 South American users, and is highly rated among developers of a certain public blockchain.
• Certain deposit and withdrawal solution: The deposit and withdrawal solution is directly integrated with merchants, allowing users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoin with minimal friction. The platform also supports purchasing USDC through a certain mobile payment application, simplifying the process for consumers to acquire stablecoins.
• A certain mobile payment application: The stablecoin wallet feature of this application 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 cryptocurrencies or stablecoins at traditional merchants. These cards are typically integrated with traditional credit card networks ), such as a major payment network or an international payment organization (, enabling seamless transactions by automatically converting cryptocurrency assets into fiat currency at the point of sale.

The project includes:

• A certain Asian issuer: The Asian issuer has multiple corporate clients and sells white-label solutions, primarily relying on transaction volume for commissions. ), for example, a certain enterprise receives 85% - issuer 15%. ( Collaborating with Hong Kong banks, it can cover most areas outside the United States and supports multi-chain deposits; by July 2024, the transaction volume reached $30M.
• Some American card issuers: American card issuers support multiple companies in 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 costs using on-chain assets ) such as USDC(.
• A European card issuer: European card issuer + web3 bank, the business model is similar to the above two, supporting multiple companies to issue cards; Swiss license, mainly serving European + Asian users, currently does not support full-chain transactions and can only recharge on a certain public chain. Growth is slow with a total of 20,000 users and a monthly income of $100K-150K.
• Certain U Card: A U Card that is growing rapidly on a certain public chain, currently issuing over 10,000 cards, with 5-6k monthly active users, a trading volume of $7m and revenue of $200k in December 2024.
• A certain stablecoin ecosystem: The stablecoin ecosystem has recently launched a credit card that supports stablecoins and provides a software development kit for ease of L1 and L2 integration. There is no data available for the testing phase.

There are many cryptocurrency card providers, and they mainly differ in terms of service areas and supported currencies, usually providing low-fee services to end users to enhance their enthusiasm for using cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Layer Two: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin tech 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 serve as a crucial intermediary layer in the payment lifecycle, connecting Web3 payments with traditional financial systems.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

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

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination with Operators

• A certain stablecoin issuance platform: The core products of this platform include a coordination API and an 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 important partnerships with the U.S. State Department and the Treasury, possessing strong compliance operational capabilities and resource advantages.
• A certain stablecoin service platform ### is in the testing phase (: Similar to the products of the above platform, it is a regulated stablecoin issuance platform that provides stablecoin coordination and reserve management APIs. It has compliance licenses in various states in the United States, and partner companies are required to pass KYB ) corporate identity verification (, while users need to set up accounts on the platform for KYC. The platform's clients are mostly on-chain OGs ), such as certain well-known projects, which are slightly less backed by investors and BD compared to the above platform.
• A certain stablecoin issuance platform ( is in the testing phase ): This platform's product encourages users to provide concentrated liquidity in a single pool, lowering the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins. The product employs a "central hub-radiation" model, where USD* acts as the central reserve asset, serving as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism allows for the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of various stablecoins linked to different assets or jurisdictions, with each stablecoin acting as similar "spokes" connected to USD*. Through this system structure, the product ensures deep liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as smaller stablecoins can interoperate via USD* without needing to provide decentralized 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. Third Layer: Asset Issuer

Asset issuers are responsible for creating, maintaining, and redeeming stablecoins. Their business model typically centers around the balance sheet, similar to how banks operate - accepting customer deposits and investing the funds in high-yield assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds to earn a spread. In