Author: Josh Solesbury (ParaFi investor) Translator: Azuma
Catalyzed by Stripe's acquisition of Bridge and the progress of the GENIUS Act, headlines related to stablecoins have exploded in the past six months. From CEOs of large banks to product managers of payment companies to senior 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 reducing working capital requirements);
Extremely low transaction costs (especially compared to the SWIFT system);
Global accessibility (24/7, only requires an internet connection);
Programmability (money driven by extensible coded logic).
These pillars perfectly explain the advantages of stablecoins touted in various headlines, blog posts and interviews. So while the “why we need stablecoins” argument is easy to understand, the “how to use stablecoins” argument is much more complicated — there is currently very little content that specifically explains how to integrate stablecoins into existing business models, whether it is a product manager at a fintech company or a bank CEO.
Based on this, we decided to write this high-level guide to provide a primer for non-crypto companies exploring the use of stablecoins. The following will be divided into four separate chapters corresponding to different business models. Each chapter will provide a detailed analysis of where stablecoins can create value, what the specific implementation path is, and a schematic diagram of the transformed product architecture.
At the end of the day, headlines are important, but what we are really looking for is the large-scale application of stablecoins — to make stablecoins a large-scale use in real business scenarios. I hope this article can be a small stepping stone to achieve this vision. Now, let’s take a deep dive into how non-crypto companies can use stablecoins today.
For digital banks that target consumers (To C), the key to improving corporate value lies in optimizing the following three levers: user scale, revenue per user (ARPU), and user churn rate. Stablecoins can currently directly help the first two indicators - by integrating partners' infrastructure, digital banks can launch stablecoin-based remittance services, which can not only reach new user groups, but also add revenue channels for existing customers.
Under the two decades-long trends of digital interconnection and globalization, today's target markets for fintech often have multinational characteristics. Some digital banks position cross-border financial services as their core (such as Revolut or DolarApp), while others use it as a functional module to increase 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 rigid demand of the target market. All these types of digital banks will (or have) benefited from stablecoin remittances.
Compared to traditional remittance services (such as Western Union), stablecoins can achieve faster (instant arrival vs. 2-5 days or more) and cheaper (as low as 30 basis points vs. 300 basis points or more) settlement. For example, DolarApp only charges $3 to send US dollars to Mexico and the payment is received in real time. This explains why the penetration rate of stablecoin payments has reached 10-20% in some remittance corridors (such as the US-Mexico corridor) and continues to grow.
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 settlement: bank closures cause settlement to be delayed by two days. Digital banks that pursue real-time services and ultimate experience have to fill the gap by providing working capital credit, which not only generates capital opportunity costs (especially heavy in the current interest rate environment), but also may force companies to raise additional financing. The instant settlement and global accessibility of stablecoins completely solve this problem. Robinhood, one of the world's largest financial technology platforms, is a typical example. Its CEO Vlad Tenev made it clear in the February 2025 earnings call: "We are using stablecoins to handle a large number of weekend settlements, and the scale of application continues to expand."
Therefore, it is not surprising that consumer-oriented financial technology companies such as Revolut and Robinhood have deployed stablecoins. So, if you work in a consumer bank or financial technology company, how can you use stablecoins?
After the introduction of stablecoins in this business model, the practical plan is as follows.
Use stablecoins such as USDC, USDT, USDG to achieve instant settlement (including holidays);
Integrate wallet service provider/coordinator combination (such as Fireblocks or Bridge) to open up the US dollar/stablecoin flow between the banking system and the blockchain;
Connect with legal currency channel service providers (such as Yellow Card in Africa) in specific regions to achieve B2B/B2B2C exchange of stablecoins and legal currency;
Use stablecoins as a temporary substitute for legal currency during weekends, and complete reconciliation after the bank system is restarted;
Can work with suppliers such as Paxos to build an internal stablecoin settlement loop between customer accounts and enterprises;
Through the above solutions or liquidity partners, bypass the ACH/telegraphic transfer process and quickly transfer funds to exchanges/partners;
When the fiat currency channel is closed, funds between business units/subsidiaries can be allocated through on-chain stablecoin transfers;
Headquarters can use this to establish an automated and scalable global fund management system;
In addition to these basic functions, a new generation of banks based entirely on the concept of "24/7, instant, and composable finance" can be envisioned. Remittance and settlement are just the starting point, and subsequent scenarios such as programmable payment, cross-border asset management, and stock tokenization will also be derived. Such companies will win the market with their ultimate user experience, rich product matrix, and lower cost structure.
Currently, business owners in markets such as Nigeria, Indonesia, and Brazil must overcome numerous obstacles to open a US dollar account at a local bank. Usually only companies with large transaction volumes or special relationships are eligible - and this is also premised on the bank's sufficient US dollar liquidity. Local currency accounts force entrepreneurs to take on both bank risk and government credit risk, and they have to keep a close eye on exchange rate fluctuations to maintain working capital. When paying overseas suppliers, business owners also need to pay high fees for converting local currency into mainstream currencies such as the US dollar.
Stablecoins can significantly alleviate these frictions, and forward-looking commercial banks will play a key role in their application. Through a bank-custodial compliant digital dollar platform (such as USDC or USDG), companies can achieve:
Hold multiple currency balances without establishing multiple banking relationships;
Cross-border invoices are settled in seconds (bypassing the traditional correspondent bank network);
Stable currency deposits earn interest;
Commercial banks can use this to upgrade basic checking accounts to global multi-currency fund management solutions, providing speed, transparency and financial resilience that traditional accounts cannot match.
After the introduction of stablecoins to this business model, the practical plan is as follows.
Banks host stablecoins for enterprises through partners such as Fireblocks or Stripe-Bridge;
Reduce startup and operating costs (such as reducing license requirements and exempting FBO accounts);
Banks can provide returns at the level of the federal funds rate (about 4%), and the credit risk is significantly lower than that of local banks (US-regulated money funds vs. local banks);
Need to connect to interest-bearing stablecoin suppliers (such as Paxos) or tokenized treasury bond partners (such as Superstate/Securitize).
For details, please refer to the consumer finance sector plan above.
Importers pay for goods in US dollars in seconds, and overseas exporters release goods immediately;
Corporate financial officers transfer funds across multiple countries in real time, getting rid of the delays of the correspondent bank system, making it possible for banks to serve super-large multinational groups;
Business owners in high-inflation countries use US dollars to anchor their corporate balance sheets.
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 in countries with backward financial infrastructure will bring significant costs to payroll platforms - these costs are either absorbed by the platform itself, passed on to employers, or deducted from contractors' remuneration reluctantly. The most accessible opportunity for payroll providers is to open stablecoin payment channels.
As described in the previous section, cross-border stablecoin transfers from the U.S. financial system to contractors’ digital wallets are almost zero-cost and instantaneous (depending on the configuration of the fiat currency entry). Although contractors may still need to complete their own fiat currency conversion (which will incur fees), they can receive payments instantly in the world’s strongest fiat currency. There is multiple evidence that demand for stablecoins is surging in emerging markets:
Users are willing to pay an average premium of about 4.7% to obtain US dollar stablecoins;
In countries such as Argentina, this premium can be as high as 30%;
Stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular among contractors and freelancers in regions such as Latin America;
Applications focusing on freelancers, such as Airtm, have seen exponential growth in stablecoin usage and user growth;
More importantly, the user base has already been formed: in the past 12 months, more than 250 million digital wallets have actively used stablecoins, and more and more people are willing to accept stablecoin payments.
In addition to speed and end-user cost savings, stablecoins also have many benefits for corporate clients (i.e. paying customers) who use payroll services. First, stablecoins are significantly 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 processes are confusing. Second, the process of executing payroll payments today often involves a lot of manual work, which consumes finance department resources. In addition to the payment execution itself, there are a range of other matters to consider, from accounting to tax to bank reconciliation, and stablecoins are programmable and have a built-in ledger (blockchain), which significantly improves automation capabilities (such as batch scheduled payments) and accounting capabilities (such as automatic smart contract calculations, withholding and record systems).
In this case, how should payroll platforms enable stablecoin payment functions?
The above content has been covered.
Work with stablecoin-based card issuance platforms (such as Rain) to allow end users to directly consume stablecoins, thereby fully inheriting their speed and cost advantages;
Work with wallet providers to provide stablecoin savings and income opportunities.
Use the blockchain's immutable ledger characteristics to automatically synchronize transaction records to accounting and tax systems through API data interfaces to automate withholding, bookkeeping and reconciliation processes.
Use smart contracts to enable automated batch payments and programmable payments based on specific conditions (such as bonuses). Can work with platforms such as Airtm or use smart contracts directly.
Connect DeFi base protocols to provide wage-based financing services in an affordable and globally accessible way. In some countries, local bank partners that are often cumbersome, closed and expensive can be bypassed. Applications such as Glim (and indirectly Lemon) are working to provide these features.
Based on the above scheme, let's further explain the specific implementation method:
Payroll processing platforms that support stablecoins work with US fiat currency portals (such as Bridge, Circle, Beam) to connect bank accounts with stablecoins. Before the payment date, funds are transferred from customer corporate accounts to on-chain stablecoin accounts (these accounts can be custodied by the above companies or institutions such as Fireblocks). Payments are fully automated and broadcast in batches to all contractors around the world. Contractors receive USD stablecoins instantly and can spend them through Visa cards that support stablecoins (such as Rain) or save them through tokenized treasury bonds in on-chain accounts (such as USTB or BUIDL). With this new architecture, the overall cost of the system has been significantly reduced, the coverage of contractors has been greatly expanded, and the degree of system automation has been greatly improved.
Currently, many companies are obtaining core income through card issuance. For example, Chime, which just went public on June 12, has achieved an annual revenue of over $1 billion through transaction fees in the US market alone. Although Chime has established a huge business in the United States, its partnership with Visa, bank partnerships and technical architecture can hardly help expand overseas markets.
Traditional card issuance requires applying for direct licenses from institutions such as Visa in each country, or cooperating with local banks. This cumbersome process seriously hinders the cross-regional expansion of enterprises. Take the listed company Nubank as an example. After more than 10 years of operation, it has only started overseas expansion in the past three years.
In addition, card issuers need to pay deposits to card organizations such as Visa to prevent default risks. Card organizations use this to promise merchants such as Walmart that even if banks or fintech companies go bankrupt, cardholders' payments will still be honored. Card organizations will review the transaction volume in the last 4-7 days and calculate the deposit amount that the card issuer needs to pay. This imposes a heavy burden on banks/fintech companies and forms a significant industry entry barrier.
Stablecoins have revolutionized the possibilities of the card issuance business. First, stablecoins are fostering a new class of card issuance platforms, such as Rain, where businesses can leverage their principal membership with Visa to offer global issuance services through stablecoins. Examples include enabling fintech companies to issue cards in Colombia, Mexico, the United States, Bolivia, and many other countries simultaneously. In addition, because stablecoins have 24/7 settlement capabilities, a new class of card issuance partners can now settle on weekends. Weekend settlements greatly reduce the risk of partners, effectively reducing 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 of card issuers.
After the introduction of stablecoins to this business model, the practical solution is as follows.
Work with Visa and card issuers to launch a global card issuance program denominated in US dollars;
1. Flexible card network settlement options;
2. Direct use of stablecoins for settlement (realizing weekend and overnight settlement);
The card network generates a settlement report containing bank account numbers and routing numbers every day, and the stablecoin address will be displayed after using stablecoins;
You can also choose to convert stablecoins back to fiat currency and then settle with the card network;
Reduce collateral requirements (thanks to 24/7 settlement capabilities).
3. The following is a sample process of a global card product architecture that supports stablecoins:
Today, stablecoins are no longer a future promise that requires effort to imagine - they have become practical technologies 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 a necessity.
Those companies that go beyond the proof-of-concept stage and truly integrate and deploy stablecoin solutions will far outpace their competitors in cost savings, revenue growth, and market expansion. It is worth mentioning that the above practical benefits are supported by many existing integration partners and upcoming legislation, both of which will significantly reduce execution risks. Now is the best time to build stablecoin solutions.
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