Blockchain for cross-border payments: an overview 

Blockchains and cryptocurrencies have emerged as a viable alternative to traditional cross-border payment and settlement methods.

When we think about payments products, there's generally four key criteria we use to judge effectiveness: speed, cost, reliability, and convenience. Blockchain and stablecoins have some clear advantages but also several trade offs as compared to traditional payment rails:

• Speed: stablecoins are faster than traditional rails like ACH and Swift wire transfers, offering near instant settlement globally and 24/7 availability.
• Cost: they're cheaper than cards, but can be less predictable due to gas fees.
• Reliability: generally strong, but dependent on the blockchain stability on which they run.
• Convenience: they require crypto wallets, making them less intuitive for mainstream users as compared to cards and bank transfers
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For cross border B2B payments, stablecoins can be a game changer. But for everyday consumer transactions, cards still dominate, due to their convenience and acceptance, particularly in markets like the US.

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Stablecoins in 2025 are like early cloud computing. Powerful, but not yet seamless for all use cases. Businesses are still figuring out how to plug in and the setup can be complex. Legacy banking and payment systems are well-understood, while concepts of blockchains, keys and wallets are still unfamiliar. 

But just as cloud eliminated the need for businesses to run their own servers, stablecoins will abstract away the fragmented payment rails. Money will move like data, instant, programmable, and borderless. Over time, middlemen will disappear, costs will compress, and stablecoins will be the invisible engine behind global payments.

The state of the industry 

Stablecoins are scaling faster than any other global payment rail today. Total supply has gone from $5 billion to north of $220 billion in just over 5 years.

There was $32 trillion of transaction volume in stablecoins in 2024 alone. If we focus on just the payments use cases, that's around $6 trillion or 3 percent of the estimated total $195 trillion in global cross border payments volume today.

In the next five years, we expect this 3 percent of global cross-border payments volume to grow to 20 percent, making stablecoin payments a $60 trillion payments opportunity.

Today, incumbent banks and financial institutions are as likely as fintech disruptors to be developing blockchain-enabled payment solutions and exploring digital assets like stablecoin. From Visa's Tokenized Asset Platform and Worldpay partnering with BVNK to enable stablecoin payouts, to Bank of America's plans to launch its own stablecoin – adoption of blockchain technology in financial services is growing.

4 flavours of blockchain payment infrastructure

Companies will want to use blockchains and tokens in various ways, depending on their appetite for control, flexibility and interoperability with other payment and financial systems. 

If you're looking to transact over blockchains, you can either partner with a payment provider like BVNK who can enable this as a managed service for you, build your own solution and custody your own digital assets using out-the box infrastructure like Layer1, or build entirely from scratch on top of public blockchain networks.

When it comes to partnering, there are four categories of blockchain payment provider to know about:

• Provider owns blockchain, and offers a native token - eg Ripple/XRP
• Provider owns blockchain but is token agnostic - eg Stellar
• Provider is blockchain agnostic but has native token - eg Circle/USDC
• Provider enables multiple blockchains and and tokens - eg BVNK

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BVNK is a fintech that unifies bank and blockchain payment rails to enable enterprises like Deel, Rapyd and Worldpay to accelerate global money movement. We support our customers to make cross-border payments in a number of ways, including:

• Paying out stablecoins to international partners, freelancers and customers, from a fiat balance on the BVNK platform.
• Accepting stablecoins from customers and partners globally while auto-converting it to USD, EUR and GBP in the BVNK platform.
• Using our Layer1 orchestration infrastructure to create a ‘stablecoin sandwich’ that combines the best of fiat and stablecoin rails.

How blockchain works in cross-border payments

Blockchains are not a payment technology, but payments are one application of blockchains. A decentralised blockchain is, by definition, territory agnostic – anyone with an internet connection and a blockchain wallet can send and receive cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Making a blockchain payment doesn't require access to local banking.

‍Consumers often create crypto wallets via centralised exchanges like Coinbase who custody their crypto assets.

Businesses often work with a licensed stablecoin payments partner who provides hosted wallets as well as added value services like auto-conversion to traditional currencies, reconciliation features and reporting.

Example of a B2B cross-border payment:

1. A business' supplier in Singapore has chosen to receive USDC stablecoin as a form pf payment.
2. The business executive logs into their payment portal (eg the BVNK platform) and clicks 'Send', enters the wallet address of their supplier, the currency and amount they want to send. They're shown any fees charged. Depending on their setup, they can choose to make a stablecoin payment from a fiat account on the platform or from a stablecoin wallet.
3. They hit send and their fintech partner submits that payment to the blockchain. The transaction is checked by blockchain nodes to ensure the business has enough coins to make the payment. The transaction is submitted to a block, awaiting miners to validate it.  A transaction is typically approved after a validated block has been certified by three nodes. 
4. The transaction is completed and recorded on the blockchain – in less than a few minutes.
5. Back in the business' platform, the payment status is updated and their balance updated. This entire process can also be automated with an API.

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Example of a C2B cross-border payment:

1. At the checkout or other payment gateway the merchant offers a crypto payment option (eg through an integration with a stablecoin payment provider like BVNK)
2. The customer selects this option, selects the digital currency they want to pay with and their preferred blockchain network. They agrees the exchange rate, and are presented with a public address for the merchant. 
3. The customer opens their crypto wallet and sends funds to the merchant's public address, also paying the blockchain’s processing fee. 
4. The transaction request is submitted to the blockchain and checked by nodes to ensure the customer has enough coins to make the payment. 
5. The transaction is submitted to a block, awaiting miners to validate it. A transaction is typically approved after a validated block has been certified by three nodes. The transaction is completed and recorded on the blockchain.
6. The customer sees a success message on the checkout page, and their wallet balance is updated.

These payment flows are enabled by a range of features that are inherent to blockchains:

Decentralised and accessible
on a blockchain, no single organisation is in charge. Compare that with traditional payments, which run across centrally controlled card and banking networks. The owners of these networks can decide who gets access, and how much to charge merchants and customers for using them. Those without permission get locked out, resulting in merchants unable to take payments, or customers unable to pay. Decentralised blockchains are permissible by default. The only entry requirements are an internet connection and a smartphone or computer.

24/7/365 accessibility
Blockchains operate 24/7/365 – meaning payments can be sent over weekends, during bank holidays and outside normal banking hours.

Trust by consensus
The role of nodes, miners and the consensus mechanism eliminates the need to trust in a single authority. Instead, the blockchain relies on the collective incentive of users to maintain the integrity and security of the system. 

Built-in redundancy 
There are thousands of network participants in any given blockchain and each one maintains a complete copy of that blockchain ledger. This is unlike traditional databases where information is typically stored in a central location. Even if dozens of participants (or ‘nodes’ as they are known) go offline at the same time, blockchain operations continue.

Transparent
Public addresses provide a completely transparent record of all transactions from the start of the blockchain. This allows businesses to easily analyse transactions across any given period, and track the historic flow of funds from originator to beneficiary. 

Encrypted
The words ‘encryption’ and ‘crypto’ share a common root: ‘crypt’. It relates to cryptography, or the practice of anonymising and protecting sensitive data. Cryptocurrencies and blockchains use encryption to make transactions anonymous and secure. Using blockchain cryptography, two parties can complete a transaction without sharing their own information or having to use an intermediary such as a bank. 

Key use cases for blockchain and stablecoins in cross-border payments

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At BVNK we process $12 billion in annualised stablecoin payments volumes. Here are some of the most common use cases we see.


B2B use cases:

Treasury flows and intra-company payments

To meet operational and regulatory liquidity requirements, a company's treasury department will need to move money around its organisation. When these flows involve moving money between national banking systems, blockchains can be faster than traditional payment rails. And when using fiat-pegged stablecoin, businesses can overcome the liquidity challenges associated with moving funds from emerging markets and avoid having to prefund various banks accounts around the world.

Supplier invoices

Blockchain and stablecoin rails can streamline supply chain payments, enabling you to pay supplier and partners around the world near instantly.

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Merchant settlement

Payment service providers and fintechs like Worldpay and Visa may settle their crypto industry business customers or other international merchants in stablecoins to speed up delivery of funds.

PSP settlement

Payment service providers in different countries may settle between each other to speed up the middle part of a cross-border transactions – sometimes know as the 'stablecoin sandwich'. Eg a PSP collects local funds on behalf of its merchants in one country, converts those to stablecoins and sends instantly to its partner PSP in another country. That PSP converts to a major fiat currency like USD or EUR and settles its merchant via local banking rails.

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C2C, C2B and B2C use cases:

Ecommerce and luxury payments

Blockchain payments provide a popular, secure and transparent method for online purchase – especially for high value purchases. Brands and retailers industries like travel, luxury and ecommerce are increasingly enabling customers to pay in stablecoins or crypto to increase their global reach and tap into new crypto-native audiences.

Consumer deposits/withdrawals

• FX brokers and trading platforms enable their traders to despoit in cryptocurrencies or stablecoins, or withdraw earnings in them.
• iGaming platforms enable their international players to top up their accounts in cryptocurrencies or stablecoins, or withdraw winnings in them.

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Wage payouts

Payroll and employer of record platforms like Deel are enabling international workers to withdraw their wages in stablecoins or crypto.

Marketplace seller payouts

Global marketplaces are enabling sellers in different countries to withdraw their earnings in stablecoins or crypto to get access to their funds sooner.

Remittances

Blockchain-based payment solutions can streamline the process of remittances, enabling faster and cheaper transfers of funds. This is particularly relevant when money is being transferred to  countries with high-levels of financial exclusion. Of the top 20 countries where cryptocurrencies are most widely used for payment, ten are lower middle income (Vietnam, Philippines, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, Nepal, Kenya, and Indonesia).

Micropayments

A micropayment is a small, online transaction, usually under $10 and as little as one cent. Examples of micropayments include royalties, tips, pay-per-click advertising, one-off access to specific content, and verification of a credit card of bank account. Blockchain technology enables efficient and secure micropayments, allowing for low-value transactions that were previously not feasible due to high transaction fees associated with traditional payment systems. What’s more, units of cryptos can be shrunk (eg in bitcoin 1 ‘sat’ is worth 0.00000001 of a bitcoin), enabling micropayments and micro loans that foster new economic activity.

Crowdfunding and charity payments

Blockchain-based payment systems can facilitate decentralised crowdfunding, allowing individuals around the world to contribute funds directly to projects or initiatives without the need for intermediaries, while ensuring transparency and accountability.

Benefits of using blockchain for cross-border payments 

The unique technology of blockchains, and their separation from traditional banking and payment networks, provides businesses with a number of benefits when making cross-border transactions.

Meeting customer demand

By offering it as a payment method, businesses can reach new markets and demographics, especially where traditional banking is hard to access. Today, it is estimated that 650 million people around the world own cryptocurrency in 2025. And increasingly, they are seeing their crypto as more than just an investment to hold. Of those owners, 93% would consider making purchases with it. Iconic brands and retailers have added cryptocurrencies to their accepted payment methods over the decade – from Starbucks and Tesla to Whole Foods and Ferrari. They find that up to 40% of customers that pay with a cryptocurrency are new to them; and that their purchases are twice as valuable as credit card transactions. 

Fast, always-on settlement

Settling money internationally using banking systems like Swift can take several days, particularly when moving funds in and out of emerging markets. Finance teams have to resort to pre-funding or suffer cash flow pressures. Settlement on blockchains can be near instantaneous and carried out 24/7, eradicating the cash flow gap between the costs of selling and revenues from sales. 

Stablecoins replace the messaging layer (Swift) and the money movement layer (the correspondent banking system). So if you're a BVNK customer for example, we make this payment for you in a matter of minutes – using a stablecoin to accelerate the middle part of the payment journey.

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Predictable

Blockchain settlements are full and final. Once completed they become an immutable part of the blockchain ledger meaning there are no chargebacks in blockchain payments. This can protect businesses from significant lost revenue, and operational burden associated with processing chargebacks. It also removes the potential for chargeback fraud.

Secure

Blockchains are a proven technology for securely transacting and recording small and large amounts of cryptocurrencies every day. The volumes of stablecoins being transferred daily on the major blockchains is evidence of a reliable and trusted medium of exchange in operation. Cryptocurrencies and blockchains use encryption to make transactions anonymous and secure. Using blockchain cryptography, two parties can complete a transaction without sharing their own information or having to use an intermediary such as a bank.

Adoption ease

An entire blockchain-enabled payments operation can be outsourced to a third-party like BVNK, giving businesses all the benefits of offering cryptocurrency payments with none of the complexities of running it themselves or compliance obligations of holding digital assets on their balance sheet.

Transparency and traceability

Blockchain transactions don't directly reveal personal information, they do allow for the traceability of transactions through public addresses and the publication of immutable records. This provides a high degree of visibility on the status of a payment, and aids payment reconciliation, financial record-keeping and analysis. A distributed public ledger combined with blockchain analytics tools also provide a powerful tool to track the provenance of funds, and detect and prevent illicit payments activity.  

Cost efficiency

Blockchains allow for straight-through processing between payer and payee (though in reality third-parties, such as wallet providers and fintechs, are commonly used.) In comparison, traditional cross-border payment systems can require multiple intermediary banks (also known as ‘corresponding’ banks) to support the path of a payment, which add settlement time and costs. One study found that blockchain-enabled cross-border payments could save businesses $10 billion by 2030. If you’re converting in and out of fiat currencies, also known as ‘on- and off-ramping’, there are additional costs involved, but businesses can still achieve significant savings, depending on the provider and currencies involved.

Challenges of using blockchain for cross-border payments  

Despite their advantages, blockchains are still a young technology – set up can be complex and buisnesses are still figuring out how to plug in.

Some of the following issues will be solved naturally with time and the evolution of the technology, while some of the complexity can be mitigated by working with trusted partners that take on complexity and risk.  

Volatility and price stability

For finance teams holding digital assets on their balance sheet, there is volatility risk associated with fluctuating prices. The advent of stablecoins pegged to assets like dollars has helped to mitigate this risk. While there are incidences of stablecoins temporarily losing their peg, major asset-backed stablecoins have proven their utility with a market capitalisation at around $300bn, making them an attractive option for finance and payment teams. Many businesses also choose to work with partners who collect cryptocurrency on their behalf and settle them in fiat.

Network effects

The global economy still runs on fiat. And stablecoins have just not reached critical mass yet. While US dollar stablecoins can be used to protect savings from local currency inflation, expenses like groceries and utilities still need to be settled in local currencies. Consider working with a payment partner that enables both fiat and crypto/stablecoins payments, so you have more flexibility on how you use these rails. For example, this can enable you to pay a supplier in stablecoins from a fiat balance, or receive stablecoins from a partner, but auto-convert them to USD.

Technical knowledge

Blockchain payments require users to have a certain level of technical expertise and familiarity with digital wallets and cryptographic keys. The complexity of the user experience, especially securing private keys and protecting digital wallets, can be a barrier to widespread adoption. Working with an expert payment partner like BVNK can help here.

Regulatory  compliance

The regulatory picture for digital assets is evolving quickly and still inconsistent globally – which can make the rules of engagement complex for businesses. A number of comprehensive regulatory regimes have emerged for crypto over the last few years including MiCA in the EU. While they differ in specifics, they all focus on a set of core principles: customer protection, market stability and market integrity. Regulators look to achieve these outcomes through:

• licensing and registration to ensure crypto service providers are being overseen
• rules on how businesses can promote crypto to consumers
• AML compliance rules to make sure that providers are carrying out customer due diligence, transaction monitoring and reporting.

Working with a licensed crypto asset service provider can enable businesses to leverage crypto and stablecoins payment rails, without needing to be licensed themselves.
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AML compliance

Anti-money laundering rules are the foundations of all financial services regulation. Global Anti-Money Laundering AML and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) rules apply to both traditional and crypto payments. Hundreds of jurisdictions around the world have enacted AML rules for crypto which follow guidance from the global watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

If you’re working with a partner to process crypto payments, you’ll need to get comfortable with their approach to AML. Rules on AML for crypto do differ slightly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction – for example payment thresholds can change – but core obligations remain the same. For example, licensed or registered crypto service providers must:

• have an effective financial crime control framework in place
• carry out enhanced due diligence on your customers
• monitor transactions and report any suspicious activity. 

Crypto payment providers must also adhere to Travel Rule requirements, securely sharing information with their counterparty provider, about who is sending the payment and who the payment is intended for. The good news is that AML compliance can be just as effective, if not more effective, for crypto as it is for fiat – if you work with the right partners and combine it with the right tools and practices.

Interoperability

Achieving seamless interoperability between different blockchain systems, or between blockchains and existing payment and financial software, can pose a challenge. Some fintechs offer a proprietary blockchain (eg Ripple) and/or token (eg XRP), while other providers integrate with multiple blockchains and are token and currency agnostic (eg BVNK). Providers like BVNK can help address this challenge: we’ve built an extensive API layer that allows businesses to move funds seamlessly between different networks.

Energy consumption

Blockchain networks that rely on proof-of-work consensus mechanisms, such as bitcoin, consume substantial amounts of energy. The environmental impact of energy-intensive blockchain operations can be a concern for businesses that are obligated to meet climate impact benchmarks. 

How to add blockchain to your cross-border payments strategy

​​Businesses that use blockchain to make and receive cross-border payments may not want to hold crypto assets on their balance sheets. They also understand that crypto payments are about much more than simply processing a transaction on a blockchain. Creating the perfect customer experiences and maintaining regulatory compliance are two crucial aspects that must be invested in, and can quickly suck up resources.

So how can businesses balance the opportunities with the risks and required resources?

In the last decade, the rise of new payment processing companies and fintechs has shown what can be achieved by offloading complexity to experts and mitigating risks through a third party. The same lessons can be applied to enabling blockchain payments.

Working with a regulated partner allows a business to:

• Avoid having to be licensed for crypto assets – pass on the burden of regulatory compliance
• Ringfence digitial assets from your treasury
• Mitigate operational overheads
• Avoid the fixed costs of inhouse development
• Secure more competitive cryptocurrency exchange rates and hold these prices to avoid margin slippage.

Partners can help businesses go at their own pace. Some may simply want to offer cryptocurrency at the checkout or payment gateway, and then automatically settle in fiat, so the cryptocurrency never hits their balance sheet.

Businesses may want to use cryptocurrency as an intermediary currency to process fiat-to-fiat settlements. Stablecoins can be an effective method for this, because their price is relatively stable and there is plenty of liquidity. This can be particularly beneficial when moving funds out of emerging markets.

Others will want to go all in, with crypto wallets from which they can trade and pay others. So breadth of capability should be a key criteria for selecting the right blockchain payments partner.

Additionally, the fintech partner can advise and enable multi-rail payments. This allows a business to leverage the most effective infrastructure for specific situations and markets, using a mix of blockchain and fiat systems in isolation, in parallel, or in conjunction to optimise for speed and cost. For example, BVNK's Layer1 infrastructure enables businesses and fintechs to combine fiat and stablecoin payment rails to speed up global payments.

Conclusion 

‍The stablecoin payments industry has witnessed remarkable growth in the realm of cross-border transactions. By offering faster settlements, reduced costs and enhanced security, blockchain technology is transforming the way businesses process payments and move money  internationally.

With increasing adoption by financial institutions and customers, maturing regulations and standards, and innovations that layer on more speed and scalability, the future of blockchain in cross-border payments looks bright.