More stablecoins, more users

Firstly: do people actually want to be paid in stablecoins? With more than $160bn stablecoins now in circulation globally, they’re increasingly being used for payments with $7tn in stablecoins settled on blockchains in 2023. Stablecoin users meanwhile are growing month on month. In the last 30 days there were 31 million unique stablecoin users: the majority (8 in 10) are sending and receiving Tether’s stablecoin, USDT, and the remaining are mostly using Circle’s stablecoin, USDC.

It’s clear also that stablecoin adoption isn’t spread evenly across the globe. There is heavy adoption in the world’s fastest-growing economies. If your supplier or customer is based in Latin America for example, there’s a 1 in 3 chance that they will have already used stablecoins to pay for something, according to this Mastercard study.

Growing global adoption is a key reason that gaming businesses are adding stablecoins into their cashiers. But as more businesses start to receive stablecoins, and understand their benefits, they are choosing to pay out with them too.

Let’s look at 3 key use cases for stablecoin payouts in Gaming.

1. Paying out winnings 

If your business is already receiving deposits in stablecoins you might hold a portion of that balance to pay winnings back out to customers. Some of our larger gaming clients are comfortable to manage modest stablecoin balances each month to cover payouts and avoid additional currency conversion fees.

But many businesses I speak to prefer not to hold a balance in stablecoins at all, to mitigate risk or because they don’t have the set-up to manage compliance for them. In those cases, if you’re working with a payments partner like BVNK who enables access to both fiat currencies and stablecoins, you can request that customer deposits are automatically converted to fiat. 

Then, when you’re ready to pay out stablecoins (or other cryptocurrencies) as winnings to players, your partner converts and pays out as needed. All of this can be done with simple integration – and automated through API.

For many businesses, knowing their balance is kept in euros or GBP in a safeguarded and named virtual IBAN, provides valuable peace of mind.

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2. Paying game providers, tech partners or affiliates

The gaming supply chain is complex, including sportsbook providers, game developers, tech platforms, payment agents, affiliates and more. It’s this global network that allows gaming businesses to thrive internationally. But suppliers need to be paid, and that isn’t always easy, because of longstanding challenges with the cost and speed of traditional cross-border payment methods.

So, how can you pay a supplier in stablecoins? Let me share an example. One of our customers is a global business that provides affiliate and performance marketing services to gaming operators. To receive payment faster, they often request their clients pay them in stablecoins like USDT, but prefer not to hold on to them. Instead BVNK receives the stablecoins and settles them in their chosen fiat currency: euros. 

This customer also has their own global network of suppliers, including publishers and streamers, who may ask to be paid in stablecoins. In these cases:

1. Customer creates a payout link in the BVNK platform 
2. They send it to the supplier. 
3. With that link, their supplier can choose which stablecoin or other cryptocurrency they would like to receive payment in
4. BVNK converts and pays out instantly. 

The fees for this conversion can be paid by the payer or the payee, depending on our customer’s preference. 

This kind of use case is increasingly common among gaming businesses who want the benefit of stablecoins, but prefer not to have direct exposure.

3. Paying global contractors 

The final use case we see at BVNK is employee payroll. Specifically: paying contractors like software developers, in emerging markets like South East Asia. Paying out to some of these markets using traditional systems like Swift is not always reliable (payments may be rejected and returned), is often costly, and can take up to a week. Contractors may choose to be paid in stablecoins to ensure prompt payment, or simply as a hedge against local currency volatility.  

While there are challenges in managing ‘pay as you earn’ tax to governments via stablecoin payments, so far stablecoins have mainly been used to pay self-employed individuals (eg consultants, contractors), who are typically responsible for paying their own taxes. According to Deel, ‘employer of record’ fintech, 4% of its global contract workforce took payment in crypto in 2022.  

Flexibility across currencies is key

These examples highlight the benefits that stablecoins bring and their increasing use in payments globally. 

But to benefit from the speed and efficiency of stablecoin payments today, flexibility is critical. As a business, you need the ability to move between fiat and stablecoins according to the demand you see from customers and suppliers, as well as your own preferences for managing risk and cost.

BVNK partners with many providers in Gaming to give them access to stablecoins in a way that works for them. Learn more about how we enable stablecoin payouts for customers.