Are people using stablecoins for payments? 

$7tn in stablecoins were settled on blockchains in 2023 and they’re increasingly being used for payments. 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.

What are the key use cases for stablecoin payments in FX?

Growing global adoption is a key reason that trading platforms are enabling traders to deposit in stablecoins. Brokerages like Deriv and Trade Nation have added stablecoins as a deposit method, to reach new customers and avoid other unreliable payment options.  

But there are compelling reasons to use stablecoins for business payments too, including:

• receiving stablecoins from your local PSPs as a way to repatriate funds promptly, and collect regional deposits more efficiently.
• accelerating cross-border fee and commission payments to your introducing brokers, and paying tech providers and crypto liquidity providers.‍
• paying global contractors in emerging markets quickly, without the need for local banking.

How can you pay out stablecoins, without holding onto them?

While some FX brokerages are comfortable to hold stablecoin balances themselves, to help manage treasury payments or to cover stablecoin withdrawals for customers, many prefer to hold their balances in fiat currencies. 

If you’re working with a multi-rail, multi-currency payments partner like BVNK, you can opt for any stablecoin deposits you receive to be automatically settled into a fiat currency. You can hold those fiat funds in a named virtual IBAN, protected from insolvency in line with regulatory requirements for e-money. When you’re ready to pay out, your partner can convert the funds into stablecoins and pay out as required. 

Are stablecoin payouts scalable and auditable?

There is key functionality you need to manage payments effectively at scale – like the ability to reconcile payments, track payment statuses, carry out regular financial reporting and keep auditable records. So, can you do these things with stablecoin payments?

That depends. This kind of functionality is not always available with a crypto exchange or a self-custody option like Trust wallet for example – managing a high volumes of payments through these solutions is manual and resource-intensive. Partnering with a fully-fledged payments platform like BVNK is a more reliable, efficient alternative. Our clients appreciate for example that they can combine an API approach for payouts to retail customers with a more tailored approach for high-net worth customers.

Flexibility across currencies is key

So, stablecoins can be a convenient new payment option for finance and payment leaders in FX trading. But to benefit from their speed and efficiency, flexibility is critical. Your team needs the ability to move between fiat and stablecoins according to demand, as well as your own preferences for managing risk and cost.

BVNK offers our customers that flexibility. We work with many regulated FX brokers to give them access to stablecoins in a way that works for them. Learn more about how we enable stablecoin payouts.