FXC Intelligence: The Status of Stablecoin Cross-Border Payments in 2025

1. Stablecoin Ecosystem

Although stablecoins are still an emerging technology, they have completed the leap from marginal experiments to mainstream visibility in just a few years.

"The changes over the past 18 months have been particularly drastic," said Chris Mason, co-founder and CEO of B2B stablecoin payment company Orbital. "Those who embraced stablecoins first were often high-risk, high-growth emerging industry players; now, the second wave has arrived - payment service providers and traditional banks are collectively awakening."

Iana Dimitrova, CEO of the fiat financial infrastructure provider OpenPayd, added: "The current explosion is not an overnight success, but rather the result of over 15 years of trial and error and iteration. The market has finally reached a consensus on the practical value of stablecoins, and the technology itself has reached the critical point for scalable commercial use."

1.1 A Brief History of Stablecoins

Stablecoins originated with the launch of cryptocurrency in 2008: a tokenized, decentralized, and tamper-proof digital currency that operates on a blockchain based on distributed ledger technology. Stablecoins initially emerged alongside Bitcoin, which was introduced to the world in October 2008 by an anonymous researcher (pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto) in a paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System."

From the very beginning, Bitcoin has been positioned as an online payment method that does not require financial intermediaries. Although early adopters conducted some limited payment experiments, it gained popularity among internet natives and tech-savvy individuals speculating with cryptocurrency. As interest in Bitcoin grew over the coming years, some began to experiment with its underlying technology for cross-border payments. However, due to the extreme volatility of cryptocurrency prices, a lack of regulation, and some associations with black market activities, many found it difficult to view it as a payment technology.

With the emergence of stablecoins, the situation has changed: stablecoins are a key moment in the development of blockchain technology, and we are currently witnessing their transition from the early internet era to the beginning of the modern digital age.

The first digital currency issued in the form of a stablecoin is BitUSD, which introduced the concept of 1:1 pegging cryptocurrency to fiat currency (referring to the US dollar) in 2014. However, since it is backed by cryptocurrency, it does not fully align with the definition of stablecoin as we understand it today.

Other companies quickly followed suit, but it was Tether that truly introduced the concept of fiat currency reserves, launching USDT later that year. In the following years, the popularity and attention on USDT continued to rise, but it also faced questions regarding transparency and regulation, ultimately prompting Tether to take significant steps to address these issues.

In the early development of stablecoins, developers were gradually understanding the meaning and usage of stablecoins. In 2018, more regulated stablecoins began to emerge, with Paxos launching the current Pax Dollar (USDP) and Circle introducing USD Coin (USDC) through its partnership with Coinbase. These regulated stablecoins, headquartered in the United States, began to gain popularity not only in the cryptocurrency space but also attracted interest from the mainstream financial industry. Meanwhile, participants in the financial infrastructure built on stablecoins also started to emerge, including Fireblocks in 2018 and BVNK in 2021.

However, in 2022 and early 2023, stablecoins faced a significant trust crisis, marked by several shocking events in the industry. First was the sudden collapse of TerraUSD (UST). This is an unconventional algorithmic stablecoin, whose support mechanism is not cash reserves but an algorithm-based mechanism. When its value plummeted significantly from the pegged exchange rate of 1 dollar, panic trading triggered by the "death spiral" also caused the values of some other stablecoins to fluctuate briefly in major markets. Although UST is not a traditional stablecoin, and Circle, Paxos, and other companies tried to distance themselves from algorithmic stablecoins, the damage to the reputation of the entire industry remains substantial.

Despite many participants claiming that their asset reserves could protect them from the above issues and provide peace of mind, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in early 2023 raised new concerns. At the time of the collapse, Circle had approximately $3.3 billion in reserves at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and there was uncertainty about whether these deposits would be guaranteed. This triggered what is known as a "shadow run" as holders feared they would not be able to redeem the stablecoin at a 1:1 price, causing its trading value to plummet to historic lows. Although the U.S. government ultimately did guarantee the reserves of Silicon Valley Bank, and Circle never faced the genuine risk of being unable to redeem its USDC, the reputational damage was more severe, especially for institutions that require stablecoins backed by U.S. reserves with strong backing.

During this crisis, the adoption rate of overseas USDT has continued to rise, while the circulating supply of USDC in the United States has steadily declined throughout 2023. Because of this, a streamlined and more robust industry version has begun to emerge slowly from the ashes of this crisis. Driven by genuine demand in key channels and vertical industries, the trading volume and adoption rate of infrastructure companies continue to rise, leading to corresponding product improvements; while other companies are launching products focused on the true utility of their technology. In the second half of 2023, PayPal launched PayPal USD (PYUSD), casting a critical vote of confidence for the industry; while other companies are focused on educating those who are uncertain about stablecoins to establish regulatory frameworks and increase adoption rates. Orbital CEO Mason stated, "Education is indeed challenging, but people are really starting to understand it."

Starting from early 2024, the circulating supply of USDC has risen again, and the number of newly issued tokens focused on payments has also continued to grow. Recently, Trump's return to the presidency has increased institutional support for the technology, and regulatory measures such as the "GENIUS Act" have been introduced.

Today, with the rapid rise in adoption rates, the cross-border payment industry has also shown strong interest, and there is still further growth potential in the future. However, the fundamental principles of stablecoins are generally similar to the premises originally set by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin whitepaper.

1.2 Growing Interest in Stablecoins in the Cross-Border Payment Sector

With the rise of stablecoin technology, its application cases in the cross-border payment field are gradually increasing. As Kendall from Paxos explained, although the current use of stablecoins is still primarily concentrated on "crypto-native activities," interest in this area is continuously growing, largely driven by the fundamental needs of end users.

This experience is reflected in many companies in the field, including Conduit, which focuses on B2B enterprise payments. However, in the past year or two, things have started to change.

Such requests mainly come from businesses with global trade needs, but the adoption of stablecoins is also continuously increasing in other aspects of cross-border payments, including MoneyGram, which has begun offering stablecoin payment features. In 2022, MoneyGram started sending remittances using USDC, and since then, its business capabilities in this field have been continuously expanding, including the launch of the white-label digital wallet's deposit and withdrawal solutions, MoneyGram Ramps, as well as meeting its own cross-border fund management needs.

Today, although stablecoins occupy a small share of the market, their attention has clearly increased. In the first half of 2025, the number of press releases related to stablecoins and payments grew by 186% compared to the same period last year, a growth rate that exceeded the previous overall growth of stablecoin press releases, and the number of press releases involving cross-border payments and stablecoins surged by over 1000%. Moreover, this is only for companies that have publicly launched stablecoin solutions.

According to BVNK Harmse, the vast majority of companies in the payment industry have seen the opportunities brought by this technology, even if they have not publicly discussed it. "I believe 95% of companies have recognized this," he said, "From the conversations we are having and potential collaborations, there are indeed many traditional payment companies actively investing, including some you would originally think would not invest."

1.3 Stablecoin Payment Investment Surge

In addition to the strong interest from established companies, capital continues to increase its investment. Although the overall venture capital environment is cooling, the stablecoin sector is still attracting continuous investment, with a large number of projects announcing financing in the past year.

At the same time, a series of mergers and acquisitions are accelerating: traditional giants hope to quickly fill their capabilities in this field through acquisitions. Despite the frequent actions, the acquisition of the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge by Stripe, announced in 2024 and completed in early 2025, is still widely regarded as a catalyst for the entire industry to "take this technology seriously."

BVNK's Harmse stated: "It forces everyone to reconsider this track. We were already in discussions with several top global payment companies, and this acquisition has directly accelerated the pace of the conversations by several times."

According to Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, the deeper meaning of Stripe's move goes beyond this: "Stripe is a master of storytelling. They have used this acquisition to craft a super brand narrative, truly bringing stablecoins into the spotlight, and one could even say it has propelled the formation of today's stablecoin craze."

2. The Current Status of Cross-Border Payments with Stablecoins

The underlying logic of stablecoin payments is quite simple: theoretically, it outperforms current mainstream solutions in multiple dimensions (speed, reliability, and transparency). Although there is still room for optimization in terms of costs (deposit and withdrawal acceptance), this depends on further improvements in liquidity.

However, the reality is not just glamorous. Although there are more and more successful cases, stablecoin payments still face many complex stages when being implemented; the overall scale of payment scenarios is relatively small, which leaves some capabilities still in the verification stage.

Therefore, the true value of stablecoins is reflected in those scenarios that can "practically and reliably improve the existing payment experience." At least for now, this improvement is most concentrated in emerging markets.

2.1 Emerging Markets: The "Main Battlefield" of stablecoins

Whether it's early betting payment infrastructure companies on stablecoins or new players that have just entered the market, the views are surprisingly consistent: in countries where traditional payment systems are weak, stablecoins are not just "the best solution available now", but also the driving force behind the entire "stablecoin cross-border payment" track.

Dimitrova from OpenPayd said: "Global e-commerce platforms have long felt the pain points of collecting, disbursing, and retaining payments in countries with underdeveloped infrastructure. They have been quietly searching for alternatives in the background, but only now are traditional financial institutions realizing this."

The pain points of the target audience include not only the desire to "move funds in and out cheaply and quickly" but also: 1) businesses that find it difficult to obtain internationally usable payment tools; 2) institutions and individuals deeply trapped in the quagmire of local currency fluctuations.

However, the demand in emerging markets is not uniform; the outbreak of one scenario can give rise to more scenarios, with demand expanding layer by layer. What is certain is that a substantial amount of cross-border capital flowing through "niche channels" has formed a significant and still expanding market. Stablecoin players are flocking in, and the customer profile is becoming increasingly "sophisticated".

Gertman from Conduit said: "We are serving a