The Stablecoin Revolution in Progress: Resonance of Technological Architecture and Business Ecosystem

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks face comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement periods, and high costs. These digital assets are revolutionizing how cross-border value flows, corporate transactions, and personal financial services are accessed.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become a key underlying infrastructure for global payments. Large fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are gradually integrating stablecoins into consumer-facing applications and corporate funding flows. At the same time, emerging financial tools ranging from payment gateways to deposit and withdrawal channels, and to programmable yield products, have greatly enhanced the convenience of using stablecoins.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and business perspectives. It examines the key players shaping this field, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demand driving its applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins give rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economic process.

1. Why choose stablecoin payments?

To understand the influence of stablecoins, one must first examine traditional payment solutions. These traditional systems include cash, checks, debit cards, credit cards, international wire transfers ( SWIFT ), automated clearing houses ( ACH ), and peer-to-peer payments, among others. Although they have become integrated into daily life, much of the infrastructure for these payment channels has existed since the 1970s. While groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods suffer from high costs, high friction, long processing times, inability to achieve round-the-clock settlement, and complex backend procedures. In addition, they often require payment for unnecessary additional services such as bundling identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and banking integration.

Stablecoin payments are effectively addressing these pain points. Compared to traditional payment methods, using blockchain for payment settlement greatly simplifies the payment process, reduces intermediaries, and achieves real-time visibility of fund flows, not only shortening settlement times but also lowering costs.

The main advantages of stablecoin payments can be summarized as follows:

• Real-time settlement: Transactions are completed almost instantaneously, eliminating delays found in traditional banking systems.
• Safe and Reliable: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures the security and transparency of transactions, providing protection for users.
• Cost Reduction: The removal of intermediaries has significantly lowered transaction fees, saving expenses for users.
• Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets underserved by traditional financial services (, including unbanked populations ), achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of the Stablecoin Payment Industry

The stablecoin payment industry can be divided into four technical stack levels:

( 1. Layer 1: Application Layer

The application layer is mainly composed of various payment service providers ) PSP ###, which integrate multiple independent deposit and withdrawal payment institutions into a unified aggregation platform. These platforms provide users with convenient stablecoin access methods, offer tools for developers developing at the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

The payment gateway is a service that facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers by securely processing payments.

Notable companies innovating in this field include:

• Stripe: Traditional payment provider that integrates stablecoins like USDC for global payments.
• Helio: 450,000 active wallets and 6,000 merchants. With the Solana Pay plugin, millions of Shopify merchants can settle payments using cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY into other stablecoins like USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Some Web2 payment applications also allow users to make payments using stablecoins, further expanding the application scenarios of stablecoins.

The field of payment gateway providers can be clearly divided into two categories with certain overlaps.

1( developer-oriented payment gateway; 2) consumer-oriented payment gateway. Most payment gateway providers tend to focus more on one type, thereby shaping their core products, user experience, and target market.

The payment gateway aimed at developers is designed to serve businesses, fintech companies, and enterprises that need to embed stablecoin infrastructure into their workflows. They typically offer application programming interfaces (API), software development kits )SDK), and developer tools for integration into existing payment systems, enabling features such as automated payments, stablecoin wallets, virtual accounts, and real-time settlement. Some emerging projects focused on providing such developer tools include:

• BVNK: Provides enterprise-level payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. BVNK offers API solutions for seamless process integration, has a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, and allows businesses to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies through corporate accounts, as well as merchant services that provide the tools needed for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. Handling over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a growth rate of 200% per year, and a valuation of $750 million, clients include emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
• Iron( in beta): Provides an API to seamlessly integrate stablecoin trading into their existing business. It offers businesses global deposit and withdrawal channels, stablecoin payment infrastructure, wallets, and virtual accounts, supporting customized payment workflows( including recurring payments, invoicing, or on-demand payments).
• Juicyway: provides a range of corporate payment, salary distribution, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including Nigerian Naira (NGN), Canadian Dollar (CAD), US Dollar (USD), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC). Mainly targeting the African market, with no operating data available.

Consumer-focused payment gateways prioritize users, providing an easy-to-use interface for stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects that focus on providing users with this simple payment experience include:

• Decaf: An on-chain banking platform that enables personal consumption, remittances, and stablecoin transactions in over 184 countries; Decaf collaborates with local channels, including those in Latin America, to achieve nearly zero withdrawal fees, boasting over 10,000 users in South America and receiving high ratings among developers.
• Meso: Deposit and withdrawal solutions, directly integrated with merchants, allowing users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoin with minimal friction. Meso also supports the purchase of USDC, simplifying the process for consumers to obtain stablecoins.

b. U Card

Cryptocurrency cards are payment cards that allow users to spend cryptocurrencies or stablecoins at traditional merchants. These cards are usually integrated with traditional credit card networks, enabling seamless transactions by automatically converting cryptocurrency assets into fiat currency at the point of sale.

The project includes:

• Reap: A card issuer in Asia, serving over 40 enterprises, selling white-label solutions, mainly relying on transaction fees in collaboration with banks, covering most areas outside the United States, supporting multi-chain deposits; transaction volume reached $30M in July 2024.
• Raincards: A card issuer in the Americas, supporting multiple companies for card issuance, with the main feature being its service to users in the US and Latin America. Issued a USDC corporate card to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business costs using on-chain assets ( like USDC).
• Fiat24: European card issuer + web3 bank, business model similar to the above two, supports enterprise card issuance; Swiss license, primarily serving European + Asian users, does not yet support full-chain transactions, only top-ups. Slow growth with a total user base of 20,000, monthly revenue of $100K-150K.
• Kast: The rapidly growing U card has issued over 10,000 cards, with 5-6k monthly active users, a trading volume of $7m in December 2024, and revenue of $200k.
• 1Money: stablecoin ecosystem, recently launched a credit card that supports stablecoins, and provides a software development kit for easy L1 and L2 integration, currently in beta with no data available.

There are many cryptocurrency card providers, which mainly differ in terms of service areas and supported currencies, and they usually offer low-fee services to end users to enhance the enthusiasm for using cryptocurrency cards.

( 2. Second Layer: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin tech stack, payment processors are the pillars of payment channels, mainly covering two types: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They act as a critical intermediary in the payment lifecycle, connecting Web3 payments with traditional financial systems.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

• Moonpay: Supports over 80 cryptocurrencies, providing various deposit and withdrawal methods as well as token swap services to meet users' diverse cryptocurrency trading needs.
• Ramp Network: Covers over 150 countries, providing deposit and withdrawal services for more than 90 types of cryptocurrencies. The network handles all KYC) identity verification(, AML) anti-money laundering### and compliance requirements, ensuring the compliance and security of deposit and withdrawal services.
• Alchemy Pay: A hybrid payment gateway solution that supports two-way exchange and payment between fiat currency and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination Processors

• Bridge: The core products of Bridge include the Coordination API and the Issuance API. The former helps businesses integrate multiple stablecoin payments and exchanges, while the latter supports businesses in quickly issuing stablecoins. The platform is currently licensed in the United States and Europe, and has established important partnerships with the U.S. State Department and the Treasury, demonstrating strong compliance operational capabilities and resource advantages.
• Brale( in beta): Similar to the Bridge product, it is a regulated stablecoin issuance platform that provides stablecoin coordination and reserve management APIs. It has compliance licenses in all states in the United States, and partner enterprises need to go through KYB( corporate identity verification), while users need to set up an account on Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are more on-chain OGs, and compared to Bridge, it has slightly less backing from investors and business development.
• Perena(in beta): Perena's Numeraire platform reduces the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide concentrated liquidity in a single pool. Numeraire adopts a "central hub-radiating" model, where USD* serves as the central reserve asset, acting as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism allows various stablecoins linked to different assets or jurisdictions to be efficiently minted, redeemed, and traded, with each stablecoin connected to USD* as a similar "spoke". Through this system structure, Numeraire ensures deep liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as smaller stablecoins can interoperate through USD* without the need to provide decentralized liquidity pools for each trading pair. The ultimate design goal of the system is not only to enhance price stability and reduce slippage but also to enable seamless conversion between stablecoins.

( 3. Level Three: Asset Issuer

Asset issuers are responsible for creating, maintaining, and redeeming stablecoins. Their business model typically centers around the balance sheet, similar to bank operations – accepting customer deposits and investing the funds in high-yield assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds to earn interest spreads. At the asset issuer level, stablecoin innovation can be divided into three tiers: static reserve-backed stablecoins, interest-bearing stablecoins, and profit-sharing stablecoins.

1. Static Reserve Supported Stablecoin

The first generation of stablecoins introduced the foundational model of digital dollars: centralized issued tokens backed by fiat reserves held by traditional financial institutions at a 1:1 ratio. Major players in this category include Tether) and Circle.

Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC are the most widely used stablecoins, both backed by a 1:1 ratio of US dollar reserves in the financial accounts of Tether and Circle. These stablecoins are currently integrated with multiple platforms and represent a significant portion of the cryptocurrency.