Stablecoins disrupt legacy cross-border payment rails
The guest argued that stablecoins are poised to disrupt traditional cross-border retail and merchant settlement by offering 24/7 immediate settlement, lower transaction fees, and an alternative store of value in high-inflation markets.
The argument
Checkout.com's chief product officer noted that merchants are increasingly demanding stablecoin settlement to bypass legacy banking hours and high FX fees. While adoption is driven by convenience and existing crypto liquidity in developed markets, developing economies benefit from lower barriers to entry and access to dollar-equivalent assets.
The thesis, stress-tested
✓ What validates it
- ✓Successful rollout of checkout.com's US stablecoin settlement platform
- ✓Increase in non-trading stablecoin transaction volume on payment networks
▸ Risks discussed
- ▸Regulatory fragmentation across different US states and international jurisdictions
- ▸Slow consumer wallet adoption for non-trading retail use cases
Hear it yourself
"And this episode is all about stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value because they're pegged to a fiat currency like the US dollar. So the price is fixed, but the currency is highly liquid. And because it can be moved on crypto rails, it's faster and cheaper to transact compared to legacy banking systems. According to a report in Forbes, stablecoins were used in more than $30,000,000,000,000 worth of transactions last year. To give you a sense of scale, that is more than Visa and Mastercard combined. Now to be clear, the majority of those transactions were trading in cryptocurrencies, but other use cases are growing fast."
AFFILIATE LINK · ZORTIX MAY EARN A COMMISSION · NEVER A RECOMMENDATION TO TRADE