For most corporate treasurers, the word stablecoin isn’t synonymous with liquidity and working capital management, a solution to trapped cash or fragmented banking relationships, and exploring the treasury uses of the cryptocurrency is not a top priority. Still, interest is starting to grow amongst the treasury community about how stablecoins could help them do their job.
That interest is piqued by a growing list of companies like Walmart, Amazon, Uber and Expedia Group, amongst others, reportedly exploring issuing their own stablecoins. Jack Ma’s Ant International is seeking stablecoin licenses in both Hong Kong and Singapore and Tesla has already incorporated crypto holdings into its treasury strategies and uses stablecoins for liquidity.
Banks and payment groups are also getting in on the act. Visa and Mastercard are making investments and forging partnerships, and MoneyGram and Western Union have explored stablecoins for instant remittances. IBM’s blockchain-based payments network, World Wire, allows financial organisations to use stablecoins for international B2B payments, reducing dependency on correspondent banks.
Crypto payroll platforms like Deel and Bitwage mean companies can pay international employees in stablecoins, and Fiserv and PayPal recently announced plans to develop interoperability between their respective stablecoins, FIUSD and PayPal USD (PYUSD).
“Global players like Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal are actively piloting and integrating stablecoins into settlement and treasury operations. Visa, for example, has conducted cross-border USDC settlements with partners across multiple blockchains, while Stripe recently launched Stablecoin Financial Accounts powered by Bridge, offering USD-denominated services in over 100 countries. These are not branding exercises. They are live experiments aimed at reducing cost, settlement time and FX exposure,” writes Anton Abraham, Head Client Advisory, Asia, Middle East and Africa, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions in a recent LinkedIn post.
Enthusiasm for stablecoins, which differ from crypto currencies because they maintain a one-to-one exchange ratio with dollars and are backed by cash or Treasury reserves, allowing businesses to hold a digital asset with a predicted value, is also being fanned by President Trump’s “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act” or “GENIUS Act.” The legislation has just moved to the US House of Representatives, where a sister bill, the “Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy Act of 2025” or “STABLE Act of 2025,” is under consideration.
A legal framework to this new way of paying could potentially shift billions of dollars of transactions from the companies traditional banking and card providers to new payment rails. “If enacted, the GENIUS Act could have major ramifications for the US financial system. There could be a direct impact on the level of bank deposits and the emergence of new payment systems,” according to a recent memo from law firm Sullivan and Cromwell LLP.
What are the benefits?
Stablecoins hold key benefits around the cost and speed of payments, especially for corporate treasurers operating across multiple currencies and regions.
Every time a bank card payment is made costs are extracted by payment intermediaries and the transaction is subject to fees that cover processing costs and protection against risks like fraud. In contrast, fees to send a payment in Tether, the most popular stablecoin, cost a couple of dollars per transaction at most.
Meanwhile the faster payments offered by stablecoins offer treasury improved liquidity. International wire transfers can take days and payments flexibility is limited by traditional banking hours and regulation. In contrast, stablecoin payments can be made on weekends and holidays and don’t have to wait for bank processing.
They also offer near-instant settlement, compared to the one to three day delay of traditional cards. They hold particular benefits for business-to-business (B2B) transactions supporting payments between suppliers, vendors and partners, for example. Industries where instant payments are crucial like logistics, supply chain management and e-commerce could also gain. Elsewhere, stablecoins support receivables settlement from customers in markets where traditional bank rails are undeveloped, slow or expensive.
Stablecoins also offer treasury the ability to keep payments in house. Businesses can also send and receive stablecoins without requiring a bank account in every country they operate in.
“Businesses around the globe face common problems,” said Frank Keller, an executive vice president at PayPal, speaking when the company announced the interoperability launch with Fiserv. He added, “They don’t receive funds fast enough, they are combating inflation, and many face currency value fluctuations. Blockchain-based technology solves many of these challenges.”
However, for now card usage remains strong. One factor is the rewards they offer as well as fraud protection and credit features – anti-fraud protection is built into existing payment systems and fraudulent payments can quickly be reversed. How treasurers can ensure compliance with KYC, AML and sanctions obligations using the cryptocurrency remains an unanswered question. Integrating stablecoins also requires careful consideration of compliance, accounting, and custody risks and unknowns around audit trails and internal controls.
Moody’s has also identified risks associated with stablecoins, particularly around the potential impact on the traditional financial system and the concentration of risk within the stablecoin market amongst issuers like Tether and Circle.
In 2019, Meta announced it was launching a stablecoin, Libra, but it never took off because regulators pushed back and today the evolution of a clear legal, regulatory and accounting framework remains an essential piece of the jigsaw for stablecoin adoption by multinationals.
Regulation will also help address unanswered questions like how stablecoins should be classified. Are they treated as cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet?
Despite these unknowns, stablecoins are no longer just a crypto experiment, they’re a mainstream financial tool with real-world business applications and corporate treasurers are increasingly waking up to the benefits in efficiency, cost savings and faster settlement times compared to traditional banking.
