Stablecoins are already settling more transactions than Visa and Mastercard combined). At the time of writing (September2025), their market cap is already teasing $300 billion - that’s nearly 10% of circulating U.S. Dollar.
For CFOs, treasurers, and financial institutions, these numbers are clear signals that stablecoins are the next mainstream financial rails. [[widget crypto=(USDT)]]
Today, stablecoins are even cementing themselves as regulated settlement instruments, with the U.S. GENIUS Act of 2025 and Europe’s MiCA framework providing clarity, and major players like Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and Société Générale actively integrating stablecoins into their operations.
What was once an experiment is now a regulated tool for reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and staying competitive in a global market.
[[related text=(Why Smart Companies Are Building Their Own Stablecoin Rails) link=(https://transak.com/blog/why-smart-companies-are-building-their-own-stablecoin-rails)]]
Here are 7 reasons why stablecoins are best positioned to be ‘the currency’ of regulated businesses.
For years, businesses hesitated to adopt stablecoins due to legal uncertainty. That changed in 2025 with many legislations greenlighting regulated stablecoins:
The regulatory clarity does more than reduce risk. It levels the playing field. For example, soon after Circle secured an EMI license in France under MiCA, PayPal issued PYUSD under U.S. guardrails, while Ant Group applied for stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Luxembourg.
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) estimates €225B in capital and €250B in liquidity remain trapped by national restrictions that block cross-border consolidation.
Stablecoins are being used not just as a payment tool but as a regulatory arbitrage instrument to sidestep inefficiencies while staying compliant.
It’s easy to say stablecoins are “faster.” But for corporations, settlement finality is the real prize.
Method |
Time to Settle |
Risk Profile |
|
SWIFT/Wire |
1–3 business days |
Counterparty, FX, prefunding |
|
ACH |
Same-day to 2 days |
Operational hours only |
|
Stablecoins (USDC) |
Seconds |
On-chain, 24/7 finality |
For companies like Visa and Corpay, stablecoin rails are becoming a powerful way to remove settlement lag. Visa’s 2023 pilot enabled merchants to settle through USDC instead of waiting on traditional networks. Corpay’s deal with Circle now means its businesses can access USDC-based payments that settle 24/7, eliminating delays of hours or days.
Remittance fintechs like Félix, too, leverage stablecoins to streamline cross-border flows, cut FX friction, and speed up payouts. What used to be a back-office bottleneck is fast becoming a strategic advantage.
Traditional cross-border transfers average 6.6% in fees, with U.S.–Mexico wires costing nearly $10 per $200 sent. Stablecoin transfers typically cost under 0.1%, sometimes less than a dollar, regardless of size.
At scale, these differences move markets:
The erosion of fee-based margins pressures legacy rails. Just as low-cost trading apps squeezed brokerages, stablecoin settlements threaten the “fee layers” of banking infrastructure.
Stablecoins transform settlement from a static process into a programmable layer:
Programmability also enables innovations like automated FX routing, yield-bearing treasuries on-chain, and B2B smart contracts tied to delivery milestones. In effect, wallets stop being storage tools and become financial engines.
Stablecoins are a geopolitical shift.
Yet attempts to limit dollar stablecoins often look like stopgaps. Analysts argue that stablecoins are forcing governments and central banks to modernize payment systems rather than wall them off.
Meanwhile, U.S. adoption strengthens dollar dominance. Issuers’ $200B+ Treasury holdings effectively tie stablecoin growth to U.S. government financing, creating a feedback loop between digital adoption and sovereign debt markets.
The roster of adopters grows daily:
No longer a crypto-native territory, stablecoins are mainstream financial products embedded into regulated institutions.
A few risks remain. These risks won’t stall adoption, but they demand oversight and standards.
Stablecoins have crossed the chasm. With trillions settled annually, and full regulatory frameworks in the U.S. and EU, they’ve moved from crypto’s periphery to the center of institutional finance.
For regulated businesses, the shift is about more than faster or cheaper payments. It’s about unlocking trapped liquidity across borders, turning settlement into a competitive weapon, owning programmable money rails, and staying globally relevant in a fragmented financial system.
The risks are real, but the momentum is undeniable. Stablecoins are no longer optional. For banks, fintechs, and corporates, they’re the new standard of settlement in a digital-first economy.
Adopting stablecoins is no longer a question of if but how fast. For most businesses, the challenge is not in understanding the benefits, but in building the infrastructure to use them safely, compliantly, and at scale. This is where Transak steps in.
Transak is the enterprise-grade gateway to stablecoin rails. As a regulated Money Services Business (MSB) under FinCEN and an ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC II certified provider, Transak removes the technical and compliance roadblocks that have historically slowed adoption. Through a single integration, businesses can:
By abstracting away the licensing, KYC/AML, and settlement complexity, Transak lets companies focus on building products while it handles the heavy lifting of stablecoin infrastructure.
For businesses ready to move beyond legacy rails, Transak is the bridge between traditional finance and the stablecoin economy.