Stablecoins Keep Racking Up Milestones, but Can They Crack B2B Payments?

The allure of stablecoins is straightforward. They make payments simple by promising the efficiency of cryptocurrencies without the volatility.

There are few places where efficiency matters more than B2B payments.

The global B2B payments market is valued at over $125 trillion annually. Yet, the sector remains plagued by inefficiencies that include high transaction fees, slow settlement times and cumbersome processes involving intermediaries.

These issues are particularly pronounced in cross-border transactions, where settlement can take days, and stacked fees can eat up chunks of each transaction.

Stablecoins seem to observers like a natural fit for what ails B2B. With near-instant settlement, reduced costs and transparency through blockchain technology, stablecoins could address many of the pain points associated with traditional payment systems.

However, as stablecoins continue to rack up milestones unimaginable just a few years ago, the question remains, will they?

Read also: The Payment Professional’s Guide to Stablecoins

When it comes to the embrace of stablecoins, B2B payments present a different challenge than consumer-facing applications. Businesses demand not only efficiency but also compliance, integration with legacy systems, and certainty in regulatory frameworks.

“When you think about the needs of every FinTech or payments company, or a bank that wants to enter the [stablecoin] space, they need secure infrastructure, from the creation of assets, such as tokenizing them, to holding them, and of course moving them,” Utila co-founder and CEO Bentzi Rabi told PYMNTS last month.

“Everyone will enter the stablecoin era in the end,” Rabi added.

Still, while companies like Circle, which is preparing an initial public offering (IPO), are working diligently with regulators, the broader stablecoin landscape remains ambiguous. The absence of a cohesive federal framework in the United States makes it difficult for enterprises to embrace stablecoins with confidence. At the same time, inconsistent standards and lack of transparency in some stablecoin projects present counterparty risks that enterprises are hesitant to shoulder.

Separately, for most businesses, integrating stablecoins into existing payment systems is not a plug-and-play affair. It requires technological upgrades, staff training and assurances that such systems will be future-proofed against evolving standards. For adoption to truly scale, payment service providers must continue developing APIs and other tools that simplify the integration of stablecoin transactions into existing enterprise workflows.

“When businesses want to move enterprise-grade money across borders — typically north of $500,000 — they run into three major pain points: limited liquidity for large transactions, long settlement times and complex integrations,” Stable Sea CEO and co-founder Tanner Taddeo told PYMNTS last month.

“Stablecoin adoption will only grow if inefficiencies in usage are solved,” he added.

The marketplace is responding with innovations that paint a promising picture of the utility of stablecoins within the B2B payments ecosystem.

For example, in advance of its IPO, Circle is teaming with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to explore the broader use of stablecoins. The partnership, announced Thursday (March 27), will see ICE — operator of the New York Stock Exchange — explore the use of Circle’s USDC stablecoin to develop new products and solutions for its customers.

Elsewhere, asset manager Fidelity Investments is reportedly preparing to launch its own stablecoin. The Boston-based company, which manages more than $5 trillion in assets, is in the advanced stages of testing a stablecoin.

See also: Treasurers Embrace Bitcoin and Gold as Capital Allocation Enters Innovation Era

To fully unlock the B2B market, crypto stakeholders must navigate the complex interplay of technology, regulation and enterprise demands. At the same time, some easy applications exist across the marketplace, particularly as it relates to global B2B commerce.

Cross-border payments are among the most promising use cases for stablecoins. For the Outlook 2030 B2B event at the end of last year, PYMNTS spoke with Ran Goldi, senior vice president of payments and network at Fireblocks, and Nikola Plecas, Visa Crypto’s head of commercialization, to explore the benefits and myths surrounding blockchain-based payments.

This included a discussion about the concept of the “stablecoin sandwich,” a method of using stablecoins to transfer value between currencies, which helps illustrate blockchain’s efficiency in cross-border transactions.

Enterprise adoption of stablecoins doesn’t need to solely be tied to B2B payments, either. Stablecoins are transforming corporate treasury operations.

Ultimately, there is potential for stablecoins within the B2B space. Whether stablecoins will be capable of meeting it is still an open question.

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