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

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement cycles, and high costs. Stablecoins are revolutionizing the models of cross-border value flow, corporate transaction paradigms, and the ways individuals access financial services.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become an important 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, from payment gateways to inflow and outflow 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 are giving rise to new financial application scenarios, as well as the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economic process.

1. Why choose stablecoin payments?

To explore the influence of stablecoins, we 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. Although they have become integrated into daily life, many payment channels, such as ACH and SWIFT, have 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 While groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented.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 are plagued by high fees, high friction, long processing times, inability to achieve round-the-clock settlement, and complex backend processes. Additionally, they often require payment for unnecessary extra services such as identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and bank 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 cash 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 instantly, eliminating delays 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: Eliminating 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 Stablecoin Payment Industry

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

) 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 access to stablecoins, offer tools for developers developing on the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is a service that securely processes payments, facilitating transactions between buyers and sellers.

Notable companies innovating in this field include:

• Stripe: A traditional payment provider that integrates stablecoins like USDC for global payments.
• MetaMask: does not provide direct fiat currency exchange functions; users can perform deposit and withdrawal operations through integration with third-party services.
• Helio: 450,000 active wallets and 6,000 merchants. With the Solana Pay plugin, millions of Shopify merchants can settle payments with cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY into other stablecoins, such as USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Web2 payment applications such as Apple Pay, PayPal, Cash App, Nubank, and Revolut also allow users to make payments using stablecoins, further expanding the application scenarios for stablecoins.

The field of payment gateway providers can be clearly divided into two categories ### with some overlap (.

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

The developer-oriented payment gateway is designed to serve businesses, fintech companies, and enterprises that need to embed stablecoin infrastructure into their workflows. They typically provide 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 workflows, has a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, and allows businesses to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies through enterprise accounts, as well as merchant services that provide the tools needed for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. Processing 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 existing businesses. It offers enterprises 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 enterprise payment, payroll, 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, there is currently no operational data.

Consumer-focused payment gateways are user-centric, providing an easy-to-use interface that facilitates stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services for users. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects focused 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 in Latin America, including Western Union ) and MoneyGram (, to achieve nearly zero withdrawal fees, with over 10,000 South American users and high ratings among Solana developers.
• Meso: A deposit and withdrawal solution integrated directly with merchants, enabling users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoin with minimal friction. Meso also supports Apple Pay for purchasing USDC, simplifying the process for consumers to acquire stablecoins.
• Venmo: The stablecoin wallet feature of Venmo utilizes stablecoin technology, but its functionality is integrated into its existing consumer payment application, allowing users to easily send, receive, and use digital dollars without directly interacting with the blockchain infrastructure.

b. U Card

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

The project includes:

• Reap: Asian card issuer, clients include over 40 companies such as Infini, Kast, Genosis pay, Redotpay, Ether.fi, selling white-label solutions, mainly relying on transaction volume commissions ) such as Kast 85%-Reap 15% ( cooperating with Hong Kong banks, can cover most regions outside the US, and supports multi-chain deposit; by July 2024, the transaction volume reached $30M.
• Raincards: A card issuer in the Americas, supporting card issuance for companies like Avalanche, Offramp, takenos, etc., with the main feature being its service to users in the US and Latin America. I issued a USDC corporate card to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business expenses using on-chain assets ) such as USDC(.
• Fiat24: European card issuer + web3 bank, business model similar to the above two companies, supports card issuance for enterprises like ethsign, safepal; Swiss license, mainly serving European + Asian users, does not yet support full-chain transactions, only allows Arbitrum deposits. Growth is slow with a total of 20,000 users, monthly revenue of $100K-150K.
• Kast: A rapidly growing U card on Solana, currently issued over 10,000 cards, with 5-6k monthly active users, $7m in transaction volume by December 2024, and $200k in revenue.
• 1Money: stablecoin ecosystem has 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, and they mainly differ in terms of service areas and supported currencies, usually offering low-fee services to end users to encourage the use of cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Layer 2: Payment Processor

As a key level of the stablecoin technology stack, payment processors are the backbone of payment channels, mainly covering two categories: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They act as a crucial intermediary layer 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 and provides deposit and withdrawal services for more than 90 types of crypto assets. 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 bidirectional 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 significant partnerships with the U.S. State Department and Treasury, possessing 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 pass the KYB) corporate identity verification(, while users need to set up accounts on Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are more on-chain OG) such as Etherfuse, Penera, etc., which are slightly less endorsed by investors and BD compared to Bridge.
• Perena ( in beta ): Perena's Numeraire platform lowers 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 for the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of multiple stablecoins pegged to different assets or jurisdictions, with each stablecoin connecting to USD* as a similar "spoke." Through this system structure, Numeraire ensures deep liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as smaller stablecoins can interoperate via USD* without the need to provide separate 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 conversions between stablecoins.

( 3. Layer 3: Asset Issuers

Asset issuers are responsible for creating, maintaining, and redeeming stablecoins. Their business model is typically based on the balance sheet.