Stablecoin Revolution: The 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 Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement cycles, and high costs. These digital assets are revolutionizing the way cross-border value flows, corporate transactions, and access to personal financial services are conducted.

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 cash flows. Meanwhile, emerging financial tools ranging from payment gateways to deposit and withdrawal channels, as well as 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 studies the key players shaping this field, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demand driving their applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins are giving rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economic process.

1. Why choose stablecoin payments?

To understand the impact of stablecoins, it is first necessary to examine traditional payment solutions. These traditional systems encompass cash, checks, debit cards, credit cards, international wire transfers ( SWIFT ), Automated Clearing House ( ACH ), and peer-to-peer payments, among others. Although they have become integrated into daily life, many payment channels, such as ACH and SWIFT, have infrastructure that has existed since the 1970s. While they were groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented.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 back-end processes. Additionally, they often require payment for unnecessary extra services such as bundling 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 fund 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 found 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: Removing intermediaries has significantly lowered transaction fees, saving expenses for users.
• Global Coverage: The decentralized platform can reach markets that are underserved by traditional financial services, including unbanked populations, achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of the Stablecoin Payment Industry

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

( 1. Layer One: 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 working in the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

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

Well-known 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 functionality itself; users can perform deposit and withdrawal operations through integration with its third-party services.
• Helio: 450,000 active wallets and 6,000 merchants. With the Solana Pay plugin, millions of Shopify merchants can settle payments using cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY to 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 of stablecoins.

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

1### payment gateway for developers; 2( payment gateway for consumers. Most payment gateway providers tend to focus more on one of the categories, thereby shaping their core products, user experience, and target market.

The payment gateway aimed at developers is designed to serve enterprises, fintech companies, and businesses that need to embed stablecoin infrastructure into their workflows. They typically offer application programming interfaces )API(, software development kits )SDK), and developer tools to facilitate integration into existing payment systems, enabling functionalities 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-grade payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. BVNK offers API solutions for seamless processes, with a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, as well as enterprise accounts that allow businesses to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies, along with merchant services providing the tools necessary for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. Processing over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a growth rate of 200%, a valuation of $750 million, and clients including emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
• Iron ) in beta(: provides an API to seamlessly integrate stablecoin transactions into its existing business. It offers businesses 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 corporate payment, salary distribution, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including Nigerian Naira )NGN(, Canadian Dollar )CAD(, US Dollar )USD(, Tether )USDT(, and USD Coin )USDC(. Primarily targeting the African market, with no operational data available.

Consumer-oriented payment gateways are user-centric, providing easy-to-use interfaces that facilitate stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects that focus 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, boasting over 10,000 South American users and receiving high ratings among Solana developers.
• Meso: Deposit and withdrawal solution, directly integrated with merchants, enabling users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoins with minimal friction. Meso also supports Apple Pay for purchasing USDC, streamlining 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 cryptocurrency 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: A card issuer in Asia, with clients including Infini, Kast, Genosis pay, Redotpay, Ether.fi and over 40 other companies, selling white label solutions, mainly relying on transaction volume commission ) like Kast 85%-Reap 15% ( collaborating with Hong Kong banks, covering most areas outside the United States, supporting multi-chain deposits; by July 2024, the transaction volume reached $30M.
• Raincards: A card issuer in the Americas that supports Avalanche, Offramp, takenos, and other companies, with the main feature being the ability to serve users in the US and Latin America. I issued a USDC corporate card to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business costs using on-chain assets ) such as USDC(.
• Fiat24: European card issuer + web3 bank, the business model is 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 arbirtum deposits. Growth is slow with a total user base of 20,000, monthly revenue of $100K-150K.
• Kast: A rapidly growing U card on Solana, currently has 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, which mainly differ in terms of service regions and supported currencies. They generally offer low fee services to end users to enhance the enthusiasm for using cryptocurrency cards.

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) 2. Second Layer: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin technology stack, payment processors are the backbone of payment channels, mainly covering two types: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They act as a critical intermediary 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 currencies and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordinating Processors

• Bridge: The core products of Bridge include Coordination API and 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 important partnerships with the U.S. State Department and the Treasury, possessing strong compliance operation 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 various states across the United States, and partner companies need to pass KYB### corporate identity verification(, while users need to set up an account with Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are mostly on-chain OG) such as Etherfuse, Penera, etc., and compared to Bridge, the endorsement from investors and business development is slightly weaker.
• Perena ( in beta ): Perena's Numeraire platform reduces the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide concentrated liquidity in a single pool. Numeraire adopts a "central hub-radiating" model, with USD* as the central reserve asset, serving as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism enables the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of multiple stablecoins pegged to different assets or jurisdictions, each connecting to USD* as similar "spokes." Through this system structure, Numeraire ensures deep liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as small stablecoins can interoperate through USD* without the need for 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 achieve.