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 Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement periods, and high costs. These digital assets are revolutionizing cross-border value flows, corporate transaction paradigms, and access to personal 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 enterprise cash flows. At the same time, a series of emerging financial tools, from payment gateways to deposit and withdrawal channels, 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 studies the key participants shaping this field, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demands driving their applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins are giving rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face as they become more 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 House ( 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 While they were groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented.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 backend processes. Additionally, they often require unnecessary extra services that bundle 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 instantaneously, 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 significantly lowered transaction fees, saving costs for users.
• Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets that are underserved by traditional financial services (, including the unbanked population ), achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of Stablecoin Payment Industry

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

( 1. First Layer: 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 at the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

The payment gateway is a service that facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers by securely processing payments.

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 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 with cryptocurrencies 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 for 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 these types, thereby shaping their core products, user experience, and target market.

The developer-facing payment gateway aims 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 settlements. 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 that ensure seamless processes, with a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, as well as corporate accounts that allow businesses to hold and trade various stablecoins and fiat currencies, along with merchant services that provide the necessary tools for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. Handling over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a 200% annual growth rate, and a valuation of $750 million, customers include emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
• Iron )in beta(: Provides an API to seamlessly integrate stablecoin trading into its existing business. 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, with no operational data available yet.

Consumer-focused payment gateways prioritize users by providing an easy-to-use interface that facilitates 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(, achieving nearly zero withdrawal fees, with over 10,000 South American users and 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 stablecoin with minimal friction. Meso also supports Apple Pay to purchase USDC, simplifying the process for consumers to acquire stablecoin.
• Venmo: Venmo's stablecoin wallet feature 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, enabling seamless transactions by automatically converting cryptocurrency assets into fiat currency at the point of sale.

The project includes:

• Reap: A card issuer in Asia, with clients including Infini, Kast, Genosis pay, Redotpay, Ether.fi and more than 40 other enterprises, selling white-label solutions, mainly relying on transaction volume commission ) such as Kast 85%-Reap 15% ( cooperating with Hong Kong banks, can cover most areas outside the United States, supporting multi-chain deposit; by July 2024, transaction volume reached $30M.
• Raincards: American card issuer, supporting card issuance for companies such as Avalanche, Offramp, takenos, etc., with the main feature being its ability to serve users in the US and Latin America. Issued a USDC corporate card to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business costs using on-chain assets ) like USDC(.
• Fiat24: European card issuer + web3 bank, business model similar to the above two, supports card issuance for companies like ethsign, safepal; Swiss license, mainly serving European + Asian users, currently does not support full-chain transactions, only allows Arbitrum deposits. Slow growth with a total of 20,000 users, monthly revenue of $100K-150K.
• Kast: The rapidly growing U cards on Solana have issued over 10,000 cards, with 5-6k monthly active users, trading volume of $7m in December 2024, and revenue of $200k.
• 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 the service regions and supported currencies. They typically offer low-fee services to end users to enhance the enthusiasm of users for using cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Second Layer: Payment Processor

As a key layer in the stablecoin technology stack, payment processors are the backbone of payment channels, primarily covering two categories: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They serve 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 two-way exchange and payment between fiat currency and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination of Processors

• Bridge: The core products of Bridge include a coordination API and an issuance API. The former helps enterprises integrate various stablecoin payments and exchanges, while the latter supports enterprises in the rapid issuance of 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 Department, 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 various states in the United States, and partner companies need to undergo KYB) business identity verification(, while users need to create an account on Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are more on-chain OG) such as Etherfuse, Penera, etc(, and compared to Bridge, the endorsement and business development from investors are slightly weaker.
• Perena )in beta(: Perena's Numeraire platform lowers the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide centralized liquidity in a single pool. Numeraire adopts a "hub-and-spoke" 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 linked to various assets or jurisdictions, with each stablecoin connecting to USD* as a similar "spoke." Through this system architecture, 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