Banks have taken meaningful steps of late to incorporate stablecoins into their institutional payment strategy as pressure intensifies for faster cross-border settlement. This could finally signal the death of the multi-day payment, says Anil Oncu, Chief Executive Officer at Bitpace, but launching a stablecoin is just the beginning. Interoperability and end-to-end execution will determine whether bank-issued stablecoins remove friction from today’s fragmented correspondent-banking system or recreate it in a new collection of digital silos…
Stablecoins are moving into mainstream payments infrastructure
Businesses still regularly wait days between a payment being initiated and the recipient gaining access to it in the required currency through traditional international banking routes. Correspondent banks, clearing cycles, cut-off times, compliance checks, currency conversion and the final domestic banking leg can all introduce delays.
Stablecoins already offer a faster alternative. They combine the near-instant settlement efficiency of blockchain networks with the price stability of fiat-linked assets. However, it is only recently that banks have started to move towards more commercially focused initiatives of their own. Now, there is growing momentum.
In the last couple of weeks alone, 21 major financial institutions have announced they are preparing to issue their own stablecoin, while US Bank has completed a live intrabank pilot transaction between North America and Europe using its own dollar-backed stablecoin. The significance of these announcements is not simply that bank-backed stablecoins may enter the market. It is that major financial institutions are demonstrating the confidence to move blockchain settlement into an established part of the institutional payment strategy.
This could help address some of the confidence gaps for businesses, too. However, a bank-issued stablecoin does not automatically mean that settlement delays disappear from mainstream payments infrastructure.
Launching a stablecoin is the first step
The involvement of major banks will help to give businesses greater confidence in stablecoin infrastructure, as will frameworks such as the GENIUS Act and MiCA. However, the strength of initiatives will still depend on their execution. Questions remain around reserve structures, redemption rights, governance, supported blockchains, custody arrangements and access for businesses outside the participating banks.
Interoperability is particularly important here. If bank-issued stablecoins become closed ecosystems within individual institutional networks, the industry risks the same old problems, just in a new, digital guise.
Fast payments are the result of stablecoins that can move securely between institutions, payment providers, currencies and markets. They must also connect with the systems that businesses already use.
Fast blockchain settlement, therefore, needs to be distinguished from a genuinely faster end-to-end payment. A transaction may settle on-chain in seconds, but businesses will not experience the full benefit if onboarding, compliance checks, conversion or access to local banking rails still introduce delays.
The difficult work is what happens beyond issuing a stablecoin. Ending the multi-day payment requires the whole journey to operate more efficiently. Crypto payment gateways are already demonstrating what this looks like. At Bitpace, we’re driving adoption by providing businesses with compliant, instant and reliable access to stablecoin-based settlement. By combining regulatory-first design with high-volume settlement capabilities, we ensure businesses can move liquidity globally, efficiently.
The message for CFOs
The takeaway isn’t that every business needs to hold a new bank stablecoin immediately. It is that real-time, programmable and always-available settlement is rapidly becoming a realistic part of mainstream financial infrastructure.
CFOs should begin assessing where settlement delays currently affect working capital, supplier relationships, FX exposure or access to international markets. They should also review whether their treasury, accounting and compliance systems are capable of supporting digital settlement assets.
Can blockchain transactions be reconciled within existing systems? How will custody and counterparty risk be managed? Which jurisdictions and currencies matter most? Can payment providers support multiple stablecoins and convert them into the required fiat currencies?
The aim isn’t to design a strategy around a single token or banking consortium. The priority should be flexible, compliant infrastructure that provides access to multiple payment and settlement methods as the market develops.
Conclusion
The means to achieving faster international settlements already exist, with crypto payment gateways demonstrating how stablecoins can be used to settle payments across borders in minutes. The increasing involvement of banks will contribute to stablecoins’ mainstream use, but the interoperability and execution of their initiatives will be what determines whether we are about to see an end to multi-day settlements in traditional international banking services, too.
