Stablecoins have developed from a crypto experiment to an everyday financial tool for businesses. They move trillions of dollars a year as working capital, supplier payments, and online sales revenue. They’re a faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more flexible way to move value across borders.

Below, we’ll explore the benefits of stablecoin payments, including how they can cut costs and their security measures.

What’s in this article?

• What are the main benefits of using stablecoin payments?
  
• How do stablecoins reduce payment processing costs?
  
• Why are stablecoins faster than traditional payment methods?
  
• How secure and transparent are stablecoin transactions?
  
• How can businesses use stablecoins for international trade and B2B payments?
  
• Can stablecoins improve financial inclusion for the unbanked?
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What are the main benefits of using stablecoin payments?

Stablecoins combine the reliability of traditional currencies with the speed and flexibility of digital networks.

Here’s how this payment method can benefit your business:

• Lower fees: Because they pass through fewer intermediaries, stablecoin transactions typically carry much lower fees than card payments.

• Faster settlement: Funds settle in minutes or seconds, not days. Payments clear at any hour, including on weekends or holidays, which improves cash flow and minimizes working capital bottlenecks.

• Security and transparency: Transactions are recorded on public blockchains, which are resistant to tampering, traceable, and auditable. Payments are cryptographically secured and irreversible once they’re confirmed, which eliminates the risk of chargebacks.

• Global access: A digital token can move anywhere without currency conversion or correspondent banks. This provides access to markets where traditional payment rails struggle.

• Financial inclusion: Anyone with internet access and a digital wallet can receive and spend stablecoins. Stripe data shows stablecoin payers are twice as likely to be first-time customers, which suggests businesses can reach buyers who couldn’t engage otherwise.

• Programmability: Stablecoins can integrate directly with software logic, splitting payments instantly between partners, triggering payouts when milestones are met, or holding funds in smart contracts until delivery is confirmed.

Companies are using stablecoins to pay international contractors, safeguard reserves against currency fluctuations, and accept customer payments in new markets. This results in faster money movement, lower costs, and fewer barriers to doing business globally.

How do stablecoins reduce payment processing costs?

Stablecoin payments don’t pass through banks, card networks, or currency exchanges. This means only a small blockchain network fee applies. Even if a payments platform converts the stablecoin to a fiat currency such as the US dollar (USD) for you, it can still be cheaper. And those costs might fall even further as blockchain efficiency improves. This fee difference is especially noticeable with cross-border payments. The global average for remittance fees, for example, was 6.49% in 2025; the fees for stablecoin payments are typically only pennies on the dollar.

When the per-payment cost drops close to zero, new models become viable, such as microtransactions and high-volume, low-margin sales that traditional fees would make prohibitively expensive. Small businesses can expand internationally without massive payment costs, and large enterprises can save millions in card fees over time.

Why are stablecoins faster than traditional payment methods?

Here’s what slows down traditional payments:

• Transfers are processed in batches, restricted by cutoff times, and paused entirely on weekends and holidays.

• International payments often pass through several correspondent banks, each adding its own delay.

Stablecoins operate differently. Blockchain networks don’t close so there’s no overnight or holiday downtime. Payments go straight from sender to recipient without detours through multiple intermediaries. The blockchain platform Solana, for example, can add a transaction to its ledger in 400 milliseconds.

That speed changes how businesses operate. Funds arrive ready to use, without being locked as “pending” for days. Payments can be made or received outside of banking hours so you can pay a supplier on a Sunday night, issue an emergency refund on a holiday, or meet an important deadline without waiting for the next business day. Stablecoins turn the settlement cycle into a predictable, nearly instant exchange of value.

How secure and transparent are stablecoin transactions?

Stablecoins combine tamper-resistant records with strong encryption to create a system that’s both transparent and secure when used responsibly. Here’s how stablecoin payments protect both sides of the transaction.

Transaction-level security

• Cryptographic authorization: A stablecoin payment can be sent only by the holder of its private key. This feature makes unauthorized transfers extremely difficult, as there’s no equivalent to stealing a credit card number and using it without the owner’s consent.

• Immutability: Once it’s confirmed on the blockchain, a transaction cannot be altered. For businesses, that finality removes the risk of chargebacks after goods or services are delivered.

Transparent payment flows

• Public blockchains: Most stablecoins move on open ledgers like Ethereum and Solana. Every transaction is time-stamped, traceable, and viewable through a block explorer.

• Simplified audits: The visibility of on-chain payments makes it easier to prove a payment was made, track the flow of funds, and integrate automatic compliance checks such as sanctions screening.

• Programmable compliance: Smart contracts can enforce rules, such as by blocking transfers to sanctioned addresses and releasing funds only when certain conditions are met.

Transparency in the currency itself

• Reserve attestations: Reputable issuers publish independent audits or monthly reports that document the assets that back the stablecoin. In many cases, these public reserve disclosures offer more real-time clarity than a standard bank account, where reserves are opaque.
  

Businesses can manage wallets directly or outsource custody to third-party providers. Payments platforms can handle the crypto security and conversion behind the scenes so businesses can accept stablecoins but receive fiat settlement. This minimizes exposure for teams without in-house crypto infrastructure.

How can businesses use stablecoins for international trade and B2B payments?

Cross-border commerce is where stablecoins often deliver the biggest wins.

Here’s how they simplify, speed up, and boost reliability for these types of transactions:

• No currency conversion: A buyer in Germany can pay a supplier in Mexico in USD-pegged stablecoins without touching pesos or euros.

• Fewer intermediaries: Stablecoin payments go straight from wallet to wallet without moving through multiple banks. This is especially helpful for countries with unreliable banking infrastructure.

• Faster settlement: Suppliers can release goods sooner, and buyers reduce counterparty risk by paying right before shipment.

• Less administrative work: Entrepreneurs in places such as Nigeria and Ukraine can invoice and get paid in USD- or euro-pegged stablecoins without opening a US bank account.

• Lower currency risk: Businesses in unstable economies can hold incoming revenue in USD- or euro-pegged stablecoins to preserve value until they need to convert.

• More programmability: Payments can be programmed to release automatically on delivery or after milestones are reached. This can increase confidence in cross-border deals.

• Treasury mobility: Moving stablecoin balances between subsidiaries is faster and more flexible than shifting fiat currencies through multiple bank accounts.

Can stablecoins improve financial inclusion for the unbanked?

As of 2024, an estimated 1.4 billion adults worldwide still lack access to formal banking. For many others, access exists, but the systems in place offer little stability or connection to the global economy. Stablecoins can provide these populations with a direct path into digital commerce.

Here’s how it works:

• Lower barrier to entry: Anyone with internet access and a digital wallet can send, receive, and store stablecoins—no bank account required.

• Currency stability: In high-inflation economies, a local bank balance can lose substantial value in a matter of weeks. USD- or euro-pegged stablecoins let people retain purchasing power in a currency that’s far less volatile.

• Access to contract work: By using stablecoins, companies can hire global contractors without worrying about whether they have access to international bank transfers.

• Purchasing power: Ecommerce businesses can accept payments from customers in emerging markets who don’t have credit cards.

• Cross-border payments: In some remittance or fintech apps, stablecoins serve as the transfer rail, even if the end user sees only local currency. This enables faster, cheaper cross-border payments without requiring the recipient to manage crypto directly.

• Microfinancing: Lenders can disburse stablecoin loans directly to borrowers’ wallets. This eliminates the delays and fees of traditional systems.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payment solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world. Businesses can accept stablecoin payments globally that settle as fiat in their Stripe balances.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs and access to 125+ payment methods, including stablecoins and crypto.

• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.

• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.

• Improve payment performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.

• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% uptime and industry-leading reliability.

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.