Stablecoins have moved beyond the realm of crypto trading. Today, they are increasingly viewed as critical future infrastructure for banks, asset managers, broker-dealers, and payments companies. Their appeal lies in combining the efficiency of blockchain settlement with the stability of a fiat-backed asset—making them a powerful tool to modernize financial operations without taking on the volatility risks of unbacked digital assets. While the majority of stablecoin volume today is concentrated in unregulated tokens in crypto-native ecosystems, regulated financial institutions will need regulated stablecoins as part of their product offerings.   

Stablecoins are unlikely to completely replace established fiat rails like SWIFT and ACH, but they will increasingly be used as an important alternative for money movement beside traditional infrastructure. Below, we explore ways in which regulated stablecoins can deliver benefits to varying financial institutions.

GSIBs: Unlocking Efficiency in International Corridors

Global systemically important banks (GSIBs) manage some of the most complex international payment corridors. Many of these transactions today require “multiple hops”—a payment may move through several correspondent banks, each taking fees and adding delays.

Stablecoins provide a direct settlement asset that can travel across borders instantly, reducing reliance on multiple intermediaries. By using stablecoins, GSIBs can lower transfer costs, speed up settlement, and offer clients a smoother global payments experience.

Regional Banks: Skipping the Correspondent Banking System

Regional banks often face even more friction in cross-border payments. Without large international networks, they depend heavily on the correspondent banking system, which is costly, slow and increasingly strained.

Stablecoins offer regional banks the ability to send payments directly, even in corridors where correspondent relationships are thin or nonexistent. Over time, some regional banks could theoretically use stablecoins for all international corridors, effectively sidestepping the correspondent system altogether while still providing fast, reliable global payments to their customers.

Asset Managers: The Cash Leg for other Tokenized Assets

Asset managers participating in digital markets need an efficient way to move cash in and out of tokenized assets. Stablecoins provide a clean, programmable “cash leg” that can be paired with digital asset trades, whether in tokenized securities, funds or real-world assets. By standardizing stablecoin settlement, asset managers can streamline fund flows, reduce counterparty risk and better integrate digital assets into their core portfolios.

Broker-Dealers: Pairing Stablecoins with Crypto Brokerage

As broker-dealers expand into crypto, they need a settlement asset that bridges traditional finance and blockchain markets. Stablecoins fit this role perfectly.

By offering clients the ability to trade digital assets, while offering 24/7 funding and settlement with a regulated stablecoin, broker-dealers can reduce settlement risk, ensure liquidity, and enhance client trust. This also creates a natural pathway for integrating tokenized assets in the future, with stablecoins acting as the common settlement currency across both crypto and traditional products.

Remittance and Cross-Border Payment Companies: Efficient Prefunding

Remittance and payments providers often pre-fund accounts in destination countries to ensure speed of delivery. This ties up significant amounts of working capital and creates operational inefficiencies.

Stablecoins reduce the need for prefunding by allowing real-time transfer of value directly to destination markets. By using stablecoins, these companies can move away from capital-heavy prefunding models and instead operate with just-in-time liquidity, lowering costs and improving margins.

The Bigger Picture

Across these customer segments, regulated stablecoins are not just a new asset class—they are an enabling infrastructure for faster, cheaper and more reliable financial services. For GSIBs, regional banks, asset managers, broker-dealers and payments companies, stablecoins represent an opportunity to modernize global money movement, optimize balance sheet usage and serve customers more efficiently.

The financial institutions that adopt stablecoins early will be best positioned to compete in a future where money moves at the speed of the internet.