By Akbar Thobhani, Founder & Chairman, sFOX
Cross-border payment fees are eating 1.5% to 6% of your transaction volume. Settlement takes days. Your working capital sits trapped in correspondent banking networks. Meanwhile, nimble fintech competitors are building instant, low-cost alternatives that operate 24/7.
The regulatory barrier that kept you on the sidelines has just been removed. With the passage of the GENIUS Act establishing the first federal framework for stablecoins, you now have a clear legal pathway to compete, and the market opportunity is massive.
Today’s $230 billion stablecoin market is projected to reach $2 trillion by 2028, and stablecoins have already captured 3% of the $200 trillion global cross-border payments market—without most traditional payments companies even participating.
Stablecoins deliver 90% lower processing costs, 24/7 operations, near-real-time global transfers, full payment traceability, and the elimination of chargebacks.
Stablecoin technology and integration solutions
Yet for many payments executives, the question isn’t “if” but “how.” How do you integrate stablecoins without massive technical overhauls? Which coins and blockchains should you support? What does a production-ready stablecoin stack actually look like?
Here are three actionable strategies to answer these questions:
- Start with Payouts, Not Pay-Ins
If you’re exploring blockchain and digital asset adoption, the clearest strategy is to begin with stablecoin payouts rather than pay-ins. Payouts – whether for payroll, contractor compensation, affiliate rewards or B2B settlements – dominate real-world stablecoin payment volumes and offer you the fastest roadmap to meaningful impact and revenue.
More than 90% of digital asset payrolls and B2B disbursements are executed via stablecoins. USDC and USDT together represent the majority of volume globally, alongside growing adoption of PyUSD and other compliant alternatives. The B2B payout sector alone saw more than $35 billion in annual volume in just the first half of the year.
Implement stablecoin payments first
Payouts are the easiest use case to implement, enabling you to deploy blockchain solutions quickly and begin generating revenue immediately. They also free up trapped capital at scale. Traditional bank channels delay settlements for days, forcing you to park millions in correspondent accounts to ensure liquidity. Stablecoin payouts eliminate this entirely – money moves in real time, and your working capital no longer sits idle in banking bottlenecks.
Starting with payouts also delivers foundational benefits. You can use payouts as a practical pilot to establish essential crypto capabilities, such as custody, treasury management, compliance controls and approval workflows, while learning the nuances of digital assets in a risk-minimized setting. Prioritize a full-stack crypto infrastructure provider that offers streamlined KYC/AML onboarding with secure wallets for every customer. The right platform should provide bankruptcy-protected licensed custody with institutional-grade asset segregation, not just basic wallet technology.
By launching payouts first, your finance and operations teams gain crucial experience before venturing into the more complex terrain of pay-ins, which require advanced fraud prevention, extensive KYC processes and tighter regulatory scrutiny. With a longer-term strategy in mind, look for an infrastructure partner that combines enterprise workflow orchestration with built-in compliance monitoring and configurable business rules so you can maintain control as you scale.
- Provide Access to Multiple Blockchains and Stablecoins
Relying on a single stablecoin or blockchain is an operational risk that no modern payments company should accept. USDC, PyUSD and USDT, for example, each serve different roles. USDC is favored in tightly regulated Western markets for its compliance standards, while USDT is preferred in global corridors where access to traditional banking can be unreliable or too slow. PayPal USD (PyUSD) works well for businesses already integrated with PayPal’s ecosystem or seeking a stablecoin backed by a major regulated payments institution.
Every blockchain brings its own trade-offs in terms of speed, transaction size, network reliability, and cost. Some blockchains are engineered for high throughput and efficiency, while others may provide added compliance features or broader market acceptance.
In periods of high demand, fees on networks like Ethereum have exceeded $500 per transaction, pushing operational costs far above what most businesses can justify for everyday payments. For larger or time-sensitive transfers, some clients will accept higher fees to ensure priority settlement. For routine payouts or high-volume, low-value transactions, cost efficiency and scalability take precedence. The right infrastructure enables you to choose the most appropriate rail for each situation based on business need, not network limitations.
Think about digital asset rails in the same way you think about traditional payment rails. Just as payment processors give you access to Visa, Mastercard and ACH rails so you can route transactions optimally for each situation, your crypto infrastructure should provide access to multiple stablecoins and blockchains, letting you select the most efficient option for each payout.
Support multiple rails
Supporting multiple rails gives you optionality as regulations diverge across jurisdictions. In the U.S., the GENIUS Act establishes clear federal requirements for stablecoin issuers, including strict licensing frameworks and mandatory 1:1 reserve backing. Permitted issuers must be either subsidiaries of insured depository institutions, federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers approved by the OCC, or state-qualified issuers meeting substantially similar standards.
Different jurisdictions are taking varying approaches to which stablecoins they’ll permit and under what conditions. Some tokens approved in one market face scrutiny in another. In this environment, flexibility matters. That’s why you need an infrastructure provider that handles all the complex compliance requirements across multiple blockchains and coins.
Prioritize a crypto infrastructure platform that supports multiple stablecoins and blockchains from day one, allowing you to adapt as regulations evolve and market preferences shift. The platform should enable you to activate new coins or chains without costly integrations, while providing transparent, real-time reporting across all supported networks and tokens. Demand transparency about fees, congestion and regulatory status before authorizing any transaction. This operational control will help you maintain cost efficiency and compliance.
- Build on Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure
The distinction between basic technology platforms and true enterprise crypto infrastructure determines whether your stablecoin integration becomes a competitive advantage or a compliance liability.
Many providers in the crypto infrastructure space offer point solutions—individual capabilities that sound impressive in isolation but leave critical gaps. Some offer wallet technology without the licenses, compliance programs or sanctions screening necessary for regulated payments companies. Others hold custody licenses but lack the technical flexibility to support multiple blockchains. Still others offer wallet solutions and compliance services but lack the liquidity infrastructure to support competitive pricing, leaving your customers to pay premium rates that erode your value proposition.
True enterprise infrastructure requires multiple integrated capabilities working together seamlessly. Look for a platform that combines compliant onboarding and custody with bankruptcy-protected frameworks. You need comprehensive stablecoin operations with native cross-chain bridging and global real-time settlement. Competitive execution through multi-venue liquidity access with smart order routing is also essential. Finally, enterprise-grade automation should include portfolio management and workflow orchestration with built-in compliance controls and configurable business rules.
How to evaluate providers
When evaluating providers, ask pointed questions about their full-stack capabilities. Can the provider handle onboarding, custody, compliance, liquidity and operations through a single integration? Or, will you need to stitch together multiple vendors? What happens when you need to add a new blockchain or stablecoin? Will that require custom development, or can you easily activate new coins and blockchains through the provider’s existing infrastructure? How does the provider ensure best execution when markets move quickly? What regulatory frameworks does the provider operate under, and can it provide bankruptcy protection for customer assets?
It’s important to prioritize platforms built with a modular architecture. You should be able to activate only the capabilities your product requires today and scale into additional services without new integrations.
The Race Is On
Payments companies that move decisively on these three strategies—starting with payouts to build operational competence, supporting multiple coins and chains to maintain flexibility, and partnering with an enterprise-grade infrastructure partner to ensure compliance and competitive execution—will establish market positions that persist long after stablecoins become mainstream.
This isn’t about being first. It’s about being strategic. Choose the right infrastructure partner. Start with use cases where you can win quickly. Build the operational foundation that lets you scale without costly overhauls. This is your window. Act now while stablecoins are still a differentiator, not a commodity.
About the Author
Akbar Thobhani is Founder and Chairman of sFOX, the only full-stack crypto infrastructure company that delivers speed, scale and bank-grade compliance. A former NASA JPL engineer and Airbnb executive, Thobhani has been quoted in CoinDesk, Forbes and Bloomberg Markets and has spoken at industry conferences, such as the SALT Conference. Under his leadership, sFOX has processed more than $600 billion in cryptocurrency transactions for clients in the highly-regulated financial services industry.
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