stable coins
By Steven Anderson
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How Stablecoins Stack Up Against Wise and the World Bank Benchmark. The World Bank pegs the global average remittance cost at 6.65%.
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Regulation Is Shaping — and Warping — How Stablecoins Move Money. Regulatory design came up repeatedly as a factor that can make or break a corridor's efficiency.
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The Bank of Italy ran 200 real USDC transfers. The results weren't flattering for stablecoin boosters — but they weren't a death blow either.
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Researchers sent those 200 USDC remittances across 10 payment corridors, connecting Italy with Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the UAE, and South Africa.
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Costs swung wildly. Anywhere from 0.3% to nearly 9%.
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That's a massive range, and it pretty much tells you everything. The 0.3% end looks great on a slide deck. The 9% end is worse than most wire transfers your grandmother uses.
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The World Bank pegs the global average remittance cost at 6.65%. Against that number, stablecoin transfers looked competitive in most corridors. Fine.
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And it matters because Wise isn't some legacy bank charging 8% and hoping nobody notices. It's a lean, tech-forward competitor.
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The study didn't frame this as a condemnation. It's more nuanced than that. The researchers pointed to domestic instant payment infrastructure as a key variable — invest in…
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Related: Unlimit Wins MiCA License But Stablecoin Dual-Licensing Trap Stays
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It's a mess, basically. Users want the product. Regulators in some jurisdictions make accessing it legally complicated.
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The EU's MiCA framework and the U.S. GENIUS Act are both live now, setting new rules for crypto assets and payment stablecoins specifically.
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Meanwhile, the stablecoin market has grown to around $307 billion — up roughly 16% over the past year, per DefiLlama data. That growth didn't happen because remittances are broken.
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Related: AMRO Economists Warn AI Stablecoin Loop Could Lock 13 Nations Into Dollar Dependency
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The fiat friction problem isn't new. Anyone who's actually used a stablecoin for a real cross-border payment knows the blockchain leg is the easy part.
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