Stablecoins moved more than $27 trillion in value in 2024, and a growing share of that is coming from businesses. Teams are adopting stablecoins because the existing networks in many parts of the world still make cross-border payments harder than they need to be. You might have experienced that friction when trying to pay a partner in a market with unstable banking, funding a remote team when the correspondent bank isn’t open, or waiting days to shift working capital between regions.
Stablecoins let you move digital dollars quickly, and a growing number of businesses are piloting or integrating them into their financial workflows. Below, you’ll see how to use stablecoins, where they fit into business operations, and what potential risks they introduce.
What’s in this article?
- How do you use stablecoins?
- Why are stablecoins becoming essential for global payments?
- How can businesses use stablecoins in daily operations?
- What risks come with using stablecoins?
- How can businesses get started with stablecoins safely?
- How are stablecoins reshaping financial infrastructure and business models?
How do you use stablecoins?
Businesses primarily use stablecoins by treating them as a digital extension of cash: you mint tokens by sending dollars to an issuer, move those tokens across networks to suppliers or partners, and redeem them back into dollars when you need funds in your bank account.
Stablecoins are designed to hold their value through collateral and redemption mechanisms. A fiat-pegged coin exists only when an issuer takes in an equal amount of assets (commonly cash or short-term US treasuries) and maintains reserves intended to support redemptions. Independent audits should confirm the backing so users can see that every token is backed by real collateral. When someone redeems a token for fiat, the issuer returns the dollar and removes the token from circulation; when demand rises, new tokens are minted against additional reserves. This redemption mechanism is a primary factor anchoring the price to $1.
Some stablecoin projects rely on algorithmic mechanisms rather than explicit reserves, expanding or contracting supply to maintain the peg. These designs remain a small share of the overall market and have historically been more prone to instability. The stablecoins businesses depend on today are primarily fiat-backed.
Why are stablecoins becoming essential for global payments?
Cross-border payments are often slow, expensive, and unevenly accessible. A growing number of businesses are adopting stablecoins because they offer faster settlement, lower operating costs, and a broader reach into markets where traditional infrastructure underperforms.
These are the main advantages of stablecoins.
Speed
Settlement can happen in minutes. A traditional transfer has to wait for banking hours and go through a sequence of correspondent banks. A stablecoin transaction can finalize as soon as it’s confirmed onchain. That speed is one of the biggest improvements for teams managing payouts across continents or closing cycles on tight timelines.
Cost
A stablecoin payment typically carries only the network fee (usually a few cents) rather than wire charges, foreign exchange (FX) spreads, or card interchange. Companies running high-volume cross-border payouts or supplier payments could see the impact immediately because the savings compound with every transaction.
Access
Stablecoins can extend your reach into markets where card penetration is low, dollar accounts are hard to access, or local networks are weak or unreliable. Anyone with a phone and a wallet app can hold and send a stablecoin, which is why usage spikes in countries facing inflation or capital controls. That might mean new customers and more dependable settlement in places where traditional networks fall short.
Integration
The ecosystem around stablecoins has matured: large payment networks and processors are beginning to support stablecoins for payments and settlements. Some firms now accept stablecoin payments and offer conversion back to fiat acceptance, which means stablecoins are gradually shifting from a crypto niche toward a more broadly supported payment option.
How can businesses use stablecoins in daily operations?
Use cases for stablecoins map to everyday financial tasks—particularly when value can settle quickly in a stable, fiat-pegged unit and infrastructure supports fiat on/off-ramps.
These are the use cases for stablecoins.
Paying global teams and suppliers
Stablecoins give businesses a way to move funds directly to partners in other countries without relying on corridors with slow clearing cycles, limited banking hours, or unstable local currencies. They’re useful in markets where partners want to receive a dollar-denominated payment that they can manage quickly and can convert when it makes sense locally. Receiving a digital dollar can be more reliable than local payment methods for workers in markets with high inflation, bank instability, or capital control risks.
Accepting payments in underbanked markets
Businesses can add a stablecoin option at checkout when customers live in regions where card acceptance is thin, bank transfers are unreliable, or access to foreign currency is restricted. A buyer holding a dollar stablecoin in a wallet app can complete a purchase even without a compatible local payment method. Merchants often convert, or “off-ramp,” the stablecoin back into fiat through their payment provider, limiting crypto volatility while broadening geographic reach.
Managing liquidity and intercompany transfers
Stablecoins can move value between entities, subsidiaries, or regions with fewer delays than traditional cross-border banking. Businesses often use them to reposition working capital, preserve value during periods of local currency volatility, and fund local operations when needed.
Embedding money movement into products
Platforms and fintechs are beginning to use stablecoins as the settlement layer for product flows, such as creator or seller payouts, milestone-based disbursements, or lightweight escrow solutions. Because the unit of value can be moved and automated directly in software, product teams can now build more real-time, automated money flows—though a business’s success relies on robust infrastructure, compliance support, and conversion pathways.
What risks come with using stablecoins?
Stablecoins behave like money, but the mechanics underneath introduce risks businesses need to understand.
Consider these potential issues.
Reserve quality and issuer risk
A fiat-backed stablecoin is only as strong as the reserves behind it. Safe issuers hold cash and short-term government securities and publish frequent, independent reserve attestations and audits so users can verify the collateral. If reserves are opaque, illiquid, or poorly managed, the peg can wobble under stress.
Liquidity and redemption
In normal conditions, reputable stablecoins trade near their peg value (e.g., $1 USD) and can be redeemed directly with the issuer. If many holders (especially large holders) try to exit at once and the issuer lacks immediate liquid reserves, the market price can slip below the peg. Businesses using stablecoins at scale need to plan for such stress events, especially if they expect to convert large amounts back into fiat.
Security risk
Blockchain transactions are generally final, which means there’s no bank-style reversal if something goes wrong. If you send funds to the wrong address, the network will settle it exactly as instructed, and there’s no central party that can pull the payment back. The same goes for private keys: if they’re lost, stolen, or exposed through malware or phishing, whoever controls those keys controls the funds, and recovery is rarely possible.
Compliance and regulatory exposure
Stablecoin flows remain subject to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules, sanctions requirements, and tax reporting. Regulatory frameworks differ across jurisdictions and continue to evolve, which means businesses need to monitor how rules change in the places they operate and ensure their stablecoin providers follow the same standards expected of traditional financial institutions.
Technical dependencies
Stablecoins depend on an underlying blockchain network. Network congestion, outages, cross-chain compatibility issues, or smart contract/bridge vulnerabilities can delay settlement or restrict which wallets and payment providers work. To mitigate these risks, companies often maintain multiple on/off-ramps, diversify across supported chains, and test their integrations carefully to avoid single-point failures.
How can businesses get started with stablecoins safely?
If you think stablecoins could help with a part of the business where faster settlement, broader reach, or a reliably pegged unit of value would improve operations, it might be time to enhance your financial workflow.
Here’s how to get started with stablecoins.
1. Choose a contained starting point
Some companies begin with a specific payout corridor where banking access is limited; others start on the revenue side by accepting stablecoins through a payment provider that settles to fiat. The goal is to introduce stablecoins where they can improve results, without changing how the rest of the system works.
2. Select stablecoins with clear backing
Businesses tend to favor fiat-backed stablecoins with reserves held in cash and short-term government securities. Frequent independent audits, public reporting, and clear redemption terms are usually the hallmarks of a strongly backed asset.
3. Use infrastructure that handles the heavy lifting
Teams that aren’t looking to manage keys, chain integrations, or compliance checks themselves can select a provider to handle custody, address management, screening, and conversions.
4. Establish internal controls
Stablecoins need the same protections as cash. Businesses relying on stablecoins often use hardware wallets, multi-signature controls, whitelisted addresses, and role separation so no single individual can move funds unilaterally.
5. Sync accounting and compliance
Stablecoin flows can trigger AML checks, sanctions, and tax obligations. Businesses should map how transactions will be recorded, where they touch different jurisdictions, and whether their provider supports the screening and reporting that those rules require.
Platforms such as Bridge’s Cross Border Payments simplify stablecoin transactions, allowing businesses to move money to hard-to-reach markets with little effort.
How are stablecoins reshaping financial infrastructure and business models?
Stablecoins are pushing money to work more like the internet already does: always on, globally reachable, and designed to move through software.
Banks, processors, and fintech teams are adding stablecoin payment methods alongside their existing systems because these methods settle quickly and can plug easily into application programming interface (API)-driven products. For businesses, that means cross-border flows can clear without waiting for banking hours or passing through several intermediaries.
They’re also giving product teams new room to design. Platforms can run payouts, balances, or escrow in a stable unit of value instead of managing local banking in multiple currencies. Some companies are even exploring issuing their own stable-value assets using infrastructure such as Bridge to shape how they move value and to tap into broader liquidity networks.
Bridge is not a bank. The Prepaid Debit Visa Card is issued by Lead Bank and managed by Bridge Ventures, LLC. Fees may apply. See www.bridge.xyz/legal for more details.
The content in this article is for general information and education purposes only and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Bridge does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, adequacy, or currency of the information in the article. You should seek the advice of a competent attorney or accountant licensed to practice in your jurisdiction for advice on your particular situation.
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