Stablecoin Production & Pilot Deployments
Named deployments and pilot programs organized by the five institutional demand vectors driving stablecoin adoption.
This section compiles stablecoin use cases that have moved—or are moving—into institutional practice. The organizing framework is based on the specific operational or financial pain points that are driving adoption.
The following chart tracks the primary institutional use cases documented with named production deployments, pilots, and enabling infrastructure. Each use case is tagged by maturity status. Note that additional supporting use cases for each vector are documented on the Solution Viability Research page.
Production & Pilot Maturity Matrix
The 17 numbered use cases below represent the primary U.S. institutional production and pilot deployments, plus on-chain capital markets as a general category. These are the use cases with the strongest evidence base across our research corpus.
This matrix tracks deployments; it is not the list of scored use cases. The Digital Money Adoption (DMA) score rates its own set of 15 use cases. The last column shows the closest scored use case, using the scorecard numbering. Where a deployment draws on evidence for more than one scored use case, both are listed.
Detailed supporting evidence appears in the Vector sections listed at right. The Use Case subsections document named adopters, volumes, corridors, platforms, deployment models within each primary use case listed here. Source citations are included.
| Demand Vector | Use Case | Status | Institutional Maturity | Related DMA Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Cross-Border Payment Friction | 1. Cross-border B2B supplier payments | 🟢 PRODUCTION | High | 1. Cross-Border B2B Payments |
| 2. Intercompany / treasury mobility | 🟢 PRODUCTION | High | 2. Treasury & Liquidity Management | |
| 3. Global business payouts and contractor pay | 🟡 PILOT / EARLY ACCESS | Low-Medium | 1. Cross-Border B2B Payments | |
| 4. Remittances / consumer cross-border | 🟢 PRODUCTION | Medium-High | 6. Stablecoin Remittances | |
| 2. Treasury & Liquidity Efficiency | 5. Intraday liquidity management | 🟢 PRODUCTION / 🟡 PILOT | Medium-High | 2. Treasury & Liquidity Management; 8. DeFi / On-Chain Lending |
| 6. Tokenized money market / yield-bearing treasury | 🟢 PRODUCTION | High | 4. Tokenized Money Market Funds; 5. Tokenized Government Securities (Treasuries) | |
| 7. Pre-funded account elimination | 🟢 PRODUCTION | Medium | 1. Cross-Border B2B Payments | |
| 3. Merchant & Commerce Settlement | 8. Merchant acquirer settlement | 🟢 PRODUCTION | High | 3. Stablecoin-Settled Card / Payment Networks |
| 9. Consumer stablecoin checkout / card | 🟢 PRODUCTION (limited) | Medium | 7. Stablecoin-Based Debit / Prepaid Cards; 13. POS / Retail Merchant Acceptance | |
| 10. Cross-border merchant acceptance | 🟢 PRODUCTION | Medium-High | 13. POS / Retail Merchant Acceptance | |
| 4. Programmable & Automated Payments | 11. AP automation / contractor payroll | 🟢 PRODUCTION | Medium | 1. Cross-Border B2B Payments |
| 12. Programmable escrow / payment-on-delivery | 🟡 PILOT | Low-Medium | 10. Supply Chain Finance | |
| 13. Machine-to-machine / AI agent payments | 🟡 PILOT | Low | 14. Agentic / Machine-to-Machine Payments | |
| 5. Institutional Capital Markets Infrastructure | 14. Tokenized collateral / intraday liquidity | 🟢 PRODUCTION / 🟡 PILOT | Medium-High | 5. Tokenized Government Securities (Treasuries); 8. DeFi / On-Chain Lending |
| 15. Atomic securities settlement | 🟡 PILOT | Low-Medium | 4. Tokenized Money Market Funds; 5. Tokenized Government Securities (Treasuries) | |
| 16. FCM collateral | 🔵 ENABLING INFRASTRUCTURE | Low (new) | 12. FCM Collateral | |
| 17. Trade finance / smart contract LC | 🟡 PILOT | Low-Medium | 10. Supply Chain Finance | |
| On-chain capital markets (general) | 🟢 PRODUCTION | High | 9. Tokenized Bank Deposits (Institutional) (partial: JPMD) |
Status Legend
Every use case in the Field Guide carries one of the following tags.
- PRODUCTION — Named, live, documented deployments at commercial scale
- PILOT — Announced, limited scale, or disclosed proof-of-concept
- ENABLING INFRASTRUCTURE — Regulatory, technical, or platform work that unlocks future deployments
- EMERGING — No named institutional deployment; framework-level or directional
Source abbreviations used inline (Batches 1–3):
[EY] = EY-Parthenon Stablecoins in Focus (Sep 2025) • [UOB] = UOB Stablecoins in Regulated Finance (Mar 2026) • [VISA] = Visa/Dune Beyond Dollarization (2026) • [IMF] = IMF Working Paper WP/26/52 (Mar 2026) • [CD] = CoinDesk/Ripple Definitive Stablecoin Landscape: North America (Mar 2026) • [BVNK] = BVNK Stablecoin Utility Report 2026
Batch 4 source codes (used in reference tables at bottom of page):
[ZH] = Zero Hash 2026 Stablecoin Momentum Report (Jan 2026) • [CIR] = Circle Internet Financial System Report 2026 (Jan 2026) • [CHAIN] = Chainalysis The New Rails (2026) • [POL] = Polygon Stablecoin Infrastructure Report (Feb 2026) • [MCO1] = Moody’s Stablecoin Use Report (May 2026) • [DB] = Deutsche Bank Digital Money Perspectives (May 2026) • [PB] = PitchBook Stablecoin Analysis (Oct 2025) • [SBC] = Stablecoin-Based Cards Report (2026) • [ART] = Artemis/Castle Island/Dragonfly Stablecoin Payments: From the Ground Up (Oct 2025)
v1.0 source codes:
[ALL] = Allium State of Stablecoins and Payments: September 2026 (Sep 2026) • [CDS] = CoinDesk Data Stablecoins & Tokenized Assets Report, September 2026 (data as of Sep 30, 2026) • [ANA] = Anadu et al., A Framework for Understanding the Vulnerabilities of New Money-Like Products, Journal of Financial Crises (2026)
Digital Money Adoption (DMA) score
The DMA score rates 15 use cases on a 1–10 scale, in 0.5-point increments, across six market adoption dimensions. Scores are based on published research and updated quarterly. Movement between quarters is the news. The last column of the matrix above shows which scored use case each deployment relates to.
Demand Vector and Use Case Details
The following sections provide greater detail on each demand vector and the primary use cases we are tracking.
Vector 1: Cross-Border Payment Friction
The pain: International money movement through correspondent banking networks is slow (1–5 business days), expensive (2–8% all-in including FX spread), and blocked outside banking hours. The $208 trillion annual cross-border payment market runs on infrastructure designed in the 1970s. [VISA] [CD]
Why stablecoins help: Stablecoins settle in seconds to minutes, 24/7, at sub-cent transaction costs, with no correspondent bank intermediary. For B2B flows where both counterparties are stablecoin-capable, the structural advantage is unambiguous. [UOB]
Use Case 1. Cross-Border B2B Supplier Payments
PRODUCTION — This is the dominant institutional use case across all research reports and the one with the clearest evidence of scale. B2B payments now represent 62.9% of stablecoin payment volume — up sharply from 17.4% in 2024 — reflecting a decisive shift from retail and remittance toward institutional flows. [CD]
Routable × Brale — AP Automation — Routable integrated with Brale's stablecoin issuance infrastructure to enable USD stablecoin payments to vendors and contractors across 220+ countries and 140+ currencies over 20+ blockchains. This is a production deployment covering the full AP workflow: invoice receipt, approval routing, payment disbursement, and settlement confirmation. The stablecoin layer is embedded in the AP platform — payers do not manage wallets or blockchain directly. [EY] [CD]
Conduit — Annualized cross-border payment volume of $10 billion, representing 16× year-over-year growth. Named in the CoinDesk/Ripple North America landscape as one of the most material volume deployments in the B2B corridor. [CD]
BVNK / Worldpay stablecoin payout network — Operating across 180+ markets, enabling corporate clients to settle and disburse in stablecoins as an alternative to traditional wire and correspondent bank networks. [BVNK]
Deel × BVNK — Stablecoin payouts for 10,000+ contractors across 100+ countries, with 125,000 successful payouts documented. Deel uses BVNK's infrastructure to enable same-day or near-real-time contractor disbursement where traditional bank wires would take 3–5 business days. [BVNK]
SpaceX / Starlink via Stripe Bridge — SpaceX uses Stripe's Bridge infrastructure to convert local currency revenue from Argentina and Nigeria into USDC for treasury consolidation, eliminating FX exposure and correspondent bank delays on subsidiary cash repatriation. [CD]
Walmart and Amazon — Both companies are documented as exploring stablecoin-based vendor payment infrastructure. No named production deployment confirmed as of May 2026. [CD]
The EY-Parthenon survey found 62% of current stablecoin users cite cross-border supplier payments as their primary use case, with 41% reporting cost savings of 10% or more per transaction. [EY]
Use Case 2. Intercompany / Treasury Mobility
PRODUCTION — Multinational treasury teams use stablecoins to move cash between subsidiaries across jurisdictions, particularly where local banking infrastructure is unreliable or capital controls apply. 44% of EY survey respondents cite cross-border treasury and cash management as a current use case. [EY]
JPMorgan Kinexys (formerly Onyx) / JPM Coin — The most widely cited institutional treasury deployment. Kinexys processes more than $7 billion per day in interbank settlement volume, with $3 trillion+ in cumulative transactions. CMC Markets went live on Kinexys in March 2026 for margin settlement. [CD] [EY]
Canton Network weekend repo — Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citadel, and Lloyds participated in weekend repo transactions on the Canton Network — a permissioned blockchain for regulated financial institutions — using stablecoins as settlement assets. Addresses a known gap in traditional repo markets: overnight and weekend positions that cannot be unwound until banking hours resume. [CD]
Figure Technologies — Uses stablecoin infrastructure for internal fund transfers, enabling 24/7 movement of capital across corporate entities without banking-hours constraints. [CD]
Use Case 3. Global Business Payouts and Contractor Pay
PILOT / EARLY ACCESS — Business-facing stablecoin payout platforms are scaling rapidly, targeting the segment between enterprise treasury (JPMorgan Kinexys scale) and individual remittances.
Kast for Business — Phased-access launch targeting marketing agencies, early-stage founders, and global-first teams. Features include instant payouts to teams and vendors in 170+ countries, USDC and fiat balances in a single account, unlimited virtual cards with per-card spending controls, and up to 3% cashback including up to 10% on cloud services. Kast now serves over one million users and processes nearly $5B in annualized transaction volume. The business product is in waitlist/phased rollout as of May 2026, accelerated by the $80M Series A raised in March 2026. [CD]
Use Case 4. Remittances / Consumer Cross-Border
PRODUCTION — Consumer stablecoin remittances are in production in specific corridors, with fees under $1.00 per transaction versus 6%+ for traditional services. [CD]
Bitso Business — $6.5 billion in US-Mexico stablecoin transfer volume in 2024, making the US-Mexico corridor one of the highest-documented stablecoin remittance flows globally. [CD]
BVNK LatAm corridors — BVNK operates stablecoin payment infrastructure across Latin American corridors including Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. [BVNK]
73% of cross-border freelancers surveyed by BVNK report that stablecoins improved their international work capability. Stablecoins represent approximately 35% of annual earnings for cross-border freelancers in certain markets. [BVNK]
The IMF Working Paper WP/26/52 documents stablecoin remittances as a meaningful transmission mechanism in markets where traditional financial access is limited, while noting the volatility risk for recipients who hold rather than immediately convert. [IMF]
Vector 2: Treasury and Liquidity Efficiency
The pain: Corporate and institutional treasury management requires capital to sit idle in pre-funded correspondent accounts, earns nothing during multi-day settlement cycles, and cannot be repositioned outside banking hours. Intraday liquidity needs create predictable but unaddressed inefficiencies. [UOB] [EY]
Why stablecoins help: Stablecoins enable 24/7 capital movement, eliminate pre-funded intermediary accounts, and — in DeFi contexts — allow idle treasury assets to generate yield while remaining liquid. The RWA (real-world assets) tokenization trend is directly linked to this vector. [CD]
Use Case 5. Intraday Liquidity Management
PRODUCTION / PILOT — Institutions deploy USDC into Aave, Sky, and similar protocols for 4–5% tokenized Treasury yields while maintaining intraday liquidity access. [EY] [CD]
Circle treasury-grade infrastructure — Circle provides corporate partners with USDC-denominated treasury management infrastructure, enabling instant intraday liquidity without the settlement lags of money market funds or short-duration Treasuries. [CD]
Visa / Stripe / PayPal — All three payments incumbents have stablecoin treasury-level engagement documented in public filings and industry research. [CD]
Use Case 6. Tokenized Money Market / Yield-Bearing Treasury
PRODUCTION — Tokenized Treasury and money market products are the fastest-growing institutional stablecoin-adjacent segment. RWA total value locked reached $20.8 billion, up 97.6% in 2025. DeFi accounts for 48.4% of stablecoin activity by transaction count. [CD]
Ondo Finance OUSG — Tokenized short-duration US government bond fund. Uses RLUSD for subscriptions and redemptions, enabling 24/7 entry and exit without traditional fund cutoff windows. [CD]
BlackRock BUIDL — BlackRock's tokenized Treasury fund on Ethereum, a private fund rather than a registered money market fund [ANA]. Earlier in 2026 it was the largest tokenized Treasury product by AUM (~$2.9B) [CD]; at Sep 30, 2026 it held $2.24B, behind Circle USYC ($2.40B) and Ondo USDY ($2.28B) [CDS].
VanEck VBILL — VanEck's tokenized Treasury bill fund, providing institutions with on-chain access to short-duration government securities with stablecoin settlement. [CD]
Franklin Templeton BENJI — Early mover in tokenized government money market funds (~$1.9B) on Stellar and Polygon. [EY]
Use Case 7. Pre-Funded Account Elimination
PRODUCTION — Traditional cross-border payment infrastructure requires financial institutions to maintain pre-funded accounts at correspondent banks in each currency corridor. Stablecoins eliminate the requirement by enabling on-demand, real-time settlement. [UOB] [EY]
Coinbase + Nium — Deployed USDC settlement across 190 countries, enabling payment infrastructure providers to eliminate pre-funded local correspondent accounts in markets where stablecoin liquidity is sufficient. [CD]
Vector 3: Merchant and Commerce Settlement
The pain: Card network settlement takes 1–3 business days, with acquiring fees of 1.5–3.5% plus interchange. Settlement is locked inside banking hours. Cross-border merchants face additional FX conversion costs and delays. [VISA] [CD]
Why stablecoins help: Stablecoin settlement is near-real-time, available 24/7, and far cheaper per transaction at scale. Acquirer-level stablecoin settlement — where merchants continue accepting card payments but receive settlement in USDC rather than fiat — is the current production model. [VISA] [CD]
Use Case 8. Merchant Acquirer Settlement
PRODUCTION — The institutional-grade merchant settlement stack is live and growing. North American merchant stablecoin volume increased 38% to $625 million in the most recent measurement period. [CD]
Visa + Circle USDC/Solana acquirer settlement — Live on/off-ramp stack enabling merchant acquirers to settle card payment balances into USDC over the Solana network. Annualized Visa stablecoin settlement run rate reached $7 billion as of May 2026. [VISA] [CD]
Worldpay stablecoin payout network (BVNK) — BVNK's infrastructure powers stablecoin payout capabilities for Worldpay across 180+ markets. [BVNK]
Nuvei — Deployed stablecoin settlement capabilities, enabling merchants to receive settlements in USDC or USDT rather than waiting for traditional ACH or wire cycles. [CD]
Use Case 9. Consumer Stablecoin Checkout / Card
PRODUCTION (limited) — Consumer-facing stablecoin checkout exists at scale within PayPal's ecosystem and in specific vertical markets (gaming, digital goods, crypto-native commerce). General retail consumer adoption remains limited.
PayPal / Venmo PYUSD — Live in PayPal's consumer-facing checkout flow across its 400 million+ user base. Now available across 70 markets. Monthly crypto card volume surged 533% to a peak of $87.7 million in December 2025. [CD]
RLUSD × Mastercard × WebBank × Gemini — A pilot on the XRP Ledger enabling stablecoin settlement for credit card transactions, with Mastercard providing the payment network, WebBank as the card issuer, and Gemini providing custody and liquidity. [CD]
Trade Nation via BVNK — Financial trading platform deployed stablecoin deposit infrastructure via BVNK, recording a 260% increase in deposit volume. [BVNK]
Use Case 10. Cross-Border Merchant Acceptance
PRODUCTION — Stablecoin pay-in infrastructure for merchants accepting payments from international customers is among BVNK's most documented deployment categories. [BVNK]
Key BVNK platform metrics: 97% of crypto pay-ins are stablecoins. Average stablecoin deposit is $3,186. 57% of payers are return customers. [BVNK]
Vector 4: Programmable and Automated Payments
The pain: AP, contractor disbursement, escrow, and complex conditional payment workflows are managed through manual processes, banking intermediaries, and multi-day settlement cycles. [EY] [BVNK]
Why stablecoins help: Programmability — embedding payment conditions directly into the transaction via smart contracts — enables conditional release, automatic scheduling, and trigger-based disbursement without manual AP/AR intervention. [UOB] [CD]
Use Case 11. AP Automation / Contractor Payroll
PRODUCTION — Cross-border freelancers for whom stablecoins represent approximately 35% of annual earnings are the most directly affected workforce segment. 77% of marketplace sellers report improved sales from stablecoin acceptance. [BVNK] [CD]
Routable × Brale — Full AP workflow automation: invoice receipt, approval routing, payment disbursement, and settlement confirmation. 220+ countries, 140+ currencies, 20+ blockchains. [EY]
PayPal PYUSD contractor disbursements — PayPal deploys PYUSD through its Hyperwallet payout platform for contractor and business payouts globally. [EY]
Deel × BVNK — 10,000+ contractors across 100+ countries, 125,000 documented successful payouts. [BVNK]
Use Case 12. Programmable Escrow / Payment-on-Delivery
PILOT — Smart contract-conditional payment release is in pilot in supply chain and trade finance contexts. [UOB]
The UOB report frames payment-on-delivery as an emerging use case in Southeast Asian supply chain finance: the payer retains funds until delivery is confirmed on-chain; the supplier receives payment immediately upon confirmation rather than waiting for invoice processing and payment terms. [UOB]
Use Case 13. Machine-to-Machine / AI Agent Payments
PILOT — Live at small scale; no named institutional deployment at scale. Chainalysis counts 100M+ cumulative x402 transactions through Q1 2026 [CHAIN], and Allium counts 29M x402 transfers in August 2026, averaging 6 cents each [ALL]. Autonomous AI agents operating business workflows need to transact financially without human approval per transaction. Stablecoins are structurally suited to this requirement: API-accessible, programmable, no account-opening friction.
Brale / SAGEUSD — SAGE, an AI agent platform, issued SAGEUSD through Brale as its native stablecoin for agent-to-agent and agent-to-vendor payment flows. This is an early, small-scale deployment documented as a directional indicator, not evidence of production maturity. Source: Brale product research, February 2026.
Vector 5: Institutional Capital Markets Infrastructure
The pain: U.S. Treasury settlement fails exceed $40 billion per day. Derivatives margin and collateral are pre-positioned in static accounts, wasting capital. DvP atomicity — simultaneous delivery and payment with no counterparty risk — is unavailable in most institutional market structures. [EY] [CD] [UOB]
Why stablecoins help: Stablecoins as the cash leg of tokenized securities transactions enable atomic settlement. As permissioned blockchain infrastructure matures, stablecoins provide the 24/7, programmable payment rail that incumbent settlement systems cannot. [UOB] [CD]
Use Case 14. Tokenized Collateral / Intraday Liquidity
PRODUCTION / PILOT — Stablecoin collateral in DeFi lending protocols is at production scale; stablecoin collateral in regulated institutional derivatives markets is in pilot. [CD]
Canton Network (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citadel, Lloyds) — Weekend repo transactions using stablecoins as settlement assets. Addresses the gap where repo positions opened Friday afternoon cannot be unwound until Monday morning, locking capital across three days. [CD]
LMAX Group RLUSD — Uses RLUSD as core collateral for cross-collateralization and margin across spot, perpetuals, and CFD products. [CD]
Aave / Morpho — Stablecoin collateral share in Aave has grown to 30.6% (up from 20.5%). Morpho's stablecoin collateral share is 34.7% (up from 20.6%). [CD]
Broadridge DLR — Processing $362B average daily volume as of February 2026, a +457% year-over-year increase — the highest-volume tokenized asset application in production globally. [CD]
Traditional markets context: 70% of derivatives firms fail at least one daily settlement obligation. The $40 billion/day in Treasury settlement fails represents the scale of inefficiency that atomic stablecoin settlement addresses. [EY] [CD]
Use Case 15. Atomic Securities Settlement
PILOT — Simultaneous, irrevocable delivery and payment with no settlement risk window, using stablecoins as the cash leg of tokenized securities transactions. [UOB] [CD]
Ondo OUSG / BlackRock BUIDL / VanEck VBILL — Tokenized Treasury and money market fund products that settle subscriptions and redemptions via stablecoin. As these products scale, the settlement infrastructure matures toward T+0 atomic settlement. [CD]
DTCC / Clearstream integration pathways — Both have published frameworks for stablecoin-settled tokenized securities. No live production deployment as of May 2026 [EY] [UOB]. v1.0 update: DTCC completed its first live production trades with DTC-tokenized assets on July 15, 2026, with more than 30 firms; its Tokenization Service launch is planned for October 2026 (DTCC).
Use Case 16. FCM Collateral
ENABLING INFRASTRUCTURE — The CFTC's February 2026 guidance allows bank-issued payment stablecoins to be treated as eligible collateral for futures commission merchants (FCMs). This formally opens a new institutional use case: regulated payment stablecoins as margin and collateral in derivatives markets, reducing the capital cost of maintaining separate cash and collateral positions.
Use Case 17. Trade Finance / Smart Contract LC
PILOT — Letters of credit and documentary collections are natural targets for smart contract automation. Stablecoins enable payment-against-document workflows where payment releases automatically when shipping documents are verified on-chain. [UOB]
UOB — Frames smart contract letter-of-credit automation as an emerging use case where the constraint is counterparty capability, not technology. [UOB]
Canton Network — The permissioned Canton Network's privacy-enabled architecture is designed for regulated financial institution trade finance workflows. [CD]
On-Chain Capital Markets (General)
PRODUCTION — On-chain capital markets infrastructure with stablecoins at the center is in production at significant scale. [CD] [EY]
JPMorgan JPMD on Base — JPMorgan Kinexys launched JPMD, its deposit token, on Coinbase's Base network in November 2025, enabling 24/7 institutional settlement on a public blockchain for the first time by a major U.S. bank. [CD]
Gemini RLUSD base pairs — Gemini deployed RLUSD as a base currency for institutional trading pairs. [CD]
Coinbase USDC as primary base currency — Coinbase uses USDC as its primary trading and settlement base currency across institutional and retail products. [CD]
RWA market context: Total real-world assets tokenized reached $20.8 billion TVL, up 97.6% in 2025. [CD]
Sources
| Tag | Report | Date |
|---|---|---|
| [EY] | EY-Parthenon — Stablecoins in Focus | Sep 2025 |
| [UOB] | UOB — Stablecoins in Regulated Finance | Mar 2026 |
| [VISA] | Visa / Dune — Beyond Dollarization | 2026 |
| [IMF] | IMF Working Paper WP/26/52 | Mar 2026 |
| [CD] | CoinDesk / Ripple — The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape: North America | Mar 2026 |
| [BVNK] | BVNK — Stablecoin Utility Report 2026 | 2026 |
v0.8 Batch 4 Reference Tables
v0.8 07-01-2026 Updates
The following compact tables summarize named deployments and maturity assessments extracted from Batch 4 reports, added as part of v0.8. Batch 4 consists of 10 industry reports (Jan–May 2026, plus one Oct 2025). Named deployments have been integrated into the prose above; these tables are retained as a research reference and quick-scan companion. Source codes are defined in the “Batch 4 source codes” block near the top of this page.
Batch 4 Source Key
| Code | Report | Publisher | Date | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZH | 2026 Stablecoin Momentum Report | Zero Hash | Jan 2026 | 49 |
| BVNK | Stablecoin Utility Report 2026 | BVNK | Feb 2026 | 57 |
| CIR | Internet Financial System Report 2026 | Circle | Jan 2026 | ~60 |
| ART | Stablecoin Payments: From the Ground Up | Artemis / Castle Island / Dragonfly | Oct 2025 | 25 |
| POL | Stablecoin Infrastructure Report | Polygon | Feb 2026 | 42 |
| CHAIN | The New Rails 2026 | Chainalysis | 2026 | 37 |
| SBC | Stablecoin-Based Cards Report | Research Series | 2026 | 44 |
| MCO1 | Stablecoin Use Report | Moody’s | May 2026 | 12 |
| PB | Stablecoin Analysis | PitchBook | Oct 2025 | 30 |
| DB | Digital Money Perspectives | Deutsche Bank | May 2026 | 30 |
Batch 4 Summary: Key Maturity Shifts from Batches 1–3
Batch 4 data represents a significant maturity upgrade across nearly all five demand vectors relative to Batches 1–3 (EY, IMF, UOB, Visa/Dune, CoinDesk/Ripple, BVNK v1, American Banker, Finzly). Key shifts:
-
Cross-Border Payments: Pilot → Production at Scale. Batches 1–3 flagged remittances and B2B corridors as “emerging” or “pilot.” Batch 4 confirms $28T adjusted stablecoin volume in 2025 (CHAIN), $76B annualized B2B run rate (ART), and specific corridor data (Argentina $34B, Nigeria $3B/month, Singapore–China dominant B2B corridor). Brazil’s Pix integration with USDC (April 2026, MCO1) marks a major systemic deployment milestone. Maturity upgrade: Emerging → Production (corridor-specific).
-
Treasury & Liquidity: Pilot → Production + Scaling. Batch 4 confirms $8B+ tokenized funds in circulation (CIR), BlackRock BUIDL + Franklin Templeton BENJI live as always-on sweep instruments (PB), and enterprise RFI growth of 400% YoY at Zero Hash (ZH). The “24/7 intraday settlement outside banking hours” use case (USDC vs. tokenized Treasuries) was a clear pilot in Batch 2; it is now cited as a live institutional practice (CIR, PB). Maturity upgrade: Pilot → Production for treasury sweep; Pilot for tokenized deposits.
-
Merchant & Commerce Settlement: Emerging → Production. Visa launched USDC settlement in the United States in December 2025, with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank settling over Solana (Visa). Visa’s program-wide settlement run rate reached $4.5B annualized by January 2026 (Reuters). Mastercard agreed to acquire BVNK (March 17, 2026; closed August 3, 2026; Mastercard). Monthly crypto card spending reached $1.5B by December 2025 vs. $100M in January 2023 (SBC, BVNK). Worldpay stablecoin settlement live via Zero Hash (ZH). Maturity upgrade: Pilot → Production for card settlement; Emerging → Pilot for POS merchant acceptance.
-
Programmable & Automated Payments: Emerging → Pilot, with new Agentic sub-vector. Batch 4 introduces the fully new Agentic Payments sub-vector: Coinbase x402 protocol on Base, 100M+ cumulative transactions through Q1 2026, tester-to-payer conversion improved 4x in 6 months (CHAIN). Sub-cent micropayments for AI agent resource access are now in early production. Also: Circle CPN launched May 2025, $3.4B annualized TPV. Maturity upgrade: Programmable Payments: Emerging → Pilot; Agentic Payments: New, Pilot/Early Production.
-
Institutional Capital Markets Infrastructure: Pilot → Scaling. Tokenized RWAs crossed $30B AUM (CHAIN). Asset-backed credit reached $1B in 6.1 months. JPMorgan announced JPMD deposit token on public chain (first bank deposit token on public chain, 2025; POL, DB). CFTC tokenized collateral for derivatives margin (December 2025 initiative, CIR). Maturity upgrade: Pilot → Scaling for tokenized securities settlement; Pilot for on-chain derivatives collateral.
Batch 4 Table — Demand Vector 1: Cross-Border Payment Friction
| Use Case | Maturity | Evidence / Examples | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remittances — LatAm corridors | Production | Félix Pago: Latin America cross-border remittances via Zero Hash, fees reduced up to 80%. Argentina: $34B stablecoin transactions in 2024, ~2/3 cross-border. | ZH, MCO1 |
| Remittances — Africa (Nigeria, Kenya) | Production | Nigerian USDC volumes >$3B/month in 2025. Yellow Card for African company treasury (live). | MCO1, BVNK, POL |
| Remittances — India, Mexico | Production | Stablecoins supplanting conventional remittance flows (ART survey data). Top sending countries: USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, UK. | ART |
| B2B Cross-Border Trade Payments | Production | $76B annualized B2B run rate as of Q3 2025; Singapore–China corridor most active. Stripe stablecoin payouts live. FIS + Circle USDC for thousands of banks (Jul 2025). | ART, POL, PB |
| Freelancer / Gig Worker Payouts | Production | Deel: 10,000+ freelancers paid in 100+ countries. Gusto: stablecoin payouts for distributed workforce. BVNK: freelancers receive ~35% of income in stablecoins; 73% improved ability to work internationally. | BVNK, ZH |
| Brazil Pix + USDC Integration | Production | USDC integrated into Pix (April 2026); reals convert to USDC through licensed institutions with full KYC/AML compliance. Pix itself reached 148M individuals and 12.8M businesses in 2025 (Banco Central do Brasil); USDC usage on Pix is not reported. | MCO1 |
| Circle Payments Network (CPN) | Production (early) | Launched May 2025. dLocal live in Brazil and Mexico (40+ countries). 100x growth in TPV to $3.4B annualized by late 2025. | CIR |
| Thunes + Circle Global Settlement | Production | 130+ country settlement using USDC, live. | POL |
| SWIFT Ledger with 30+ Banks | Pilot | Ledger ready for initial use July 9, 2026, with 17 banks piloting (Swift); first live cross-border tokenized deposit transaction August 19, 2026 (Standard Chartered and HSBC; Standard Chartered). Deutsche Bank contributing to Partior (next-gen cross-border settlement). | DB, PB |
| Wholesale CBDC cross-border (wCBDC) | Pilot | Project Agorá (BIS, 7 central banks, 40+ FIs). Fnality operational in GBP. Project Pontes (ECB) launched September 21, 2026 (ECB). | DB |
| Stablecoin-backed B2B import/export corridors | Production (EM-focused) | “Ramping up in LATAM, Africa, Asia.” SWIFT/correspondent banking pain. Importers/exporters using USDT/USDC as settlement rail. USDT: 85% share. Tron dominant blockchain by volume. | PB, ART |
Key volume data:
- $28T adjusted stablecoin volume in 2025 (133% CAGR since 2023) — CHAIN
- $136B attributed Jan 2023–Aug 2025 across 33 stablecoin payment companies surveyed — ART
- Real-economy stablecoin payments: ~$350B–$550B of actual transfers (BCG Jan 2026 estimate), growing ~60% YoY — DB
- World Bank global average remittance fee: 6.4%; stablecoin cost: 0.1–0.5% — MCO1, BVNK
Batch 4 Table — Demand Vector 2: Treasury and Liquidity Efficiency
| Use Case | Maturity | Evidence / Examples | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Treasury / Cash Management | Production | BVNK treasury services live. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton on stablecoin rails for capital movement. Enterprise RFI growth +400% YoY at Zero Hash. Brex USDC for businesses (Sep 2025). | ZH, BVNK, POL, PB |
| Tokenized Money Market Funds (yield sweep) | Production / Scaling | $8B+ tokenized funds in circulation. $1B USYC (Circle). BlackRock BUIDL + Franklin Templeton BENJI paired as always-on stablecoin sweep vehicles. RebelFi noncustodial yield on stablecoin positions. | CIR, PB |
| 24/7 Intraday Repo / Settlement Outside Banking Hours | Production (live) | Major FIs completed USDC borrowing vs. tokenized Treasuries outside banking hours (reported as live institutional practice, CIR). | CIR, PB |
| Stablecoin Prefunding for Payment Processors | Production | $3.6B annualized prefunding run rate (stablecoin lending to payment processors). | ART |
| FX Management / On-Chain FX | Production / Pilot | EURC/USDC on-chain FX pairs. EURC: 8x growth since MiCA June 2024; 50%+ euro stablecoin market share. JPMorgan live on-chain FX settlement for Ant Financial (Aug 2025). | CIR, PB |
| Smart Contract Treasury Automation | Pilot | Smart contract-based sweeping, multi-party escrow, dynamic rebalancing. Stripe + Modern Treasury: stablecoin-powered payment accounts launched. | PB |
| Interbank Settlement / JPM Coin | Production (internal) | JPMorgan JPM Coin: live for inter-affiliate transfers internally. JPMD deposit token live on Base since Nov 2025 (first bank deposit token on public chain). | POL, DB |
| African Corporate FX / Treasury | Production | Yellow Card for African companies (live). Revolut: $15.7B across all chains by 2026, $1.2B on Polygon. | POL |
| Stablecoin Accounts (ZH Ecosystem) | Production | 1.4B+ new stablecoin-ready accounts at PayPal, Cash App, Revolut, GCash, Nubank, MoneyGram, etc. ZH customers +146% YoY; volume +690% YoY. Users active in 106 countries. | ZH |
| Cross-border stablecoin lending / collateral | Pilot | Cross-border lending with smart contracts. Intraday funding/collateral mobility for broker-dealers (PB). CFTC tokenized collateral initiative (Dec 2025). | CIR, PB |
Key stat: ZH enterprise RFI growth of 400% YoY (2024→2025) signals institutional demand acceleration beyond retail.
Batch 4 Table — Demand Vector 3: Merchant and Commerce Settlement
| Use Case | Maturity | Evidence / Examples | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card-Linked Stablecoin Spending (Exchange-Custodial) | Production | Monthly crypto card spending: $100M (Jan 2023) → $1.5B (Dec 2025). Coinbase Card (JIT, Visa/Marqeta, US). Crypto.com EEA (Pre-funded, Visa). Bybit Card EEA (JIT, Mastercard, 3M users, MiCA Dec 2025). Kraken Krak Card (JIT, Mastercard, Nov 2025). Wirex (130+ countries). | SBC, BVNK |
| Visa USDC On-Chain Settlement | Production (live Dec 2025) | Live in the U.S. since December 16, 2025: Cross River Bank and Lead Bank settle VisaNet obligations in USDC over Solana; broader U.S. availability planned through 2026. Program-wide settlement reached a $4.5B annualized run rate by January 2026 (Reuters). Visa and Bridge plan to expand stablecoin-linked cards from 18 to 100+ countries by end-2026 (Visa). | Visa |
| Mastercard Stablecoin Settlement (RLUSD) | Pilot | Mastercard + Ripple + WebBank + Gemini testing RLUSD on XRPL for Gemini Credit Card (Nov 2025). RLUSD market cap $1.3B, BNY Mellon custody. Commercial scale expected 2026. Mastercard agreed to acquire BVNK in March 2026 (closed August 3, 2026). | SBC, BVNK |
| Merchant Network Settlement (Worldpay) | Production | Worldpay stablecoin settlement via Zero Hash for global merchants (live). | ZH |
| Stablecoin-linked Cards for Business/Treasury | Production | Visa enables stablecoin cards via Bridge, Ramp, Baanx, Rain. Mastercard + Fiserv + Moonpay. Visa stablecoin prefunding pilot (Sep 2025). | PB |
| B2C Payments / Consumer Stablecoin Purchases | Production / Emerging | $3.3B annualized B2C run rate. BVNK survey: 52% of respondents have bought something specifically because merchant accepted stablecoins. 71% would use a stablecoin-linked debit card. | ART, BVNK |
| Stablecoin Digital Wallets (Retail) | Production | RedotPay: 5M users, 100+ countries, USDC/USDT primary balance + Visa/Mastercard card. Kontigo: $1B payment volume, 1M users in first year. | POL |
| P2P Transfers | Production | $19B annualized run rate (ART survey). Binance Pay: 40M+ active users, 32,000+ merchants. | ART |
| POS Merchant Acceptance | Emerging → Production | “Moving from conscious consumer decision to background settlement process” (CHAIN). Stripe acquired Bridge. $390B annualized stablecoin payments (B2B + card combined). | CHAIN, BVNK |
| Brokerage / Trading Account Funding | Production | Interactive Brokers: instant stablecoin account funding via Zero Hash (live). Kalshi: regulated event-based market funding (ZH). | ZH |
Key stat: 71% of surveyed consumers would use a stablecoin-linked debit card (BVNK, YouGov, n=4,658, 15 countries). Monthly crypto card spending grew 15x in 24 months.
Batch 4 Table — Demand Vector 4: Programmable and Automated Payments
| Use Case | Maturity | Evidence / Examples | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic / Machine-to-Machine Payments (x402) | Pilot | Coinbase x402 protocol on Base. 100M+ cumulative transactions through Q1 2026. Transaction size growing: $1+ transactions = 95% share by early 2026 (up from sub-cent majority). Tester-to-payer conversion improved 4x in 6 months. AI agent resource access (compute, API calls, data). v1.0 update: 29M x402 transfers in August 2026, averaging 6 cents each; 89% bought infrastructure, analytics or data since Oct 2025 (Allium). | CHAIN, ALL |
| Agentic Commerce (AI-driven autonomous payments) | Emerging | Polygon describes as “early stages.” Smart contract automation enabling autonomous purchasing by AI agents. | POL |
| Smart Contract Escrow / Multi-Party Payment | Pilot | Multi-party escrow, dynamic rebalancing. Stripe + Modern Treasury stablecoin payment accounts. | PB |
| Humanitarian / NGO Conditional Disbursements | Production | UNHCR + Circle for Ukrainian refugees since Dec 2022 (live, expanded to LatAm). UN DHoTS: billions annually, 1M+ transactions, 15+ UN organizations. Conditional disbursement via programmable stablecoin rails. | CIR |
| Treasury Smart Contract Sweeping | Pilot | Smart contract-based sweeping of stablecoin balances into yield instruments. Dynamic rebalancing across chains. | PB |
| Streaming / Milestone-Based Payroll | Emerging | Referenced as next-generation contractor payout model (Gusto + ZH enabling milestone-based payouts). Not yet at production scale as distinct category. | ZH, BVNK |
| Compliance-Embedded Transfers (programmable KYC/AML) | Emerging | Brazil Pix + USDC: full KYC/AML embedded in stablecoin integration (MCO1). Policy layer for programmable compliance cited by multiple sources. | MCO1, CIR |
| On-Chain Prediction Markets / Event-Based Funding | Production (niche) | Kalshi: regulated event-based markets funded via stablecoin (live, ZH customer). Polymarket cited as high-volume on-chain prediction market. | ZH |
Key stat: x402 protocol: 100M+ cumulative transactions through Q1 2026. 4x improvement in tester-to-payer conversion in 6 months — the fastest-growing new use case in Batch 4 data. v1.0 update: Allium counts 29M x402 transfers in August 2026, averaging 6 cents each [ALL].
Batch 4 Table — Demand Vector 5: Institutional Capital Markets Infrastructure
| Use Case | Maturity | Evidence / Examples | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokenized Real-World Asset (RWA) Settlement | Production / Scaling | $30B RWA AUM as of early 2026. Asset-backed credit reached $1B in 6.1 months. “Moved beyond pilot programs.” BlackRock BUIDL, Circle USYC, Franklin Templeton BENJI. Ethereum RWA wallet activity spiking into 2026. | CHAIN, CIR, PB |
| Tokenized Money Market Fund (T-Bill Sweep) | Production / Scaling | $8B+ in circulation. USYC ($1B). BlackRock BUIDL + BENJI used by broker-dealers as always-on collateral. BNY digital asset custody live (2022). | CIR, PB |
| CFTC Derivatives Margin (USDC collateral) | Pilot | USDC for variation/initial margin in CFTC markets — December 2025 initiative. Named financial institutions completing pilot. | CIR |
| DvP / Atomic Settlement for Tokenized Securities | Pilot | AlloyX/Standard Chartered RYT token on Polygon (T+0 on-chain, live). DvP for tokenized assets cited as active use case by broker-dealers. | POL, PB |
| Intraday / Overnight Repo (USDC vs. T-Bills) | Production (live) | Major FIs completed USDC borrowing vs. tokenized Treasuries outside banking hours. Cited as live institutional practice. | CIR |
| JPM Coin Inter-Affiliate Transfers | Production (internal) | Live for JPMorgan inter-affiliate transfers. JPMD deposit token live on Base since Nov 2025 (first bank deposit token on public chain). | POL, DB |
| Tokenized Deposits (Bank-Issued) | Production (early) | JPM Coin (JPMD) live for J.P. Morgan institutional clients on Base since Nov 12, 2025 (CoinDesk). HSBC Tokenized Deposit Service live in the U.S. for corporate and institutional clients since Apr 13, 2026, and in Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg and the UK (HSBC). First live cross-border tokenized deposit transaction on the Swift ledger, Aug 19, 2026 (Standard Chartered). Live for vetted institutional clients only; no multi-bank U.S. network until The Clearing House's planned 2027 launch. Bank-issued stablecoins (SG-Forge USDCV, AllUnity EURAU, the nine-bank euro consortium) are e-money tokens under MiCA, not tokenized deposits. | DB, POL, linked releases |
| USDC Spot Trading / Capital Markets Liquidity | Production | USDC share of spot trading tripling YoY. $10T onchain USDC volume Q3 2025. USDC on Hyperliquid (~$4B circulation). | CIR |
| EURC FX / Borrowing / Lending | Production | EURC: 8x growth since MiCA June 2024; 50%+ euro stablecoin market share. Used for FX trading, borrowing, lending. | CIR |
| Stablecoin as Interbank Settlement Asset | Pilot | “Stablecoins can be used as interbank settlement assets for certain capital-markets and cross-border flows” — Deutsche Bank. Partior next-gen settlement (DB contributing). | DB |
| On-Chain Credit / Asset-Backed Lending | Production / Scaling | Asset-backed credit via stablecoins reached $1B in 6.1 months (CHAIN). Huma Finance, Credit Coop cited. | CHAIN, PB |
Key stat: Institutional capital is now outpacing retail in tokenized RWA adoption (CHAIN). $30B RWA AUM represents a 10x+ growth trajectory since Batch 3 data (EY/IMF era).
Batch 4 Cross-Vector Summary Matrix
| Use Case | Vector | Maturity | Primary Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2B cross-border trade payments | 1 | Production | ART, ZH, POL, PB |
| Remittances — LatAm/Africa | 1 | Production | ZH, MCO1, BVNK |
| Freelancer / gig payouts | 1 | Production | BVNK, ZH |
| Circle CPN | 1 | Production (early) | CIR |
| Brazil Pix + USDC | 1 | Production | MCO1 |
| SWIFT Ledger / Partior | 1 | Pilot | DB, PB |
| Tokenized MMF sweep | 2 | Production / Scaling | CIR, PB |
| Corporate treasury automation | 2 | Production | ZH, BVNK, POL |
| 24/7 intraday repo | 2 | Production (live) | CIR |
| Stablecoin prefunding | 2 | Production | ART |
| Smart contract treasury sweep | 2 | Pilot | PB |
| JPM Coin inter-affiliate | 2 | Production (internal) | POL, DB |
| Visa USDC on-chain settlement | 3 | Production (live Dec 2025) | SBC, PB |
| Card-linked stablecoin spending | 3 | Production | SBC, BVNK |
| Mastercard RLUSD settlement | 3 | Pilot | SBC |
| Worldpay merchant settlement | 3 | Production | ZH |
| POS merchant acceptance | 3 | Emerging → Production | CHAIN, BVNK |
| B2C stablecoin payments | 3 | Production / Emerging | ART, BVNK |
| Agentic payments (x402) | 4 | Pilot | CHAIN, ALL |
| NGO humanitarian disbursements | 4 | Production | CIR |
| Smart contract escrow | 4 | Pilot | PB |
| Streaming/milestone payroll | 4 | Emerging | ZH, BVNK |
| Tokenized RWA settlement | 5 | Production / Scaling | CHAIN, CIR, PB |
| USDC spot trading liquidity | 5 | Production | CIR |
| CFTC derivatives margin | 5 | Pilot | CIR |
| DvP atomic settlement | 5 | Pilot | POL, PB |
| Tokenized deposits (bank-issued) | 5 | Production (early) | DB, POL, linked releases |
| On-chain asset-backed lending | 5 | Production / Scaling | CHAIN, PB |
| EURC FX / capital markets | 5 | Production | CIR |
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Page History
21 reader-facing changes since 2026-05-29; last change 2026-10-13 (v1.0.1).
Show all changes
| Date | Release | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-13 | v1.0.1 | retire v0.9 DMA scores from the site; archive v0.9 page in research/archive; redirect old URL |
| 2026-10-13 | v1.0 | v1.0 restructuring, source verification and quarterly Research Sources |
| 2026-10-13 | v1.0 | merge duplicate BVNK entries (6 and 11), correct BVNK survey details and Mastercard deal dates; standardize Chainalysis code to [CHAIN] |
| 2026-10-13 | v1.0 | double period after Reuters citation |
| 2026-10-13 | v1.0 | restore Visa $4.5B run rate (Reuters, Jan 2026, program-wide) and Visa/Bridge 100+ country card expansion (Visa, Mar 3, 2026) |
| 2026-10-13 | v1.0 | remove unsupported Visa $4.5B run rate and expansion claims; credit U.S. USDC settlement launch to Visa press release |
| 2026-10-13 | v1.0 | Pix/USDC reach figure replaced with Banco Central do Brasil 2025 Pix user count; USDC usage not reported |
| 2026-10-12 | v1.0 | matrix status labels match v1.0 evidence — tokenized deposits to Production (early)/Now, wholesale central bank settlement to Near-Term, agentic payments to Pilot |
| 2026-10-12 | v1.0 | v1.0 evidence corrections — Swift ledger, DTCC production trades, Pontes launch, BUIDL wording, x402 data, Citi $1.9T credited to [CI30], Tether supply, Schnabel quote; add July–September 2026 history |
| 2026-10-12 | v1.0 | Verification pass: map matrix rows to DMA use cases, rate Global Business Payouts, correct DMA callout |
| 2026-10-12 | v1.0 | Maturity matrix numbering matches Use Case sections, adds Global Business Payouts and Related DMA Use Case column; Buyer Personas readiness sentence corrected |
| 2026-09-14 | v0.9 | Release change to v0.9. Added DMA score, combined Use Cases with Adoption, rewrote the score overview page, updated roadmap, and posted the 09-14 News Digest. note to home plus roadmap changes |
| 2026-07-12 | v0.8 refresh | Added Use Case Overview, Updated Use Case pages, and a Roadmap section. |
| 2026-07-12 | v0.8 refresh | Added Use Case Overview, Updated Use Case pages, and a Roadmap section. |
| 2026-07-11 | v0.8 refresh | Added Use Case Overview and updated existing pages |
| 2026-07-10 | v0.8 refresh | Updated main page data |
| 2026-07-01 | v0.8 | Restore user-edited use-cases files — production-pilots and solution-viability |
| 2026-07-01 | v0.8 | v0.8: Use-case pages with Batch 4 evidence merged |
| 2026-07-01 | v0.8 | v0.8: Batch 4 content integration — 57-company directory, regulatory, history, use cases, digest, research sources |
| 2026-06-06 | v0.8 | v0.7: [describe your changes] |
| 2026-05-29 | v0.7 | v0.6: initial commit - 1st MkDocs build, all docs as of 05-14-2026 |
Infrastructure and formatting commits are omitted. Release-level detail is in the Release Notes.