By Terence Tse and Dražen Kapusta
Are stablecoins the solution to companies’ nervousness about adopting cryptocurrency into their everyday operations? As Terence Tse and Dražen Kapusta outline, it’s a definite maybe.
Lenin allegedly once said, “There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.” Whether or not he really said this, the quote seems to be an apt description of the use of cryptos in businesses. Many businesses have, to date, shied away from introducing such technology into their operations. One development is an increasing number of companies hoarding bitcoins to bolster their valuation. However, this may hardly be a corporate strategy that the wider industry can adopt. A more robust corporate adoption of cryptocurrencies that has shown promise in the long run is to utilise stablecoins as a transformative force in corporate treasury operations.
This is not entirely surprising, given that stablecoins enable corporate treasurers to address longstanding issues with traditional fiat-based payment methods. The current widely used systems often struggle with speed, costs, and transparency. Various features of stablecoins have made them an appealing choice for companies operating across multiple currencies and regions. Let’s deep-dive into the benefits and challenges.
Advantages brought to corporate treasuries
Real-time and (much) cheaper
With fewer intermediaries involved in the payment network, blockchain-powered stablecoins significantly reduce transaction costs.
With the possibility of reaching near-instantaneous settlements, stablecoins are set to revolutionise the management of international cash flows. Traditional cross-border payments can take two to five business days (with no processing on weekends and holidays). Stablecoins, in contrast, typically take two to three minutes, if not seconds, at any time.1 With fewer intermediaries involved in the payment network, blockchain-powered stablecoins significantly reduce transaction costs. The difference can be vast. Traditional wired transfers typically cost $25 for domestic use in the US, and $40 to $50 for international use. Cross-border payments may incur fees ranging from 2 per cent to 4 per cent. The cost for using stablecoins is usually less than $1 in network fees.2 For instance, using the Solana blockchain platform for money transfer, the network fees are a mere 0.000005 SOL, equivalent to $0.0008.3 Indeed, the infrastructure required for stablecoin transactions is emerging. For instance, using a blockchain format that is designed for transaction speed and scalability, Europe’s HashNET can support treasury applications, capable of processing over 20,000 transactions per second. It is now running pilot treasury programmes within the EU.
Automated liquidity management
Corporate treasurers can programme the stablecoins in the liquidity pool to optimise cash positions. Programmability enables just-in-time funding, recurring payments, and auto-rebalancing of balances based on preset conditions or real-time data (e.g., topping up a subsidiary’s account if it falls below a specified threshold). This, in turn, reduces manual intervention and removes the need for pre-funding, which is the requirement to pay in advance or immediately for all transactions processed by the bank, regardless of the payment due date, across multiple jurisdictions.
Siemens used programmable payments to automate internal treasury transfers based on pre-defined conditions. On the other hand, Maersk utilised similar technology to automate bank guarantee payments when a vessel is cleared to transit a canal. As more banks explore these tools, programmable treasury could become more popular.4
Working capital optimisation
By preventing settlement delays and unlocking trapped liquidity, stablecoins enhance capital efficiency, reduce working capital needs, and improve supplier relationships. Allegedly, a global e-commerce platform was able to reduce its working capital needs by $120 million by eliminating pre-funded accounts across 15 countries.5 In addition to streamlining manual processes and enhancing accuracy in execution, stablecoin-based transactions can prevent reconciliation bottlenecks and facilitate automated compliance verification. Stablecoins can also aid cash flow forecasting. Real-time data and predictable settlements improve forecasting precision. Teamed with automated variance analysis, corporate treasurers are better equipped to plan more effectively.
Real-time visibility and compliance
Blockchain technology provides unprecedented transparency into treasury operations. Because every stablecoin transaction is permanently recorded on the blockchain, treasuries get a clear, time-stamped history. This enables real-time tracking, automatic record matching, and simplified audits. Treasuries can then easily demonstrate compliance and provide regulators or internal auditors with the whole transaction history. These benefits also include lower compliance costs and improved regulatory adherence. Indeed, programmability can potentially enforce internal liquidity and control policies automatically, such as limiting transfers to pre-approved counterparties or requiring multi-signature approval for high-value movements, reducing the risk of human error or fraud.
Exchange rate risk management
In high-inflation or capital-controlled economies, stablecoins offer businesses a more stable means of managing their cash. For instance, corporate treasuries can quickly convert local currency proceeds in these countries into stablecoins. By doing this, a business’s working capital is immediately protected from further value loss that would result from holding money in the weakening local currency. A company in an exchange-rate-volatile country that receives stablecoins as payments can preserve its income instead of having to convert it into the local currency.
Scalability and growth
Stablecoins can provide support for business growth and expansion through improved market entry and reduced expansion costs. It has been found that stablecoins give access to new customers in emerging economies and among unbanked populations by enabling online transactions. According to Stripe, users paying with stablecoins are twice as likely to be first-time buyers, indicating that these are customers who would otherwise have been unable to make a purchase.6 For the sellers, the cost of doing business in these countries—at least in terms of payment—could also be lowered.
In the context of bank relationship management, stablecoins reduce reliance on conventional banks, potentially leading to a 70 per cent reduction in bank accounts, simplify banking structures, lower maintenance costs, and enhance negotiating leverage.7
Scepticism and challenges
Transferring funds from stablecoin wallets to traditional deposit accounts may not be instant. It might also incur fees, raising questions about whether stablecoins are always more cost-effective than wire transfers.
Perhaps rightly, corporate treasury professionals remain cautious, particularly in developed countries with stable currencies. To begin with, companies in the US and Western Europe benefit from a strong local financial infrastructure, making the transition to stablecoins less urgent. Moreover, using stablecoins can introduce new operational complexities, such as managing multiple stablecoin wallets—one for each type—similarly to handling different currencies. Additionally, transferring funds from stablecoin wallets to traditional deposit accounts may not be instant. It might also incur fees, raising questions about whether stablecoins are always more cost-effective than wire transfers.
Furthermore, foreign users holding US-dollar-pegged stablecoins remain exposed to foreign exchange risk. Infrastructure readiness and integration complexity can pose challenges that demand dedicated resources to address. Lastly, treasury functions often tend to be risk-averse and slow to adopt new financial technologies without clear mandates, proven case studies, or regulatory reassurance. And all of these considerations are only worthwhile if compliance teams approve crypto or stablecoin integrations.8
The path to adoption is not frictionless
While the GENIUS Act offers a regulatory boost, corporate stablecoin adoption faces challenges, including requirements for large listed companies to seek approval from the regulatory committee before issuing stablecoins and agreements that prohibit data misuse or forced adoption. These hurdles, alongside evolving global regulatory frameworks like MiCA and UK efforts—which bring both clarity and compliance uncertainties—explain why companies often prefer partnering with banks like JPMorgan’s Kinexys or Citi’s Token Services, indicating that treasurers prioritise expertise over rushed adoption. Indeed, a long list of questions remains concerning the relationships between stablecoin issuance and cryptocurrency market dynamics.9
Nevertheless, stablecoins have clearly established a beachhead as a potential backbone for business operations, a possibility further underscored by major infrastructure initiatives like 8ra. As the largest open-source project in EU history, with a €3.2 billion budget involving 150 large European participants, this consortium represents a prime opportunity to create a real EU sandbox for stablecoin implementation, offering the scale and infrastructure needed for rapid deployment across the European market. Expect more decades to happen in weeks.
About the Authors
Terence Tse is Professor of Finance at Hult International Business School and co-founder at the AI Native Foundation. He is also co-founder and Executive Director of Nexus FrontierTech.
Dražen Kapusta is the founder of COTRUGLI Business School and HashNET. He leads the COTRUGLI initiatives, focusing on AI-augmented Vanguard leadership, NEO Finance, blockchain, SDGs, and digital sovereignty. Dražen advises UN and EU bodies on AI and blockchain strategies.
References
1. 15 Ways Stablecoins Are Transforming Treasury Operations [2025 Analysis]. Nilos. https://www.nilos.io/blog/15-ways-stablecoins-are-transforming-treasury-operations-2025-analysis.
2. Stablecoin Payments vs. Traditional Payment Rails: Cost, Speed, and Efficiency Breakdown. Bitwave. https://www.bitwave.io/blog/stablecoin-vs-traditional-transactions.
3. Understanding Solana Transaction Fees. Solana. https://solana.com/learn/understanding-solana-transaction-fees.
4. Stablecoins in 2025: The Strategic Playbook for Banks. TreasurUp. https://treasurup.com/stablecoins-strategic-playbook-banks-2025/.
5. 15 Ways Stablecoins Are Transforming Treasury Operations [2025 Analysis]. Nilos. https://www.nilos.io/blog/15-ways-stablecoins-are-transforming-treasury-operations-2025-analysis.
6. https://stripe.com/fr/resources/more/stablescoins-in-global-business#what-are-the-benefits-and-risks-of-using-stablecoins-for-business
7. 15 Ways Stablecoins Are Transforming Treasury Operations [2025 Analysis]. Nilos. https://www.nilos.io/blog/15-ways-stablecoins-are-transforming-treasury-operations-2025-analysis.
8. https://www.cfodive.com/news/crypto-regulatory-landscape-shifting-corporatetreasury/751265/
9. Stablecoins: Fundamentals, Emerging Issues, and Open Challenges. 18 July 2025. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.13883.
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