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Video
August 31, 2026

understanding payment stablecoins and their impact

What Financial Institutions Can Do to Prepare for a Hybrid Monetary Future

Executive Summary

As payment stablecoins gain traction, you can take steps to prepare:

  • Look past the hype: Near-term use cases are institutional and global, giving most financial institutions time to plan without rushing into new markets.

  • Evaluate strategically: Assess how tokenized money could impact deposits and lending, and identify future use cases that would create meaningful value to your existing and prospective accountholders.

  • Be the bridge: Modernize tech infrastructure to connect fiat and on-chain networks, so you remain your accountholders’ financial hub.

Q & A

How are stablecoins being used today?

Currently, stablecoins are primarily used for me-to-me and institutional exchange transfers, not everyday payments between counterparties. A small subset of consumers use them to convert cryptocurrencies across different chains. However, on the commercial side, usage is heavily concentrated in international business transfers, institutional payments, foreign exchange (FX), and cross-border transactions.

What is the current volume and projected usage of stablecoins?

Many projections overstate the reality of stablecoin payments by looking at total market cap rather than actual payment volume. The Kansas City Fed reports that payments represent only 0.7% of current stablecoin volume.

How will payment stablecoins be used in the near future?

Over the next one to three years, the most plausible use cases for payment stablecoins will remain global, business, and institutional in nature. This means the immediate impact will not disrupt the day-to-day operations of most banks and credit unions.

How should financial institutions prepare for increased stablecoin adoption?

Look past the FOMO and take time to think strategically. Use this window to evaluate not only which stablecoin use cases make sense for your most important and prospective accountholder segments, but also whether stablecoins are the best form of tokenized money to support your specific deposit franchise and lending capacity in the longer term.

What is the most critical step financial institution leaders should take right now?

Evaluate your core infrastructure. Ensure your current tech stack and systems can serve as a seamless bridge between traditional fiat networks and on-chain monetary networks. Tokenized money – whether stablecoins or tokenized deposits – acts as a bridging mechanism. By modernizing your infrastructure to reconcile, settle, and orchestrate across both environments, you can remain the indispensable financial hub for your accountholders across all use cases and future forms of regulated tokenized value.

take the next step to defend your deposits and payments

Uncover strategies to preserve accountholder relationships in our white paper, How Stablecoins Are Disintermediating Deposits and Payments, and in the 2026 Strategy Benchmark

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