Bits, blocks and bottom-lines: Corporate interest in stablecoins is growing – but what’s behind the rise?

Stablecoins are evolving from niche trading tools. Discover why they’re now part of the future of payments.

27 November 2025

6 mins

Corporate & investment bankingDigital solutionsFinancing, Securities Services & Custody

In recent years, stablecoins have emerged as a solution that enables faster, more efficient cross-border transactions and as an asset that operates as a store of value.  Stablecoins are blazing a trail for the future of payments.

Stablecoins are a blockchain-based digital asset whose original use was to facilitate trading on digital asset trading platforms. As digital assets that are designed to maintain a stable value – most commonly tied to the US dollar – stablecoins avoid the volatility associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, stablecoins’ other in-built advantages have seen their use expand into a range of areas that look set to eclipse that initial trade-facilitation role. Increasingly they are used for instantaneous and transparent cross-border payments, currency hedging, treasury management and for their ability to hold USD-denominated savings outside the banking system.

In turn, this has propelled a pivotal shift: Where stablecoins were once viewed as a niche cryptocurrency product, they are today increasingly recognised as a foundational tool in the future of business finance.

Winds of change drive demand

In part, this shift stems from the current US administration’s more open approach towards cryptocurrencies. With the US advocating strongly for cryptocurrencies, the stage is set for these digital assets to move from the periphery into the financial mainstream.

Rene Michau, Global Head of Digital Assets at Standard Chartered, says the acceleration of US legislation and regulatory developments is key to creating a clearer global framework for innovation.

In the past three months, we have seen and participated in very meaningful conversations about how stablecoins should be regulated, what innovation should look like and how crypto should exist within the US market.

Rene Michau

Global Head of Digital Assets, Standard Chartered

That is having a ripple effect elsewhere: Rather than treating cryptocurrencies as speculative or fringe, regulators and institutions around the world are evaluating how cryptocurrencies  can integrate into core financial functions. Simultaneously, the infrastructure for blockchain transactions is maturing to the point where it is reliable.

It is in this context that stablecoins are emerging as a crucial innovation, with corporate treasurers looking at stablecoin infrastructure particularly for cross-border payments. For some, their interest goes further: Including an allocation of Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies and digital assets in their corporate treasury.

Stablecoins as a real-world solution

With their unique advantages, Stablecoins are well-suited for cross-border payments, liquidity management and treasury operations—and using them for that process is well underway.

In Singapore, for instance, leading regional digital payment infrastructure provider StraitsX partnered in late 2024 with Ant International and Grab to enable Alipay+ users from nine countries and regions to make purchases at GrabPay merchants in Singapore using their respective local currency.

The cross-border settlement solution leverages StraitsX’s regulated XSDG stablecoin to give Singaporean merchants instant SDG settlement, no matter the customer’s original currency. The result is effortless transactions for both parties.

In this reinvention of money movement, such seamless integration is crucial. Users and merchants are not concerned about the technology—they want it to work reliably, and to enjoy faster settlements and lower fees. For corporates like Ant Financial and Grab, the use of stablecoins underpinned by StraitsX’s payments infrastructure delivers that time and cost efficiency.

At the same time, using stablecoins for cross-border payments brings the critical need for secure custody services. Whether companies handle transactions directly or through payments facilitators like StraitsX, they require trusted institutional-grade custodians. Standard Chartered provides much of this infrastructure within its ecosystem – including custody, APIs and FX execution between fiat and stablecoins – in order to seamlessly integrate with clients’ treasury platforms.

Stablecoins as a hedge against fiat volatility

Beyond the payments space, stablecoins are increasingly popular as a value-storage solution, particularly in regions with high currency volatility. Macroeconomic changes partially explain this shift: Corporates, for instance, have moved some capital from fiat to hard-money assets like gold, while individuals and companies use stablecoins, especially in the Global South, to avoid fiat currency debasement.

“Most stablecoins do not pay a yield to the end-user,” said Melvin Deng, CEO of digital asset trading firm QCP. “[Holders of US-denominated stablecoins] are effectively paying a four percent annual hedge against the debasement of their currency.”

For those users, though, paying that fee to hedge against local currency debasement is worthwhile. Additionally, stablecoins simplify cross-border funding and payments, while providing FX flexibility and real-time access to U.S. dollar-equivalent liquidity.

This array of advantages contains crucial lessons for corporate treasurers—many of whom remain anchored in fiat-based thinking yet who need to reduce FX volatility and inflation’s effects on their balance sheets. Stablecoins offer an alternative to traditional hedging tools, giving real-time access to US dollar-equivalent liquidity, while providing more efficient and transparent cross-border payments, instant transferability, and low barriers to entry.

A stablecoin future?

While barriers to adoption by finance teams exist—such as compliance concerns, evolving accounting standards and the perception of cryptocurrencies— we see progress in removing some obstacles. Recent legal opinions and accounting rule revisions, for instance, support treating certain stablecoins as cash equivalents on balance sheets.

Real-world benefits like improved efficiency, lower costs and the adoption of stablecoin-supported payments should drive greater acceptance. Yet more is needed, including educating finance teams and auditors to improve the understanding of stablecoins’ utility.

For corporates interested in the potential of stablecoins, there are three useful places to start. The first is to examine how long it takes them to move money internationally; the answer to that will open the door to what stablecoins can offer, particularly if their current solution takes days. The second is to increase the allocation of corporate cryptocurrency holdings on firms’ balance sheets.

The third, which is perhaps the most important, is to be proactive and start having  conversations now about the possibilities stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies can bring. Across the cryptocurrency universe access is improving, infrastructure is maturing and perceptions are shifting. The future of corporate finance and payments is being built now—and stablecoins are at its heart.