We build stablecoin payment infrastructure, so it is worth being plain about where it is the wrong tool.
What cards still do better
- Reach. Almost every customer has a card. Few hold USDC in a self-custody wallet on the right chain, with a little ETH for the network fee. For a consumer shop, stablecoins are an extra option at checkout, not a replacement.
- Protection for the payer. Card payments can be disputed for months through a chargeback. A stablecoin payment is pushed by the payer and can’t be pulled back, so money sent to a scammer is gone.
- Currency. Cards settle in almost any local currency. Stablecoins are mostly dollars, with euros a small second. A business with costs in euros carries the exchange-rate risk or converts.
- The edges. If either side lives in bank money, someone has to convert into and out of the stablecoin. Those on-ramps and off-ramps carry their own fees, spreads and compliance checks.
What stablecoins do better
US merchants paid a record $198 billion in card processing fees in 2025, about 2.4% on Visa and Mastercard credit cards, and waited one to three business days for the money. A cross-border bank transfer of $200 cost about 6.5% on average in early 2025, according to the World Bank, and banks close at weekends.
A stablecoin payment arrives in seconds to minutes, at any hour, for a network fee that is usually a few cents on a layer-2 chain.
Where that leaves you
Stablecoins win today on large or cross-border business payments, platform payouts to many countries, and settlement outside banking hours. Business-to-business payments were the largest share of real stablecoin payments in 2025, at about $226 billion.
The open questions
Regulation is catching up but not finished. In the EU, MiCA has applied to stablecoin issuers since June 2024. In the US, the GENIUS Act became law in July 2025, but regulators missed the July 2026 deadline for its implementing rules. Accounting treatment varies too, and many finance teams still book stablecoins as crypto-assets rather than cash.
None of this is a reason to wait. It is a reason to start where the advantage is largest, which is rarely the consumer checkout.
Sources: Nilson Report via the Merchants Payments Coalition; World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide, March 2025; McKinsey & Company with Artemis Analytics.
