Eliminating archaic payments systems with stablecoins  

18 March 2025

Cointelegraph by Simon McLoughlin

  ​

Eliminating archaic payments systems with stablecoins

Opinion by: Simon McLoughlin, CEO at Uphold

2021 witnessed a fintech investment boom, with startups raising approximately $229 billion globally. Higher interest rates and tighter economic circumstances have since tempered that exuberance, but funds continue to pile into the sector. Indeed, the global fintech sector is expected to see a rebound in investment activity throughout 2025.

Why are investors continuing to bet big on this sector? The answer is simple. The current international finance system is in urgent need of modernization. Built for a pre-internet age, it relies on outdated processes, chains of intermediaries and a patchwork of non-standard regulations. 

An aging and expensive system

Take SWIFT as a case in point. Founded in 1973, SWIFT remains the backbone of cross-border payments. SWIFT is nothing more than a messaging system that enables banks to communicate around transactions. It was never designed to manage funds or process transactions. As a result, a “make do and mend” approach has grown around international payments, characterized by a proliferation of intermediaries and local payment rails.

This antiquated, fragmented system creates significant friction in cross-border transactions, leading to delays, high costs and limited choice for individuals and businesses outside major economic blocs. Fees for international payments currently average 1.5% for businesses and all the way up to 6.3% for remittances. Payments can take up to several days to reach recipients.

This system hinders global commerce and exacerbates financial exclusion, particularly in the global south, where volatile local currencies and limited access to traditional banking services are common.

Many of these friction points could be resolved by stablecoins, making transferring money across borders as easy as sending an email. Indeed, the blockchain-based currency has the potential to revolutionize global finance. 

Democratizing access to fiat currencies

For people in countries with volatile economies or unstable governments, stablecoins offer a safe haven for savings. Stablecoins pegged 1:1 to a fiat currency such as the US dollar provide consumers in these regions with a way to escape their national financial system with a trustworthy and transparent alternative that protects them from inflation and currency devaluation. This is particularly important in the global south, where economic instability can erode the value of hard-earned income and savings. 

According to UBS, consumers in developing countries are also attracted to stablecoins due to the lower risk of government interference with the currency. The wealth management firm believes stablecoins are increasingly seen as “digital dollars” and used for everything from savings to transactions to remittances in these regions. 

Empowering small businesses and freelancers

Stablecoins can significantly reduce the costs and complexities associated with international payments, enabling small businesses and freelancers to participate in the global marketplace on a more level playing field. This opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurship and economic growth in developing countries.

Recent: Dubai recognizes USDC, EURC as first stablecoins under token regime

In our current payment system, physical money does not cross borders — only information does. A payroll company looking to pay a freelancer in a third country cannot do so directly and must use systems like Stripe, which uses virtual bank accounts to get around the problem.

With stablecoins, payroll companies can pay in any currency to any currency, using crypto on- and off-ramps to facilitate the payment. The business pays in dollars, for example, which is on-ramped to Tether’s USDt (USDT) and sent to the freelancer’s digital wallet, where they can either keep it or off-ramp it to their local currency. Stablecoins will prove to be, and are, a vital tool in helping businesses access global talent and fill their skills gaps. 

Facilitating financial inclusion

Through offering an alternative to traditional banking systems, stablecoins also provide financial services to the unbanked and underbanked populations. This can be particularly transformative in regions with limited access to traditional financial infrastructure or in countries like Argentina, where there is low confidence in the national monetary system. 

According to the Bank for International Settlements, stablecoins can enable a wide range of payments and provide a gateway to other financial services, replicating the role of transaction accounts as a stepping stone to broader financial inclusion. 

Given their ability to provide access to financial services anywhere with an internet connection, stablecoins are seeing explosive growth in emerging markets. Use cases are expanding rapidly across Africa, Latin America, and parts of developing Asia, where they are being used to hedge against inflation, for remittances and cross-border payments, and as a simpler alternative to US dollar banking. This growth trajectory can be expected to continue in the years ahead. 

A shot in the arm for global business

Stablecoins are rapidly rising in popularity and already total more than $233 billion in market capitalization, while transaction volumes in 2024 reached $15.6 trillion, surpassing those of Visa. In an increasingly uncertain world, they offer a stable, low-cost and rapid means of transferring money across borders, helping to increase financial inclusion and smooth access to global talent for employers. Stablecoins are a digital-first financial tool for a digital-first world and are ideally suited to replacing the current archaic international payments system. 

Opinion by: Simon McLoughlin, CEO at Uphold

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

 

You might also like

Congress on track for stablecoin, market structure bills by August: Blockchain Association  
Congress on track for stablecoin, market structure bills by August: Blockchain Association  

United States lawmakers are on track to pass legislation setting rules for stablecoins and cryptocurrency market structure by as soon as August, Kristin Smith, CEO of industry advocacy group the Blockchain Association, said during Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.Smith’s timeline echoes a similar forecast by Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, who said on March 18 that he expects to see comprehensive stablecoin legislation in the coming months. “I think we’re close to being able to get those done for August they’re doing a lot of work on that behind the scenes right now,” Smith said on March 19 at the Summit, which was attended by Cointelegraph. “I’m optimistic when you have the chairs of the relevant committees in the House and the Senate and the White House that want to do something and you’ve got bipartisan votes in Congress to get it there,” she added.US President Donald Trump sits beside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the March 7 White House Crypto Summit. Source: The Associated PressBipartisan supportAt the Digital Assets Summit on March 18, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna said he believes Congress “should be able to get” both the stablecoin and crypto market structure bills passed in 2025. According to Khanna, approximately 70 to 80 Democrats see stablecoin legislation as important for promoting US influence by expanding access to dollars globally.“For the first time those are actually like something we’re able to get done, but to do that you need to have at least 7 Democratic votes in the Senate,” Smith said, adding that “we already have 5 votes at the committee level.”Last week, the Senate Banking Committee approved the GENIUS Act, which is an acronym for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins. The proposed bill sets collateralization guidelines for stablecoin issuers and mandates compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.In 2024, the House of Representatives passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, also known as FIT21, which sets ground rules for crypto market structure. The bill still needs to pass in the Senate to become law. Executives in crypto have said that the industry will benefit more from US regulatory clarity than even the strategic Bitcoin reserve.On March 6, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile, fulfilling a campaign promise he made in 2024.“Markets expect a roadmap for innovation and clear guidelines on stablecoins, institutional adoption and taxation,” Max Giammario, CEO of Web3 artificial intelligence startup Kindred, told Cointelegraph in March.Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

US needs competitive moat around tokenized RWA — Sergey Nazarov  
US needs competitive moat around tokenized RWA — Sergey Nazarov  

The United States needs to establish a competitive moat around highly secure tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to remain competitive in the age of borderless, permissionless finance, according to Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov.In an interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, Nazarov said that blockchain is a global phenomenon that relies on open-source software and distributed technology, unlike previous technological shifts.The executive added that the shift to online commerce, which gave the US a competitive advantage due to a five- to 10-year head start on the development of internet infrastructure, is not applicable in the age of digital finance. The executive told Cointelegraph:“The US really has to push its other two advantages of a very strong domestic market and the ability for it to create these highly reliable financial assets. And this is what I think the administration and the people in the legislature are now starting to understand.”Real-world tokenized assets could become a $100-trillion market in the coming years, as the world’s assets come onchain, the Chainlink executive predicted.Sergey Nazarov takes part in a panel at the 2025 Digital Asset Summit. Source: Turner Wright/CointelegraphRelated: Ethena Labs, Securitize launch blockchain for DeFi and tokenized assetsTokenized RWAs reach all-time highsAccording to RWA.xyz, real-world tokenized assets, excluding stablecoins, hit an all-time high in 2025, topping $18.8 billion.Private credit took up the lion’s share of the total RWA market capitalization, with over $12.2 billion in tokenized private credit instruments permeating the market at the time of this writing.Total tokenized real-world assets, excluding stablecoins. Source: RWA.xyzAsset tokenization can make previously illiquid asset classes, such as real estate, more liquid, eliminating the illiquidity discount inherent in physical properties.In February, Polygon CEO Marc Boiron told Cointelegraph that tokenizing real estate could fractionalize ownership, eliminate intermediaries, and lower settlement costs —transforming the slow-moving sector.This real estate overhaul can be seen in Turkey, with projects such as Lumia Towers, a 300-unit mixed-use commercial real estate development that was tokenized using Polygon’s technology. It’s also taking place in the United Arab Emirates, which is considered one of the hottest property markets in the world. Proactive digital asset regulations are driving a tokenized RWA boom in the Gulf state as institutional investors and developers flock to tokenization as an alternative method of capital formation.Magazine: Real life yield farming: How tokenization is transforming lives in Africa

SEC dropping Ripple case is ‘final exclamation mark’ that XRP is not a security — John Deaton  
SEC dropping Ripple case is ‘final exclamation mark’ that XRP is not a security — John Deaton  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission dropping its appeal against Ripple is the “final exclamation point that these [XRP] tokens are considered digital commodities, not securities,” crypto lawyer John Deaton told Cointelegraph.Deaton added that there is still a $125-million judgment against Ripple over the improper selling of the XRP (XRP) cryptocurrency, which perhaps the company can negotiate down now that the SEC has dropped its appeal.Deaton is a well-known lawyer who represented XRP holders, arguing that their interests were not being represented in the SEC’s case against Ripple. He’d later run against Elizabeth Warren, a vocal crypto critic, for a senate seat to represent Massachusetts in Washington, DC.Related: Why is the Ripple SEC case still ongoing amid a sea of resolutions?Will Ripple drop its cross-appeal?One factor that will play out going forward is Ripple’s cross-appeal, which was filed in October 2024. Deaton believes the SEC doesn’t want Ripple to proceed with the cross-appeal because a ruling could hurt the commission’s jurisdiction and affect other cases.That gives Ripple some leverage in negotiating the settlement. “Everything’s turned,” Deaton said. “The election’s turned, the industry turned, the SEC [has] completely done a 180 as it relates to the industry. Why should we pay $125 million?”However, there still is the issue of the injunction issued by Judge Analisa Torres, which prevents Ripple from selling XRP to institutional investors to prevent violation of securities laws.“If Ripple obviously wants to be able to issue XRP to banks in America directly, I think the hang-up is that injunction and how do you get past that injunction,” Deaton said.Related: XRP’s role in US Digital Asset Stockpile raises questions on token utility — Does it belong?Ripple case was an attack on the industry“I remember when this case was first filed,” Deaton told Cointelegraph, adding:“I thought it was an assault on the industry, like the boot on the neck of the industry, and I was confident that it wasn’t going to be just a one-off, that it wouldn’t just be Ripple, that it was more of a message that the traditional finance, the banking system, the Elizabeth Warrens and the Gary Genslers of the world, had it in for the industry.”He added that Ripple can appeal to the fact that it never left the US even after the SEC brought the case and that it is an American-made company.“I think it’s to do with Brad Garlinghouse being able to say, ‘Well, look, we got sued by the US government and the Biden administration; we’re an American-made company, you know, [and] we never left.’ And I think that bodes well.”Magazine: Hall of Flame: Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner says Ripple is ‘despicable,’ tips hat to ZachXBT

Open chat
1
BlockFo Chat
Hello 👋, How can we help you?
📱 When you've pressed the BlockFo button, we automatically transfer to WhatsApp 🔝🔐
🖥️ Or, if you use a PC or Mac, then we'll open a new window to load your desktop app.
BlockFo
BlockFo