Stablecoins in global payments: are they the definitive model for companies that import?

Anyone who imports knows the routine. You close the order, pay the supplier abroad, and wait for the money to cross the banks before they release the shipment.

In recent months, news involving Mastercard, Capgemini and Jeeves raised a question: will stablecoins be the definitive model for these payments? The short answer is that the market is pointing in that direction, but "definitive" is still too early to say. Here are the facts.

First: what is this, in plain English

A stablecoin is a digital currency linked to the dollar, designed to hold a stable value. Here at Lexxen, we call it digital dollar. The most widely used are USDT and USDC.

It works around the clock, including weekends and holidays, and serves only as a path for money to cross from one country to another. It is not an investment.

Why the question came up now

According to a Capgemini study released by Exame in September, 74% of companies describe international payments as slow, expensive and unpredictable. On average, an international corporate payment takes 3.5 days to complete.

A large company operates, on average, in 14 markets and maintains 11 banking relationships. For those who import, every day in this crossing means a stalled order and a delayed shipment.

What Mastercard, Capgemini and Jeeves said:

In August, Mastercard and Borderless announced a pilot to bring more security and compliance to international transfers made with stablecoins. In the pilot, Mastercard does not process or settle the money, it only acts as a verification layer. The news came right after it completed the acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure company, for US$ 1.8 billion.

The study shows that 60% of companies are willing to hire stablecoin services. The company's CEO in Brazil told Exame that stablecoins tend to become consolidated as international payment infrastructure, with less bureaucracy, faster settlement and lower costs in some operations.

What this points to: companies want to move these amounts more easily than the traditional system allows. The safest reading is to treat the digital dollar as the new PIX for paying suppliers and making international transactions with more speed, no bureaucracy and fewer days of waiting.

What changes in practice for importers

- Timing: a supplier payment that used to take days can take minutes on instant payment methods.

- Predictability: you know the cost and the timeline before sending.

- Fewer banks in the middle: less deducted along the way and fewer surprises for the supplier.

- Hassle-free for the supplier: they receive in their own currency, through the method their bank already uses.

How Lexxen fits into this calculation

Lexxen uses the digital dollar (stablecoin) as the path to carry out global payments. That way, the payer and the receiver use the local payment methods of their own country, as they already do day to day.

The process works in three steps:

1. The payment starts in the origin currency. You use your balance to start the operation, and the amount enters the payment route.

2. The money crosses as digital dollars. The transfer happens through stablecoins, without depending on the traditional system or on banks' business hours.

3. The supplier receives in local currency. The amount arrives through the payment method available in the destination country, such as SEPA, Wire, ACH, SPEI, Faster Payments, Bre-B and others.

All of this on one platform: international accounts in dollars, euros, pounds, Mexican pesos and Colombian pesos, conversion between six currencies with the rate on screen before you execute, payments to suppliers abroad (including in China), an API to integrate with your system, and a fee simulator so you can check the final amount.

Import from abroad? Click the card below and see how it would look in your case.