Cloudflare issues NET Dollar: When "Internet utilities" personally intervene to reshape the global payment system

Original title: Internet world "invisible giant" Cloudflare launches stablecoin, what are the uses of enterprise stablecoins?

Original author: BlockBeats

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Reprint: Daisy, Mars Finance

You may not have heard of Cloudflare, but it is almost impossible to avoid its services when you are online.

This company is the "invisible giant" in the internet world. Whether you order takeout, watch short videos, open your email, or log into a company system, there is a high probability that you are passing through its network. It acts like a giant digital shield and accelerator, providing security protection and content distribution services for nearly one-fifth of the websites globally.

When the web pages you visit open instantly, and the apps you love can withstand hacker attacks, there is often the presence of Cloudflare behind it. It is truly the "water, electricity, and gas" of the internet, serving as the underlying infrastructure that supports the efficient and secure flow of global data.

On September 25, Cloudflare made a landmark strategic decision, extending its infrastructure into a whole new dimension by announcing the launch of its own stablecoin — NET Dollar.

Why issue your own stablecoin?

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince provided the answer, "For decades, the business model of the internet has been built on advertising platforms and bank transfers. The next era of the internet will be driven by pay-per-use, micro-payments, and micropayments."

Cloudflare's annual revenue exceeds 1.6 billion dollars, processing trillions of requests daily, making it the underlying electricity, water, and coal of the internet. However, in this vast digital network, payments are the only aspect not under its control. This feeling of loss of control is troubling an increasing number of large enterprises.

Apple settles hundreds of billions of dollars for App Store developers every year, Amazon handles massive cash flows for third-party sellers, and Tesla maintains payment interactions with over 3,000 suppliers worldwide. All these giants face the same friction: lengthy settlement cycles, high transaction fees, and complex cross-border compliance. More critically, they have lost control over the most core closed loop.

As business becomes increasingly digital and automated, this lagging financial infrastructure has become a bottleneck. Thus, large enterprises choose to respond in a more direct way: if they cannot change the old system, they will build a new one themselves.

Why do large companies need their own stablecoins?

The emergence of NET Dollar prompts a rethinking of the motivations behind stablecoin issuance. Unlike products like USDT and USDC that pursue universal circulation, Cloudflare's issuance of coins is more pragmatic, aiming to first address payment issues within its own business ecosystem.

The difference behind this is not small.

USDT and USDC initially targeted the entire crypto market, accumulating scale through broad acceptance; whereas NET Dollar currently seems more like an "internal currency" tailored for Cloudflare's business network.

Of course, the boundaries are not fixed. PayPal's PYUSD is a typical example; when it was launched in 2023, it only served PayPal's own payment system, but now it supports exchanges for hundreds of cryptocurrencies, far exceeding its initial scope.

Corporate stablecoins are likely to follow a similar path, transitioning from internal efficiency tools to broader circulation scenarios.

The key difference lies in the motivation. Traditional stablecoin issuers primarily rely on reserve investments to make profits, while companies issue stablecoins to optimize processes and gain control. This different starting point will determine their differences in design, application, and future paths.

For large companies, payment has always been the "last mile" of the business closed loop, but this part of the road is in the hands of banks and payment institutions, and there are the issues mentioned at the beginning of the article. Therefore, internalizing payment into their own system and rebuilding a controllable closed loop with stablecoin has become the strategic choice for large companies.

The true value of corporate stablecoins lies not in pursuing inflated narratives, but in their ability to cut through the pain points in processes like a scalpel, significantly enhancing efficiency.

In supply chain finance, this value is easier to see.

International supply chain finance is itself a system full of friction. A payment from the United States to Vietnam must cross multiple time zones, various currencies, and several banks. According to data from the World Bank, the global average remittance cost is still over 6%.

Average transaction cost for remittances to specific countries/regions (%)｜Source: WORLD BANK GROUP

Enterprise stablecoins can compress this process to a matter of minutes. American companies can directly transfer payments to suppliers in Vietnam within a few minutes, reducing costs to below 1%. The time funds are in transit is significantly shortened, thereby improving the turnover efficiency of the entire supply chain.

More importantly, the ownership of settlement power has also changed.

In the past, banks were intermediaries, controlling the speed and cost of transactions; while in the stablecoin network, businesses can take the lead in this key aspect.

In addition to efficiency, cost is also a burden that enterprises cannot ignore. The exchange rate losses, bank processing fees, and card organization channel fees in cross-border payments may seem like small expenses, but when accumulated, they can erode the competitiveness of enterprises.

The significance of enterprise stablecoins lies in this; they bypass traditional financial intermediaries and reconstruct the cost structure. The change is not only in the reduction of absolute amounts but also in the simplification and transparency of the structure. Under the traditional model, enterprises face a complex rate system, including fixed fees, percentage fees, exchange rate differentials, and intermediary fees, with opaque calculation methods that make it difficult to predict accurately.

In the stablecoin network, the costs are almost reduced to one item: the transaction fees on the chain. They are public, predictable, and relatively stable. As a result, businesses can more accurately calculate expenses and profits, and decision-making becomes more assured.

Comparison of traditional finance global payment process and stablecoin payment process｜Source: SevenX Ventures

Furthermore, the management of cash flow itself can also be transformed. Traditional practices rely on manual operations and banking systems, which are complex, inefficient, and prone to errors.

When a company's stablecoin is combined with smart contracts, the flow of funds can be automatically executed according to preset conditions. After the supplier delivers and passes acceptance, the payment is automatically released; when the project reaches a milestone, the corresponding funds are allocated immediately. Companies no longer need to manually operate by monitoring accounts but can write the rules into the contract.

The changes brought about by this mechanism are not just an increase in efficiency. The transparent and immutable payment logic reduces the trust cost between the cooperating parties and also resolves potential disputes in advance.

As more partners are integrated into the same payment system, the network effect begins to manifest. Suppliers, distributors, partners, and even end users all settle in the same stablecoin, and the value of the network will rise exponentially.

This value is not only reflected in scale but also creates a locking effect. Once deeply integrated into a certain enterprise's stablecoin system, the cost of switching to other systems becomes high, not only in terms of the cost of technical switching but also in terms of learning, relationships, and even opportunity costs.

This layer of stickiness will become the most solid moat for enterprises. In fierce competition, companies with a stablecoin ecosystem can not only better control costs and cash flow, but also rely on network effects to consolidate long-term advantages.

How enterprise stablecoins can enter various industries

Different industries have their own pain points, and enterprise stablecoins are being considered as potential solutions. They may not yet be widely implemented, but they have already demonstrated the possibility of integrating into real business operations.

E-commerce platform: Automation of margin, commission, and refunds

For e-commerce platforms, stablecoins are becoming experimental tools for building a new generation of payment infrastructure. The partnership between Shopify and Coinbase enables merchants in 34 countries to accept USDC settlements, but this is just the beginning.

The deposit paid by merchants upon entry can be directly written into a smart contract, automatically deducted in case of violations, and refunded automatically upon contract expiration. The platform commission can also be settled in real time; upon the completion of each transaction, the system automatically transfers it from the merchant's stablecoin account to the platform.

The refund process has also been reshaped. In the past, cross-border refunds often took weeks and went through layers of banking processes; if stablecoins are used, the funds can arrive in just a few minutes, providing a completely different experience.

Furthermore, stablecoins can support micro-payment scenarios. Consumers can pay for browsing product pages, pay for personalized recommendations, and even pay for priority customer service. These fragmented transactions, which are almost impossible in traditional payment systems, can be realized in a stablecoin environment.

Manufacturing Giants: A Unified Network for Supplier Payments and Inventory Financing

The globalization of the manufacturing industry is at its highest level, with supply chains often spanning dozens of countries. For companies like Apple and Tesla, coordinating payments, financing, and margins for thousands of suppliers is itself a massive system project.

If these companies issue their own stablecoins, they can establish an efficient and low-cost payment network internally. Payments to upstream suppliers, arranging inventory financing, and managing quality assurance margins, processes that previously required cross-bank, cross-currency transactions and relied heavily on manual work, can now be completed instantly within the same network.

More importantly, this digital payment system can be integrated with the existing management systems of enterprises. When the ERP detects a shortage of parts, it can automatically trigger an order and complete the payment; when the quality inspection system identifies problematic batches, it can also immediately deduct funds from the supplier's deposit.

Taking Tesla as an example, it has over 3,000 suppliers spread across more than 30 countries. If stablecoins are used for unified settlement, suppliers can directly use "Tesla Coin," with Tesla responsible for USD conversion, which not only reduces costs but also means having stronger control in key areas.

Content platform: New paths for revenue sharing and micropayments

The content industry is undergoing a creator-driven reconstruction. Whether it is short video platforms like YouTube and TikTok, or text platforms like Substack and Medium, the biggest challenge is how to efficiently and fairly distribute revenue to global creators.

Enterprise stablecoins are seen as a possible solution. They allow platforms to settle revenue shares instantly with creators around the world, without relying on a complex cross-border banking system, and can also avoid high fees. Furthermore, micro-payment mechanisms enable revenue distribution to be divided into finer slices.

YouTube pays creators hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue share every year, but payment methods vary by country, exchange rate fluctuations affect actual income, and tax processes are extremely complicated. If the platform builds its own stablecoin network, it can achieve a truly unified global settlement.

This mechanism may also give rise to new business models where readers can pay to read individual articles, viewers can pay for single video clips, and listeners can pay for a song. More refined value distribution not only allows creators to receive more direct rewards but also encourages them to produce higher quality content.

Cloud Service Providers: The Settlement Testing Ground for the Machine Economy

Cloudflare's NET Dollar can be seen as a typical case of cloud service providers attempting stablecoins. With the development of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, communication and transactions between machines have become increasingly frequent. They are characterized by high frequency, small amounts, and full automation, which traditional payment systems cannot accommodate.

In such scenarios, an AI model may need to pay for calling another model's API, an IoT device needs to settle the computing power it consumes, and an autonomous vehicle needs to pay for map services. These payments may only be a few cents or even a fraction of a cent, yet they could be triggered thousands of times in just one second.

Stablecoins, especially forms designed for programmatic trading like NET Dollar, can support such high-frequency, low-value automated payments. Machines can autonomously decide the timing, amount, and recipient of payments based on preset rules, without the need for human intervention.

To this end, Cloudflare has partnered with Coinbase to establish the x402 Foundation, which is developing a protocol that allows for direct payments between machines. When one AI model accesses the services of another model, the fees are settled instantly. This type of exploration is laying the necessary payment infrastructure for the future machine economy.

Cloudflare's x402 trial arena real-time demo interface｜Image source: Cloudflare

Stablecoin swaps and the new B2B payment network

Once every large enterprise issues stablecoins, the subsequent question is how these "corporate currencies" can interoperate. The answer points to a brand new B2B payment network.

In such a network, different enterprises' stablecoins can be seamlessly converted through exchange protocols, which may technically rely on the liquidity pools of decentralized exchanges. A vendor receiving payment in "Tesla Coin" can instantly exchange it for "Apple Coin" or USD, without having to go through the cumbersome banking system.

To make this system truly operational, there are still several hurdles that need to be overcome.

First is the exchange rate pricing. How is the exchange rate between different enterprises' stablecoins formed? This may require a supply and demand pricing mechanism similar to the foreign exchange market.

Secondly, there is the source of liquidity. Who will provide sufficient liquidity? Is it relying on professional market makers, or will it be through inter-company channels? There is currently no conclusion, and further exploration is needed in the industry.

Finally, there is risk management. During the exchange process, how to prevent credit risk and operational risk? This is not only a technical issue but also requires clear guidance at the compliance level.

Stripe has already made strides in this direction. In May 2025, it launched the world's first payment AI model and introduced a stablecoin payment suite. Businesses can simply activate it with one click on the platform to make settlements using USDC across multiple public chains such as Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.

Stripe's approach is clear: rather than issuing its own coin, it is better to enable more businesses to easily access stablecoin settlements, thus transforming itself into the underlying infrastructure for stablecoin payments.

Interestingly, "industry alliance stablecoins" may form within specific industries. For example, several major automobile manufacturers could jointly issue a type of "automobile coin" that covers the entire chain of settlement from parts procurement to vehicle sales. This unified currency system can significantly reduce transaction costs and promote industrial collaboration.

The complexity of the automotive industry chain makes it the most suitable testing ground. A car involves tens of thousands of components, with suppliers spread across the globe. If the entire chain settles using the same stablecoin, it can bypass the redundant processes of multiple currencies and banks, greatly simplifying payments.

The advantages of alliance stablecoins are also quite intuitive. The scale of the industry is sufficient to support liquidity, the trading model is standardized, and the closed loop reduces the impact on the traditional financial system. However, challenges also exist: how to balance the interests of different enterprises, whether large enterprises will take the opportunity to strengthen control, and whether the governance mechanism can remain transparent. These can only be answered through practice.

All ideas regarding corporate stablecoins ultimately hinge on regulatory compliance. Whether it is a single enterprise or an industry alliance, to gain genuine market acceptance, it is essential to establish transparent reserve custody, regular third-party audits, and sufficient disclosure to regulatory authorities.

In July 2025, the U.S. "GENIUS Act" will take effect, establishing clear legal boundaries for the issuance of stablecoins for the first time. Stablecoins with an issuance scale exceeding $10 billion must be subject to federal regulation, with reserves limited to U.S. dollars, bank deposits, or short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, and completely isolated from the issuer's other assets.

In August of the same year, Hong Kong's "Stablecoin Ordinance" was officially implemented. It requires issuers to hold at least 25 million HKD in paid-up capital, to be subject to ongoing supervision and annual audits by the Monetary Authority, and to establish a complete system for anti-money laundering and customer identity verification.

For enterprises, compliance is not just a "must-do" requirement, but a prerequisite for gaining trust. Without transparent and credible reserve management, even the strongest business logic is hard to persuade suppliers, partners, and customers to follow.

Stablecoin and the New Business Order

The emergence of corporate stablecoins is not just a change in payment tools, but a harbinger of the future restructuring of commercial order.

They deeply couple payment and systems, granting devices and programs independent economic capabilities. Autonomous vehicles can autonomously complete charging and settlement when the battery is low, and industrial robots can automatically place orders for procurement when parts are worn out, thus transforming machines from "tools" into true economic entities.

Micro-payments provide a new distribution logic for the content industry, where videos can be charged by the second, novels can be charged by the chapter, and software can be charged by functionality. Revenue is divided more finely, and the incentive mechanism changes accordingly.

After combining with artificial intelligence, the space for imagination is further expanded. Once AI agents have a stablecoin budget, they can autonomously purchase data, computing power, or other services to complete complex tasks.

In September 2025, Google launched the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), collaborating with sixty institutions to establish payment channels for AI agents, allowing them to settle directly when performing tasks. This means that AI will no longer just be a tool but will possess economic capabilities as "digital employees," forming new collaborative relationships with humans.

For banks and payment companies, this is a structural challenge. If enterprises can build their own payment and clearing systems, the role of traditional financial institutions in cross-border settlement and treasury management will be weakened. In the future, banks are more likely to shift towards roles such as reserve custody, compliance, and auditing, while payment companies will need to become infrastructure providers for stablecoins.

From a more macro perspective, corporate stablecoins may signify the emergence of a new commercial order. In this system, value creation and distribution will be accomplished with unprecedented efficiency, and business relationships will also become more transparent and efficient.

From the medieval Venetian notes to today's stablecoins, the logic has always been the pursuit of a more efficient medium of exchange. In this technology-driven transformation, no enterprise that wishes to have a place in the future digital economy can remain aloof.