Comprehensive Analysis of Stablecoin Technology Stack: From Payment Applications to Settlement Networks

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, long settlement cycles, and high costs. Stablecoins are fundamentally changing the way cross-border value flows, business transactions, and individuals access financial services.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become a key infrastructure for global payments. Large fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are integrating stablecoins into consumer-facing applications and corporate cash flows. At the same time, emerging financial tools such as payment gateways, deposit and withdrawal channels, and programmable yield products have greatly enhanced the usability of stablecoins.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and business perspectives. It examines the key players shaping this field, the core infrastructure, and the demand dynamics driving its application. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins are giving rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economy.

1. Why choose stablecoin for payment?

To understand the influence of stablecoins, it is necessary to first examine traditional payment solutions. These traditional systems include cash, checks, debit cards, credit cards, international wire transfers ( SWIFT ), automated clearing houses ( ACH ), and peer-to-peer payments, among others. Although they have been integrated into daily life, the infrastructure for many payment channels has existed since the 1970s. Most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods face issues such as high fees, high friction, long processing times, inability to settle around the clock, and complex backend procedures. In addition, they often ( require payment ) for unnecessary additional services bundled with identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and banking integration.

Stablecoin payments are effectively addressing these pain points. Using blockchain for payment settlement greatly simplifies the payment process, reduces intermediaries, and achieves real-time visibility of fund flows, which not only shortens settlement time but also lowers costs.

The main advantages of stablecoin payments can be summarized as follows:

• Real-time Settlement: Transactions are completed almost instantaneously, eliminating delays in traditional banking systems.
• Safe and reliable: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures the security and transparency of transactions, providing protection for users.
• Cost reduction: Removing intermediaries has significantly lowered transaction fees, saving users money.
• Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets underserved by traditional financial services (, including unbanked populations ), achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of the Stablecoin Payment Industry

The stablecoin payment industry can be divided into four technical stack levels:

1. Layer One: Application Layer

The application layer is primarily composed of various payment service providers ( PSP ), which integrate multiple independent deposit and withdrawal payment institutions into a unified aggregation platform. These platforms provide users with convenient access to stablecoin, offer tools for developers developing in the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

The payment gateway is a service that facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers by securely processing payments.

Well-known companies innovating in this field include:

• Stripe: A traditional payment provider that integrates stablecoins like USDC for global payments.
• MetaMask: does not provide direct fiat currency exchange functionality itself, users can perform deposit and withdrawal operations through integration with its third-party services.
• Helio: 450,000 active wallets and 6,000 merchants. With the Solana Pay plugin, millions of Shopify merchants can settle payments with cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY to other stablecoins such as USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Some Web2 payment applications also allow users to make payments using stablecoins, further expanding the application scenarios of stablecoins.

The field of payment gateway providers can be clearly divided into two categories with certain overlaps (.

1. Developer-oriented payment gateways; 2) Consumer-oriented payment gateways. Most payment gateway providers tend to focus more on one category, thereby shaping their core products, user experience, and target market.

The developer-oriented payment gateway aims to serve enterprises, fintech companies, and businesses that need to embed stablecoin infrastructure into their workflows. They typically offer application programming interfaces )API(, software development kits )SDK(, and developer tools to integrate into existing payment systems, enabling features like automated payments, stablecoin wallets, virtual accounts, and real-time Settlement. Some emerging projects focused on providing such developer tools include:

• BVNK: Provides enterprise-level payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. BVNK offers API solutions to ensure seamless processes, features a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, and allows businesses to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies through enterprise accounts, along with merchant services that provide the necessary tools for businesses to accept customer payments in stablecoins. Handling over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a growth rate of 200%, valued at $750 million, clients include emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
• Iron )in beta(: Provides an API to seamlessly integrate stablecoin transactions into its existing business. It offers businesses global deposit and withdrawal channels, stablecoin payment infrastructure, wallets, and virtual accounts, supporting customized payment workflows) including recurring payments, invoicing, or on-demand payments(.
• Juicyway: Provides a range of enterprise payment, payroll distribution, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including Nigerian Naira )NGN(, Canadian Dollar )CAD(, US Dollar )USD(, Tether )USDT(, USD Coin )USDC(. Mainly targeting the African market, with no operational data available yet.

Consumer-focused payment gateways put users at the center, providing a simple and user-friendly interface for stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects that focus on providing users with this simple payment experience include:

• Decaf: An on-chain banking platform that facilitates personal consumption, remittances, and stablecoin transactions in over 184 countries; Decaf collaborates with local channels in Latin America, including Western Union) and MoneyGram(, achieving almost zero withdrawal fees, with over 10,000 users in South America and high ratings within a certain developer community.
• Meso: Deposit and withdrawal solutions, directly integrated with merchants, enabling users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoin with minimal friction. Meso also supports certain payment tools to purchase USDC, simplifying the process for consumers to obtain stablecoin.
• Venmo: The stablecoin wallet feature of Venmo leverages stablecoin technology, but its functionality is integrated into its existing consumer payment application, allowing users to easily send, receive, and use digital dollars without directly interacting with the blockchain infrastructure.

b. U Card

Cryptocurrency cards are payment cards that allow users to spend cryptocurrency or stablecoins at traditional merchants. These cards are typically integrated with traditional credit card networks, enabling seamless transactions by automatically converting cryptocurrency assets into fiat currency at the point of sale.

The project includes:

• Reap: A card issuer in Asia, with clients including Infini, Kast, Genosis pay, Redotpay, Ether.fi and over 40 other companies, selling white-label solutions, primarily relying on transaction fees ) such as Kast 85%-Reap 15%( collaborating with Hong Kong banks, covering most regions outside the US, supporting multi-chain deposits; by July 2024, the transaction volume reached $30M.
• Raincards: American card issuer, supports card issuance for multiple companies such as Avalanche, Offramp, takenos, etc., with the main feature being the ability to serve users in the US and Latin America. I issued a USDC corporate card to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business expenses using on-chain assets ) like USDC(.
• Fiat24: European card issuer + web3 bank, business model similar to the above two, supports card issuance for companies like ethsign, safepal; Swiss license, primarily serving European + Asian users, does not yet support full-chain transactions, only certain chain deposits. Growth is slow with a total of 20,000 users, monthly revenue $100K-150K.
• Kast: A rapidly growing U card on a certain blockchain, currently issued more than 10,000 cards, with 5-6k monthly active users, $7m transaction volume in December 2024, and $200k in revenue.
• 1Money: The stablecoin ecosystem has recently launched a credit card that supports stablecoins and provides a software development kit for easier L1 and L2 integration, currently in beta with no data available.

There are many cryptocurrency card providers, which mainly differ in terms of service areas and supported currencies, and they usually offer low fee services to end users to enhance the enthusiasm of users for using cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Second Layer: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin technology stack, payment processors are the pillars of payment channels, primarily covering two categories: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They act as a crucial intermediary layer in the payment lifecycle, connecting Web3 payments with the traditional financial system.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

• A certain deposit and withdrawal platform: supports over 80 types of cryptocurrencies, provides various deposit and withdrawal methods and token swap services, meeting users' diverse cryptocurrency trading needs.
• A certain network: covering over 150 countries, providing deposit and withdrawal services for more than 90 types of crypto assets. This network handles all KYC### identity verification(, AML) anti-money laundering( and compliance requirements, ensuring the compliance and security of deposit and withdrawal services.
• A payment system: a hybrid payment gateway solution that supports bidirectional exchange and payment between fiat currency and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination Processors

• Bridge: The core products of Bridge include Coordination API and Issuance API. The former helps enterprises integrate multiple stablecoin payments and exchanges, while the latter supports enterprises in quickly issuing stablecoins. The platform is currently licensed in the United States and Europe and has established significant partnerships with the U.S. State Department and the Treasury, possessing strong compliance operational capabilities and resource advantages.
• Brale )in beta(: Similar to the Bridge product, it is a regulated stablecoin issuance platform that provides stablecoin coordination and reserve management APIs. It has compliance licenses in various states across the United States, and partner enterprises must undergo KYB) enterprise identity verification(, while users need to set up an account on Brale for KYC. Brale's clients are mostly on-chain OG) such as Etherfuse, Penera, etc.(, which are slightly behind in investment endorsements and BD compared to Bridge.
• Perena )in beta(: Perena's Numeraire platform reduces the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide centralized liquidity in a single pool. Numeraire adopts a "central hub-spoke" model, with USD* as the central reserve asset serving as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism allows for the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of various stablecoins tied to different assets or jurisdictions, each stablecoin acting as a similar "spoke" connected to USD*. Through this system structure, Numeraire ensures deep liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as small stablecoins can interoperate through USD* without needing to provide decentralized liquidity pools for each trading pair. The ultimate design goal of the system is not only to enhance price stability and reduce slippage but also to enable seamless conversion between stablecoins.

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) 3. Layer Three: Asset Issuer

Asset issuers are responsible for creating, maintaining, and redeeming stablecoins. Their business model is usually centered around the balance sheet, similar to bank operations - accepting customer deposits and investing the funds in high-yield assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds to earn interest spread. At the asset issuer level, stablecoin innovation can be divided into three tiers: static reserve-backed.