Stablecoins are increasingly being used for cross-border B2B payments rather than cryptocurrency trading. Corporate settlements have effectively become the primary use case for this class of digital assets.
The corporate sector is emerging as the main driver of stablecoin adoption. According to a Paybis study presented at the Money20/20 Europe conference, nearly one in four companies already uses stablecoins for international settlements or plans to implement them within the next year. Meanwhile, corporate transactions now account for nearly 98% of total stablecoin transaction volume.
The quantitative findings presented in the report are based on internal Paybis platform data, as well as a survey of business representatives conducted by the company’s analysts.
The market structure has changed significantly over the past three years. In 2023, B2B transactions accounted for just 36% of stablecoin transaction volume. That figure rose to 70.1% in 2024, 96.9% in 2025, and reached 97.8% between January and April 2026.
At the same time, stablecoins are playing an increasingly important role in digital payments overall. Their share of total cryptocurrency transaction volume increased from 12% in July 2023 to 86% in April 2026. Total stablecoin transaction volume reached $2.81 billion in May 2026, while annual volume grew 7.2 times in 2025. During the January through April 2026 period, transaction volume was 135% higher than during the same period a year earlier.
The business survey showed that stablecoin adoption for international settlements is gradually expanding beyond a limited number of industries.
- 13.4% of companies already use stablecoins for cross-border payments;
- 9.1% plan to adopt them within the next 12 months;
- 59.8% do not currently use stablecoins;
- 17.6% were unsure.
As a result, 22.5% of companies either already use stablecoins or are preparing to adopt them for international settlements.
Stablecoin-based corporate payments are most widely used across five sectors, which together account for 78.4% of total B2B volume:
- Digital goods — 21.4%
- Virtual asset companies — 15.8%
- Technology — 15.1%
- Retail and e-commerce — 14.5%
- FinTech — 11.6%
The study also identified a persistent knowledge gap regarding stablecoin capabilities. Specifically, 47% of respondents believe an international stablecoin transfer takes anywhere from one hour to a full day. In practice, settlements are typically completed within seconds or minutes, depending on the blockchain network used.
A similar misconception exists around transfer costs. One-third of respondents expect fees of roughly 3%, while 32% believe they are approximately 0.01%. According to the analysts, these misunderstandings may slow stablecoin adoption despite their advantages in the speed and cost efficiency of international settlements.
It’s worth noting that analysts at a16z crypto concluded as early as April 2025 that stablecoins were becoming an alternative global payments infrastructure. According to their data, cross-border transfers conducted via stablecoins reached $15.6 trillion in 2024, while transaction costs averaged around $0.01.
