Bill Deng, CEO of China-based fintech platform XTransfer, thinks stablecoins can help finally digitize business-to-business transactions, often still stuck in a world of PDFs and emails.
Much of cross-border trade now operates around the clock. Ports, airports, and fulfillment centers work at all hours of the day.
But “when it comes to money, there’s no 24/7 infrastructure,” Deng complained during an interview with Fortune on the sidelines of the Forum Ekonomi Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in early February. Business-to-consumer and peer-to-peer financial transactions–even across borders–can now be done in minutes. Yet, in the business world, “they negotiate deals via pro forma invoices, and they still exchange information via email,” he says.
Stablecoins–digital tokens tied to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar—can make payments “more transparent, faster, and with a much lower cost,” Deng argued. “For domestic payments, stablecoins do not add that much value. But for cross‑border transactions, they can be extremely valuable.”
Several governments, including the U.S., Japan, and the Chinese city of Hong Kong, have set up regulatory frameworks for stablecoins. The total market value of all stablecoins is now $300 billion, up by 75% year-on-year. But there’s still a long way to go before stablecoins start to play a role in cross-border payments: A McKinsey estimate put annual stablecoin payments at only $390 billion, or just 0.02% of the total.
