For years, the payments industry saw cryptocurrency as a niche, volatile asset for speculators and managed it as an alternative payment method through third-party processors. That time is now over.
Cryptocurrency is shifting from a speculative asset to a stable tool, led by big names in traditional finance. For payment gateways, integrating crypto is now a must. The key question is how to do it, and the answer is to take ownership.
This goes beyond just choosing new technology. Payment gateways need to adopt crypto processing to keep growing and stay competitive as the industry becomes more digital.
The Main Players
A clear sign of change is that market leaders are now taking decisive action.
Stripe, one of the largest payment service providers, has fully embraced this change. They were the first major fintech firms to support bitcoin payments in 2014. Stripe anticipated the use of stablecoins, and in 2024, they found a partner in an unusual way. Here is an interesting article on how Stripe and Bridge crossed paths. Take a look. And in February 2025, they acquired the stablecoin platform Bridge. As Zach Abrams put it: "Stablecoins aren't the future—they're already transforming how people move money".
Our assessment is that people at Stripe couldn't agree more and are prepared for an aggressive stablecoin push. By May, Stripe announced Stablecoin Financial Accounts, showing they are deeply integrating stablecoin infrastructure. We noted this earlier.
"Stablecoins are common sense. They’re digital dollars that are faster, cheaper and more accessible than the legacy system. We’ve been waiting for this moment for 15 years."
Card networks are also evolving. Mastercard and Visa are aggressively building end-to-end capabilities for stablecoin transactions. They understand their future isn't just in card rails; it's in being a network of networks, with stablecoins as a mandatory, integral part of future payments.
For example, Mastercard has partnered with crypto companies like MetaMask, Kraken, Gemini, Bybit, Crypto.com, Binance, Monavate, and Bleap. These partnerships let consumers access the crypto ecosystem, earn rewards, pay, and spend stablecoins in their crypto wallets using traditional cards.
Mastercard is also working with Nuvei and Circle to let merchants receive payments in stablecoins like USDC, no matter how customers choose to pay. This information comes from their April press release.
Here is Visa. They launched a new product, Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP). This platform gives banks the tools and infrastructure to tokenise fiat currencies on blockchain networks. Banks are interested because, at the very least, utilising blockchain as the settlement layer can help facilitate cross-border money movement.
So, the point is that when leading payment companies shift direction, it signals a fundamental change in the industry. They are proactively establishing new standards.
The Regulation
The second biggest barrier to institutional adoption is regulatory uncertainty. But this is being addressed. Government authorities are now establishing clear rules for stablecoins to operate as legitimate financial instruments, rather than merely reacting. The UK is an exception, still in the consultation stage.
- Asia is at the forefront of this movement. In 2022, the Japanese parliament passed a bill recognising stablecoins as a form of digital money that can be issued by licensed banks, trust companies, and money transfer agents. In October 2025, Japan's JPYC was launched as a regulated stablecoin. Also, both Singapore and Hong Kong have implemented comparable legislation.
- The EU has adopted the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, a comprehensive regime with tailored provisions for stablecoins. Notably, ClearBank recently became one of the first European banks with CASP certification, positioning itself at the forefront of the stablecoin era.
- The United States signed the GENIUS Act into law in July 2025, establishing the first federal framework for regulating payment stablecoins.
- The UK aims to be a "global hub for cryptoasset technology". We expect the FCA to introduce its policy by mid-2026, since there was already an update on plans for regulating fiat-backed stablecoins in October 2023.
This global move toward clarity provides the legal and compliance-grade infrastructure necessary for stablecoins to serve as a bridge between traditional finance and blockchain-native liquidity.
In short. Regulation brings legitimacy, and if there are clear rules on how to play, more and more players will play the game, even the most conservative. So it is a matter of time before regulation becomes clearer and clearer. For payment gateways, it's time to act now to stay compliant with all regulations, and major players are already following suit.
The Market
While regulators and institutions implement top-down changes, user demand is driving adoption from the ground up. And this is the most important part: as the market grows, it reveals demand and opportunities for payment gateways. This is also where Circle is becoming increasingly powerful as a stablecoin issuer, recently raising $222 million to further scale its operations.
Here is the stablecoin supply. There is over $217B in circulating stablecoin supply. More than 99% is USD-denominated, and 97% is minted by two issuers, with Tether accounting for 67% and Circle for 27%.
Supply is growing due to genuine demand. Here are quarterly unique stablecoin active addresses. Yes, the number of stablecoin addresses does not directly correlate with the number of stablecoin users. But sending and receiving address metrics can provide valuable directional insights into activity growth.
Case 1: The Instability-Driven Market
Look at Argentina. As highlighted by Gilles Chemla, stablecoins account for over 60% of cryptocurrency use. This isn't speculation; it's a real-world hedge against inflation, capital controls, and currency depreciation.
Case 2: The Explosive Growth Market
This instability-driven demand is global. At GR8 Tech, the team has seen this first-hand. Our internal data shows an explosive 281% year-over-year growth in crypto users in LATAM and 59% growth in South Asia. The market is pulling us, demanding these payment methods, especially in regions where traditional banking is unreliable.
Here is also the Chainalysis 2025 report confirming the rise of APAC and Latin America. This adoption is also increasing across both retail and institutional segments.
Case 3: The Mainstream Consumer
This isn't just an emerging-market phenomenon. Here is Revolut's 2024 annual report, which shows following:
"Revenues grew 298% YoY, driven by increased crypto trading activity as observed throughout the industry and the launch of the Revolut X crypto exchange."
The consumer appetite is undeniable. There are numerous crypto exchanges, but users typically choose those with which they are familiar or where their assets are already allocated.
Visa also sees several stablecoin use cases and opportunities for crypto processors in their Stablecoins and the future of onchain finance report.
- Remittances. Global remittances are over $944 billion each year. Traditional cross-border remittance methods to emerging markets are often costly and slow. The World Bank says it costs an average of 6.4% to send $200, mainly due to many intermediaries and high FX fees. Stablecoins, running on public blockchains, offer 24/7 near-instant settlement and transaction fees as low as a cent on some blockchains. They are also borderless and only need a digital wallet.
- B2C Payouts. The World Bank estimates there are 150 to 300 million freelance workers worldwide. These workers include everyone from carpenters and delivery drivers to designers, social media influencers, and OnlyFans models. Stablecoins offer a new option, allowing fast global payouts mostly in dollar value. This allows freelancers to get paid in a stable, dollar-based asset with near-instant settlement and low costs. At GR8 Tech, our team observes this trend every day, especially regarding B2C payouts. In igaming, payouts are in high demand, and users often choose stablecoins when they have the option to withdraw that way.
- B2B payments. Nearly 88% of foreign exchange transactions are dollar-quoted, and 54% of exports are invoiced in dollars. At the same time, this dollar-centricity makes access to dollars essential for corporates worldwide to operate effectively. However, in emerging markets, obtaining dollars presents significant challenges. These markets are also typically coupled with restrictive capital controls, making access to dollars especially challenging. Stablecoins represent a strategic opportunity to enable more efficient cross-border money movement.
The Approach For Payment Gateways
For payment gateways, the data leads to a clear conclusion: developing in-house crypto processing is essential. Continued reliance on third-party PSPs is not sustainable.
- Independence is key. When you own your solution, you have full control over funds, settlements, and reconciliation. This removes operational dependencies and lets you serve fast-growing markets more effectively.
- Profitability also matters. Why pay 0.5-1% in fees to a provider when you can own the infrastructure and reduce costs to less than 0.1%?
- New Revenue. In-house processing opens up new ways to earn, like balance management and making money from stablecoin reserves through staking or DeFi tools. Remember that Tether and Circle control 67% and 27% of the stablecoin supply, respectively? According to Visa, in 2024, Circle and Tether together made over $7 billion in interest revenue from their reserves.
This brings us to the key question: how much does it cost? In an interview with 20VC, Nik Storonsky said launching the product takes 1.5 years for a team of 10 and costs about £2-3 million.
Here is Marcel van Oost's post, along with the reaction of 1,500 professionals who agreed with it.
It is indeed close to the truth, as our experience and internal projections at GR8 Tech indicate that building a commercially viable crypto processing system from scratch takes at least 3 years (18 months to build and 18 more to commercialise) and costs up to €5 million.
This is where a "Buy" strategy makes sense. Buying a licensed, operational crypto processor, even at a similar cost, lets a payment gateway launch faster. Our internal analysis shows this approach offers a 6 to 12 month launch window, an experienced team, and a compliant product.
The main point is that time is a critical, non-renewable resource that must be used efficiently.
The Conclusions
The "tokenisation of money" is not just a future idea, it’s happening now. Stablecoins are becoming the new fiat. Not only businesses, but academics like Professor Gilles Chemla warn that companies that delay integration risk "being the last coach of the train."
Evidence from market leaders (Stripe, Visa), regulators (MiCA, GENIUS), and regular users is compelling. For payment gateways, owning crypto processing is not only a profit opportunity but also essential for future relevance. The optimal time to act was yesterday, so the next best time is now.
In any case, as Visa and Mastercard pushes banks that they "needs a stablecoin strategy to be positioned for the growing adoption of stablecoins" the same is applicable to payment gateways.