The growing role of crypto in moving money around the world

One of the most significant developments in blockchain-based payments that could affect non-crypto users is happening behind the scenes. Stablecoins and other crypto assets are being used to move value, including dollar-denominated value, between users across countries.

Businesses are also exploring blockchain rails for supplier payments and treasury management. Card networks are using stablecoins for settlements. Banks are creating tokenized versions of commercial deposits. Central banks and major financial institutions are testing shared ledgers for wholesale cross-border payments.

In many of these cases, the person sending or receiving the payment may never need to transact directly with a volatile cryptocurrency.

Moving money domestically in many cases can be instantaneous. Interac e-Transfers in Canada, for example, can complete within seconds. Moving the same money across borders shifts the timeframe from seconds to potentially days.

A cross-border payment may involve the sender’s bank or payment provider, correspondent banks, foreign-exchange conversion, the recipient’s institution and separate messaging and settlement systems.

For consumers, those layers can translate to headaches, not to mention meaningful costs.

The World Bank's Q3 2025 Remittance Prices Worldwide data put the average global cost of sending a remittance at 6.36% of the amount transferred under its standard $200 methodology. Digital remittances were cheaper, averaging 4.59%, but still remained well above the United Nations' long-term target of less than 3%.

For remittances originating in Canada, the World Bank's Q3 2025 report placed the average cost of sending $200 at approximately 5.27%.
 

Stablecoin transfers represent a potential solution. A dollar-denominated stablecoin can move between compatible blockchain wallets around the clock, often settling faster than traditional cross-border bank transfers.

Research from the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) provides evidence that this is not purely theoretical. A study of Bitcoin, Ether, USDT and USDC flows across 184 countries found that stablecoin transfers were more closely associated with remittance costs and transactional demand than native cryptocurrencies were, particularly in emerging and developing economies where traditional financial channels tend to be more expensive.

The IMF says stablecoins have the potential to make cross-border payments and remittances faster and cheaper. This is because blockchain technology can act as a shared source of transaction information that can reduce some of the complexity associated with cross-border transfers.

Consumer remittances receive much of the attention because the potential benefit is easy to understand. Someone living in one country who wants to send money to a person in another country can leverage blockchain technology. This could reduce fees, improve delivery time, and increase how much money the recipient ultimately receives, depending on conversion costs and the methods used to access and withdraw funds.

Businesses have a different problem that the same technology can help solve. For companies, the attraction to blockchain is not necessarily a cheaper $200 transfer. It can be the ability to move larger pools of funds more quickly.

Businesses operating internationally regularly need to pay suppliers, fund subsidiaries and maintain balances in multiple jurisdictions. Traditional international payment processes may require companies or their banks to pre-position liquidity so funds are available when and where they are needed. Blockchain-based settlement can potentially reduce some of that waiting time.

Visa has identified B2B supplier payments and treasury operations as emerging uses for stablecoin infrastructure, including the ability to move liquidity more quickly rather than leaving as much capital prefunded in different accounts.

If a company can settle an obligation faster, capital may spend less time trapped between institutions or jurisdictions. The benefit in doing so may be more important than a lower transaction fee; it can also include greater control over liquidity.

The development of stablecoin settlement at Visa illustrates how this can work without requiring the existing payment system to disappear.

In September 2026, Visa said stablecoin settlement volume had surpassed a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times the level a year earlier. The company also reported more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs globally in its fiscal second quarter, with payment volume on those programs growing nearly 200% year over year.

Earlier, Visa's U.S. stablecoin settlement program began allowing participating institutions to settle certain obligations using USDC while leaving the consumer card experience unchanged. The company described settlement availability seven days a week and integration with existing treasury operations as two of the intended benefits.

Consumers do not necessarily need to decide that they want a “crypto payment.” Blockchain-based assets can become part of the settlement infrastructure underneath a payment product they already understand.

Stablecoins are not the only form of digital money being developed for payments and settlement. Canadian banks are currently exploring how tokenized deposits could modernize the movement of Canadian dollars within the existing banking system.

In September 2026, Canada's six largest banks announced a joint initiative to explore Canadian-dollar tokenized deposits. BMO, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, Scotiabank, and TD are working toward a system that could allow deposits to move more efficiently between participating financial institutions, with the longer-term objective of connecting to other digital asset infrastructure.

Unlike stablecoins issued by non-bank entities, tokenized deposits represent claims on commercial banks. The underlying money remains a bank deposit, but its digital representation could support faster transfers, programmable payments, and more efficient settlement. Canada's banking regulator, OSFI, clarified in September 2026 that tokenized deposits are not legally distinct from traditional deposits simply because they use different technology.

The initiative remains in the exploration stage, but the banks' collaboration illustrates how blockchain-based payment infrastructure is increasingly being considered as a potential extension of traditional banking.

The same concepts are being explored at the international level. Project Agorá, coordinated by the Bank for International Settlements with participating central banks and financial institutions, tested whether tokenized commercial-bank deposits and tokenized central-bank reserves could operate together on shared infrastructure.

In May 2026, the BIS reported that its prototype successfully demonstrated atomic, multi-currency wholesale settlement. During subsequent real-value testing conducted in July 2026, the average time from payment initiation to settlement in the prototype was approximately 80 seconds, even though it was not integrated with existing real-time gross settlement and core banking systems.

Atomic settlement is important because it allows different components of a transaction to be conditional on one another. Instead of one institution sending an asset and waiting for another system to confirm payment, the transfer of the asset and payment can be coordinated so that both occur together or neither occurs.

While the real-world potential of this test remains unclear, it does show that central banks and commercial banks are examining how distributed-ledger concepts also used in crypto markets can make their operations more efficient.

Existing banking networks, instant-payment systems, card networks, and fintech platforms are improving the user experience. As such, crypto infrastructure is not competing with an outdated system, but with financial technology that continues to evolve.

Still, several pieces are now developing at the same time. Stablecoins are moving beyond exchange settlement. Payment networks are using them in institutional settlement. Businesses are evaluating them for treasury and supplier payments. Banks are exploring deposit tokens. Central banks and commercial banks are testing tokenized wholesale money.

This creates a potentially important role at the points where the two systems intersect: compliant access, liquidity, conversion, custody, and settlement. The long-term significance may therefore have less to do with consumers deciding to “transfer with crypto.”

A payment could begin in Canadian dollars, cross part of the world through blockchain-based dollar liquidity, and arrive in another local currency, all without the sender needing to understand the technology underneath. If that becomes increasingly common, crypto's biggest contribution to global payments could be nearly invisible and become just part of the infrastructure that moves money.