Stablecoins moved trillions of dollars last year, but one of the more telling figures is far smaller: $13.4 billion. That is Juniper Research’s estimate for cross-border B2B stablecoin transactions in 2026. By 2035, the firm expects that number to reach $5 trillion.
The forecast gives fresh weight to a question now facing banks, payment companies and regulated digital asset platforms: whether stablecoins can move from crypto-market liquidity into the machinery of corporate payments, treasury and wholesale settlement.
The B2B use case
Juniper Research identifies cross-border B2B payments as the largest driver of stablecoin transaction value growth over the next decade. Its report links that growth to the costs and delays associated with correspondent banking, including intermediary fees, FX conversion margins and SWIFT messaging charges, particularly on high-value international transfers.
“Stablecoins are not replacing payments infrastructure; they are being adopted where the advantages are most pronounced,” said Jawad Jahan, research analyst at Juniper Research. “Cross-border B2B is where those advantages are greatest, and where we expect the most sustained volume growth over the forecast period.”
That view is now being echoed beyond the crypto sector. Bain & Company, the global consultancy, said this week that stablecoins and tokenised deposits are becoming part of what it described as an emerging “great rewiring of wholesale banking”, with potential applications across foreign exchange, collateral management and treasury operations.
Ricardo Correia, a partner in Bain & Company’s financial services practice, said the issue was becoming a strategic one for banks. “This is not just about faster payments, it is becoming a strategic question of control over how money moves through the global financial system,” he said. “As stablecoin adoption accelerates, banks are facing a narrowing window to decide where to play.”
The cost of moving money
The commercial pressure is clearest in cross-border business payments, where companies can still face multiple intermediaries, unclear FX costs, settlement delays and prefunding requirements. Bain’s research found that 34% of CFOs cited cross-border complexity as a leading pain point.
Stablecoin providers argue that tokenised cash can address some of those problems by allowing money to move outside banking hours, settle more quickly and support programmable payment terms. But the sector’s own messaging has also changed. The emphasis is now less on crypto-native trading and more on regulated access, enterprise integration and treasury use cases.
Anna Štrébl, CEO of Confirmo Group – a licensed stablecoin payment provider – said Juniper’s forecast was “less surprising when you understand what’s behind it”.
“Businesses are paying billions of dollars a year in cross-border fees, waiting days for settlement, and losing critical margin to opaque FX spreads,” she said. “Businesses are adopting stablecoin payments because the existing system has failed them.”
Confirmo points to growing enterprise demand for stablecoin payments, citing EY-Parthenon research that found 81% of corporates consider it important or critical that their bank supports stablecoin payments. Štrébl also argued that regulation is beginning to make institutional adoption more viable.
“In Europe, MiCA is live and authorisations are being issued,” she said. “This means that demand can now be met by regulated, accountable infrastructure.”
Banks enter the settlement layer
That regulated-infrastructure theme is now being tested by banks as well as specialist payment providers. Banking Circle, the Luxembourg-headquartered payments bank, announced stablecoin settlement services this week after receiving a Crypto-Asset Service Provider licence from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, on 15 April.
The service will provide fiat-to-stablecoin and stablecoin-to-fiat capabilities from Banking Circle’s core platform, with support for USDC, USDG and EURI. The bank said the service is designed for institutions seeking to use stablecoin rails while retaining the compliance, security and risk management standards of a regulated bank.
Laust Bertelsen, CEO of Banking Circle, said: “The award of our CASP licence is an important milestone for Banking Circle, as well as for the broader payments ecosystem. Stablecoins have fast evolved from a peripheral innovation into core infrastructure for cross-border settlement, treasury management, and financial inclusion. We are proud to be at the forefront of bringing these capabilities to market within a robust regulatory framework.”
Kirit Bhatia, chief digital asset officer at Banking Circle, described stablecoins as an extension of the infrastructure the bank has built for payment companies, financial institutions and marketplaces.
“We have spent years building the financial infrastructure that enables more than 750 payment companies, financial institutions, and marketplaces to efficiently move and convert over €1.5 trillion annually across the globe,” he said. “Stablecoins are a natural extension of that infrastructure and central to our mission of eliminating unnecessary cost and complexity through technology.”
From settlement rail to workflow
Beyond bank-led settlement services, new stablecoin launches are also being designed around the internal workflows of corporate finance. Paystand, a blockchain-based B2B payments company, this week announced USDb, a Bitcoin-aligned stablecoin designed for enterprise finance, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and treasury workflows.
Jeremy Almond, CEO of Paystand, said the launch was aimed at business use rather than crypto trading. “USDb gives businesses a programmable digital dollar that works where they actually work,” he said. “This isn’t infrastructure waiting for customers. This is the moment the B2B economy goes on-chain.”
The company said USDb will first be used across Paystand’s own network, including cross-border payments through Bitwage, the blockchain-powered payroll and workforce payments platform it acquired in November 2025. Paystand said Bitwage reaches more than 90,000 workers and 4,500 businesses in nearly 200 countries.
The unresolved banking question
The recent launches show stablecoins moving closer to the systems used by banks, payment companies and corporate finance teams. But settlement speed is only one requirement. Businesses still need bank access, liquidity, custody, off-ramps, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, reconciliation and accounting clarity.
Bain’s analysis places the emphasis on integration rather than replacement. The consultancy expects stablecoins and tokenised deposits to complement existing banking infrastructure, creating a system in which traditional and digital rails operate side by side.
For banks, that brings both opportunity and risk. Stablecoins may reduce some of the friction in correspondent banking, but they also create new requirements around custody, compliance, blockchain connectivity and real-time reconciliation. Early participation may allow institutions to influence how new settlement networks are designed. Waiting too long could mean adapting to infrastructure shaped by others.
Juniper’s $5 trillion forecast is not simply a prediction about transaction growth. It captures where pressure is building in corporate payments: around speed, cost, liquidity and control. Stablecoins have already proved useful inside digital asset markets. The harder test is whether they can become reliable, regulated and operationally familiar enough for mainstream corporate finance.
As Jahan put it, stablecoin issuers and payment service providers will need to “prioritise enterprise integrations and treasury partnerships” if they want to capture the bulk of future value. That is where the market now appears to be concentrating: not on stablecoins as a trading utility, but as a settlement layer for cross-border business payments.