China’s Yiwu and USDT — two terms that once seemed worlds apart — are now being spoken of in the same breath.
As the world’s largest hub for small commodities, Yiwu’s merchants once relied on long chains of correspondent banks to reach markets in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. The process was slow, costly, and prone to delays in transit.
But that picture is changing. Research from Huatai Securities shows that stablecoins have become a practical tool for cross-border settlement in Yiwu: buyers can pay from their phones, with funds arriving within minutes. Chainalysis estimated that by 2023, on-chain stablecoin flows linked to the Yiwu market had already surpassed $10 billion.
A subsequent field survey by 21st Century Business Herald found that most Yiwu merchants were still unaware of stablecoins, and only a handful had begun to accept them—evidence that adoption remains nascent but is beginning to spread.
In short, stablecoins are emerging as a kind of “new dollar“ for global micro-merchants. Payments were not only their starting point, but remain the most direct path into the real economy.
I. From payments to global payments
Stablecoin use cases have diversified—from DeFi farming and yield-bearing strategies to collateral and beyond. Yet payments remain at the core. It’s in cross-border payments that the contrast with traditional finance is sharpest.
For decades, SWIFT has served as the backbone of cross-border transfers. Yet in a world that demands real-time settlement, its limitations are clear: a single remittance may pass through multiple correspondent banks, with complex procedures, settlement delays measured in days, and cumulative fees that keep costs high.
These delays and costs are especially hard to bear for cash flow–dependent businesses—or for individuals remitting money home. SWIFT remains indispensable globally, but it was never built for today’s high-frequency, real-time demands.
Stablecoins offer a faster, cheaper, and borderless alternative. On mainstream Ethereum L2 networks, USDT and USDC transfers often cost just a few cents and settle in minutes. This makes them a practical option for global payments—particularly in Southeast Asia and Latin America, where cross-border flows are vibrant and legacy rails remain cumbersome. Stablecoins are steadily becoming a mainstream channel for low-value transfers.
Just as important, in less developed or economically volatile markets, stablecoins are not just a payment tool but also a short-term store of value.
For users facing local-currency depreciation, holding stablecoins helps preserve their purchasing power. It is this dual role—payments and hedging—that makes ‘global-payment stablecoins’ worth a closer look.
Source: “Global Payments (Remit Stables) on imToken Web (web.token.im).
At imToken, we look at stablecoins through the lens of user needs—there is no single narrative anymore. In our framework, Stablecoins, Simplified: A Practical Guide to User Needs, we categorize stablecoins into several user-driven, practical segments.
Within this framework, global-payment stablecoins—USDT, USDC, FDUSD, TUSD, EURC, etc.—are purpose-built for cross-border transfers and value circulation. Their role is increasingly clear: a fast lane for global funds and, in turbulent markets, a “new dollar” for everyday users.
II. Why stablecoins are the natural rails for global payments
If payments were the starting point for stablecoins, global payments are now their most competitive arena. Stablecoins address the three core pain points of cross-border transfers: cost, speed, and acceptability. Traditional remittances can take several days and incur fees of tens of dollars after passing through multiple intermediaries.
By contrast, transfers on Ethereum L2s typically cost well under $1 and settle within minutes. In Southeast Asia and Latin America, stablecoins have already become a preferred option for low-value cross-border payments.
According to Keyrock, the cost of sending $200 cross-border is roughly: Traditional banks (~12.66%), money transfer operators (~5.35%), and mobile operators (~3.87%). By contrast, stablecoin platforms can keep fees under 1%, with near-real-time settlement—seconds on mainnet, and often faster on L2s or newer chains.
That experience is on a completely different level from SWIFT’s T+N settlement timelines.
Source: Keyrock
In addition to efficiency and cost, the broad adoption of any payment method ultimately hinges on the willingness of counterparties to accept it. Thanks to the mutually reinforcing growth of the crypto market and stablecoins over the years, USDT—by far the world’s largest stablecoin—has long maintained a market capitalization in the hundreds of billions of dollars and is the most widely accepted payment medium.
USDC, on the other hand, is favored by institutions for its compliance and transparency, with deep integration across the U.S. and European financial systems.
In countries facing severe local currency depreciation—such as Turkey, Argentina, and Nigeria—USDT has become the de facto savings currency. USDC, by contrast, appeals to institutions with its fully backed reserves and strong regulatory compliance, with broad adoption across the U.S. and European markets. While smaller in scale, EURC plays an indispensable role in cross-border settlements within the eurozone.
Beyond speed and cost, users care whether funds are truly secure. With the GENIUS Act in the U.S., Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Ordinance, and pilot programs in Japan and South Korea, compliant issuance is becoming the price of admission.
Looking ahead, stablecoins that integrate into global payment systems will likely be whitelisted players adhering to clear regulatory paths (see A Fork in the Road for Regulated Stablecoins).
Taken together, stablecoins are emerging as global payment infrastructure, as they outperform legacy rails in efficiency, cost, acceptability, and transparency.
III. Payments mark the starting line—and the road to a much larger future
As stablecoins expand into global payments, their user base extends beyond crypto-native traders:
- Individuals and businesses with cross-border payment or remittance needs
- Crypto traders needing to move funds rapidly across venues
- Users hedging local-currency depreciation through dollar- or euro-linked assets
From this angle, global payments are both stablecoins’ origin and their most immediate, high-impact use case. The goal is to offer a faster, cheaper, and more inclusive complement—transforming a multi-bank, multi-day process into one that settles in minutes for just a few cents.
The direction is clear. With the GENIUS Act in force, Hong Kong’s ordinance taking effect, and pilot programs underway in Japan and South Korea, global-payment stablecoins are set to become essential tools for cross-border payments, corporate treasury, and personal hedging.
Revisiting Yiwu’s early experiments with USDT, we may be seeing more than just a regional story—it’s a global microcosm. Stablecoins are moving from the edge to the mainstream, from on-chain to real life, and ultimately toward becoming the new base layer for value transfer.
From this perspective, payments are both the starting point for stablecoins and the path by which they scale into global financial infrastructure.