The global financial system has entered a new chapter, where programmable, borderless money has become a reality. Stablecoins, once seen as fringe infrastructure for crypto-native use cases, are moving into the center of financial innovation – particularly when it comes to supporting cross-border payments. Cross-border payment volume reached $190 trillion in 2023 and is expected to hit $290 trillion by 2030. But the infrastructure moving this capital remains largely unchanged: a complex, opaque web of SWIFT rails, intermediary banks, pre-funded accounts, and fragmented liquidity. Approximately $4 trillion is currently locked up in pre-funded accounts for cross border settlement, with even more cost associated with managing operational complexity and lack of transparency of the money in motion.
At the macro level, stablecoins present a transformative solution to the inefficiencies that have long plagued cross-border payments. Traditional international transfers rely on a multi-layered system of correspondent banks, delayed settlements, and opaque foreign exchange processes, resulting in high costs, limited transparency, and slow transaction times – especially in emerging markets. Stablecoins, by contrast, enable near-instant, low-cost, and programmable value transfer across borders without the need for pre-funded accounts or intermediary institutions. Their interoperability across digital wallets and platforms allows money to move 24/7 with global reach, while their price stability – typically pegged to fiat currencies – makes them more suitable for payments than volatile cryptocurrencies.
Thanks to this flexibility and supportive macro trends in financial services, stablecoin usage in cross-border payments is gaining meaningful traction. As of May 2025, over $37 trillion in stablecoin volume was processed, more than doubling the volume of 2024. And, major multinationals are beginning to pay attention. From tech giants like Apple and X exploring stablecoin integrations to global consumer brands evaluating the benefits of launching their own asset-backed coins, stablecoins are increasingly being viewed as tools for real-world utility.
The stablecoin and cross-border infrastructure space is reaching an inflection point. Regulatory clarity is rapidly advancing – both in the U.S., where stablecoin-specific legislation is gaining bipartisan traction, and in global jurisdictions like the EU and Singapore, which are implementing formal frameworks. At the same time, institutional demand is accelerating: fintechs, neobanks, and multinational corporations are under pressure to offer faster, cheaper, and more interoperable global payment solutions. The core building blocks – blockchain rails, compliant stablecoins, and tokenized liquidity – are in place, but the infrastructure to connect them at scale is still nascent. This creates a window of opportunity to back companies building foundational layers before the market fully matures.
While stablecoins have the potential to transform how money moves instantly, over 99% of volume is still denominated in dollars. Today, that conversion mostly still relies on a patchwork of OTC desks, exchanges, and banking partners that come with meaningful delays, friction, and high FX costs for businesses. Cross-border stablecoin transactions are ultimately constrained by legacy FX settlement infrastructure and liquidity into local currency pairs, often falling back to legacy rails and T+3 settlement. These constraints have limited volumes transacting on stablecoins, particularly larger B2B flows and more institutional use cases. This is where we see the most potential.
Against this backdrop, we’re thrilled to back XFX, a company unlocking these constraints by building the programmable FX and settlement layer that enables financial institutions, market makers, and payment processors to move value across both fiat and stablecoin rails with speed and predictability.
With XFX, institutions can:
- Access consistently competitive on-demand liquidity across fiat and digital assets
- Unlock trapped capital through instant settlement
- Gain full transparency into benchmarks, spreads, and execution
By removing the complexity of FX and settlement between both fiat and blockchain rails, XFX unlocks a new class of cross-border payment experiences – allowing institutions to harness the benefits of stablecoins without inheriting the fragmented infrastructure that surrounds them today.
The XFX founding team – Santiago Alvarado, Alberto Sanchez, and Jason Losh – bring deep expertise from their time at Bitso, where they built and scaled core business lines spanning liquidity, market infrastructure, and institutional payments. Their on-the-ground experience building cross-border infrastructure in Latin America gives them a rare understanding of what it takes to move money at scale in emerging and volatile markets. Their insight is particularly valuable as the industry navigates a moment of convergence – where institutional interest, regulatory clarity, and technical capability are finally beginning to align.
We believe the next generation of payment rails will be powered by stablecoins – but scaled through new infrastructure layers like the one XFX is building. Since the founding of Oak HC/FT in 2014 we have long held the thesis of blockchain infrastructure becoming a new backbone for global financial infrastructure with investments in companies like Paxos, Bridge, Aptos, and many others. We’re proud to support the XFX team and others as they help define the future of cross-border settlement.