Stablecoin remittances cost far less than conventional money transfers in a new Borderless.xyz comparison. The company’s third-quarter 2026 report placed its median fee at 1%, against a 6.36% World Bank average from 2025. However, those figures measure different periods and pricing methods.
The same $200 would cost $2 using the stablecoin-funded method compared to $12.72 using the old metric. This would amount to a savings of $10.72, which is 84.3 percent of the conventional fee.
Where Are Transfer Costs Lowest?
In regions, uneven savings were found. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of stablecoin remittances was 2.9%, compared to an 8.46% benchmark.
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For a $200 transfer, the percentages correspond to $5.80 and $16.92, respectively. The difference between the two of $11.12 reflects the 65.7% calculation, using the data provided in the research.
In Latin America, stablecoin-funded transaction costs were 1.25%, whereas traditional transfers cost 5.64%. Thus, a $200 transaction cost would be $2.50 versus $11.28, respectively, generating the difference of $8.78.
Digital remittance categories of the World Bank itself provided a more narrowed comparison, since its 4.59% index in Q3 2025 is compared to the average of digital-only money-transfer operators’ 3.54%.
Comparing with the 1% median of Borderless, the reductions would be 78.2% and 71.8%. However, the calculations represent the different periods, and the particular fee is not indicated.
The most expensive type in the World Bank database was banks with an average of 14.99%, while international money-transfer operators scored 5.52%.
How Do Business Payments Compare?
The analysis also looked into remittance via stablecoins for more substantial business transactions. There was a quote of $26 stablecoin-funded fee for a transfer of $10,000 to the eurozone via the cheapest provider.
The other amount of $52 was a median provider across all corridors. Bank wires were expected to cost between 135-150, including a foreign-exchange margin of 1%.
Taking the above range as a comparison for bank wires, there could be savings of $109 to $124 from the above case of $26. The $52 amount covered more corridors and was not comparable eurozone quote.
Choosing the right provider is still crucial for stablecoin remittances. Borderless’ analysis in the second quarter noted that opting for a median provider rather than cheapest one adds $2,330 per $1 million transferred.
In this analysis, Borderless had looked at 260 corridors in 108 countries and 59 currencies. In the case of USDT-to-Brazilian real, the cheapest provider had switched 34 times within 88 observation days.
Costs were calculated by Borderless through payout price, reference exchange rate, network fees, and local tax. Borderless could also differentiate between available payment rail and actual transactions with 22 payment rails.
Do Faster Transfers Reach Recipients Reliably?
The speed of the transaction was different based on the network of payout in that location. The study conducted during Q3 found that the median payout time in Brazil’s PIX and Colombia’s PSE was two minutes, while that of Mexico’s SPEI was three minutes.
The analysis pointed out that the SWIFT transfers were usually made by the next business day. However, even after crossing borders, stablecoin transfers rely on domestic payout networks.
The completion rate revealed another issue. There was 98.6% for SPEI, 97.8% for PIX, 79% for PSE, and 73% for Costa Rica’s SINPE.
The difference is 25.6 percentage points between the highest and lowest completion rates. The statistics reflect the payment sample that Borderless observed.
Which Companies Have Tested Stablecoin Settlement?
Hyundai Card outlined a remittance of $20,000 between Hyundai Motor’s operations in the US and Mexico in July, made through USDT on the Avalanche network.
The process is said to have taken seven minutes, involving the conversion of dollars to USDT and vice versa. The pilot was designed by Hyundai Card in terms of legal, tax, compliance, and payment considerations.
The Bank of Lloyd’s group and Visa announced another pilot in October, involving USDC worth US$750,000. The Bank of Lloyd’s said the transfer to Visa had been done in less than an hour, even on a weekend.
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