How stable are stablecoins really?

As stable as their reserves and how well those reserves are controlled. Regulated, fully backed stablecoins from major issuers have proven robust even during periods of stress; historical depegs mostly hit algorithmic constructions with no real backing – which have since largely been weeded out by the market and by regulation. An issuer risk remains, as with any money product.

Is accepting stablecoins worthwhile for an ordinary online shop?

For a purely domestic business with card- and PayPal-paying customers: rarely. It gets interesting with international customers, high-value baskets, and cross-border B2B payments – anywhere classic rails are expensive or slow. Payment providers increasingly take the crypto complexity off merchants’ hands and can pay out in euros on request.

What’s the difference between stablecoins and the digital euro?

A stablecoin is a private-sector product whose backing and trustworthiness depend on the respective issuer. The digital euro is a public means of payment planned by the European Central Bank, with a central bank guarantee behind it – conceptually closer to cash than to a bank balance. Both concepts could coexist in the future, each with different strengths around privacy, availability and the basis for trust; more detail in the article on the digital euro.

How can I tell if a stablecoin is actually fully backed?

Reputable, regulated issuers publish regular, usually monthly, reserve reports, often attested by an independent audit firm, showing how the reserves are composed – for example cash, short-dated government bonds, or bank deposits. Warning signs are missing or irregular reports, an unclear reserve composition, or issuers with no recognisable regulatory authorisation. Under MiCA, such transparency obligations are now mandatory for stablecoin issuers in the EU.

Can stablecoins fully replace ordinary bank transfers?

Not across the board in the short term – for classic domestic payments via SEPA transfer or card payment, there’s barely an advantage that would justify switching. Their strength lies where classic rails are structurally weak: cross-border, outside banking hours, in countries with unreliable banking infrastructure. Realistically, a coexistence is more likely, where stablecoins take over certain niches of payments without fully displacing classic systems.

Technology · Future technologies

Stablecoins: The First Blockchain Product for the Mass Market

Stablecoins have quietly become a real payments product – regulated in the EU and the US. How they work, and why retailers should pay attention.

By Boaz Lichtenstein

Article image: Stablecoins: The First Blockchain Product for the Mass Market

The most sober success story in blockchain has no dramatic price chart: stablecoins – digital tokens pegged 1:1 to a currency like the dollar and backed by reserves – now settle trillions of dollars in payment volume every year. Not as a speculative object, but as infrastructure: money that moves around the world in seconds, around the clock, for pennies.

Key takeaways

Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged 1:1 to a currency – not speculative objects, but payments infrastructure.
MiCA (EU, since late 2024) and the GENIUS Act (US, 2025) have, for the first time, put hard regulation around issuance and distribution.
Strongest use cases: cross-border payments, B2B settlement, payouts to international freelancers.
Historical depegs hit almost exclusively algorithmic, unbacked constructions – not fully backed stablecoins.
For retailers, acceptance is possible via specialised payment providers, without building crypto know-how in-house.

Why stablecoins, of all things?

Because they solve a real problem. International transfers are still slow and expensive in 2026 – correspondent banks, cut-off times, weekends, chains of fees. A stablecoin transfer knows none of that. The strongest use cases today: payments to and from countries with weak banking infrastructure or soft currencies, B2B settlement between international partners, payouts to globally distributed freelancers and creators – and, increasingly, retail.

How the backing works technically

A stablecoin is, at its core, a promise: a token for a fixed euro or dollar value, redeemable at any time. For that promise to hold, the issuer has to hold a matching value in reserves for every token issued – usually cash, short-dated government bonds, or secured bank deposits. Reputable issuers publish regular reserve reports, often attested by an independent audit firm, so users can verify the backing instead of taking it on faith.

The historical collapses that gave the stablecoin concept as a whole a bad name almost all involved algorithmic constructions – models that tried to maintain stability without real reserves, relying solely on market mechanisms and a second, volatile token. These constructions have proven structurally fragile and have since been largely weeded out by the market and by regulation.

Regulation has arrived – and that’s the story

For a long time, “unregulated” was the knockout argument. That no longer holds: in the EU, MiCA has, since late 2024, regulated the issuance and distribution of stablecoins with hard requirements on reserves and authorisation; in the US, the GENIUS Act created a federal framework in 2025. The result: banks, payment providers and card networks are building their own stablecoin offerings instead of leaving the field to crypto companies. What was once a grey area has become a competitive arena within the financial industry.

How a stablecoin payment works in practice

For a company using stablecoins in payments for the first time, the typical process looks like this:

Choose a provider that handles wallet custody, compliance checks, and euro deposits or payouts.
Complete identity verification – even regulated stablecoin providers are subject to anti-money-laundering checks, just like classic payment providers.
Set the payment destination and amount, usually via a web interface or an API, hardly different from a classic transfer.
Send the transaction – confirmation on the blockchain takes seconds to a few minutes, depending on the network used.
The recipient receives the stablecoins and can hold them, pass them on, or have them converted into local currency via the same or a different provider.
Bookkeeping: the transaction is documented like a foreign currency payment received or made.

For the end customer or business partner, none of this is usually visible – they see a fast payment, not blockchain mechanics.

The residual risks that remain

Even regulated stablecoins aren’t a risk-free money product. Three residual risks stay realistic: issuer risk – even with solid reserve quality, redeemability depends on the issuer’s economic stability and operational reliability. Regulatory risk – rules differ by jurisdiction, and a stablecoin authorised in one jurisdiction may be restricted in another. Technical risk – smart contract bugs or attacks on the underlying infrastructure are rare, but not ruled out. None of these risks is fundamentally different from those with classic payment providers, but they deserve the same diligence when choosing a provider.

Cost comparison: a classic transfer vs. a stablecoin

A cross-border B2B transfer via a classic correspondent bank often costs a fixed fee plus a percentage markup on the exchange rate, and crediting frequently takes one to three business days. A comparable stablecoin transfer, by contrast, typically completes within minutes and costs, depending on the network used, only a small network fee in the cent to low-euro range. On an assumed transfer of €20,000, the difference in the exchange-rate markup alone can amount to several hundred euros – an amount that adds up noticeably over a year with regular international payments. The comparison naturally depends heavily on the specific provider and should be checked case by case.

What retailers and businesses should take from this

Watching from the sidelines is no longer enough for cross-border business: anyone regularly paying or receiving payments across borders should compare stablecoin rails on price against banks and PSPs – the difference is often substantial.
Acceptance via a provider: payment providers handle wallet management, compliance and euro payout – the shop sees a payment method, not a blockchain. Details on practical implementation are in the article on accepting crypto in your store.
Factor in bookkeeping and tax: even regulated tokens need proper accounting; anyone accepting them should sort out processes before the first payment arrives.

The most common misconceptions

Misconception 1 – “all stablecoins are equally safe”: fully backed, regulated stablecoins from major issuers differ fundamentally from smaller, opaque providers – reserve quality decides, not the name. Misconception 2 – “stablecoins are unregulated”: since MiCA and the GENIUS Act, that no longer holds for established providers in the relevant jurisdiction. Misconception 3 – “acceptance means technical overhead for the merchant”: payment providers now completely abstract away the blockchain layer. Misconception 4 – “stablecoins only matter to crypto enthusiasts”: the biggest growth drivers today are B2B payments and international payroll, not crypto trading.

How the market has changed since the first stablecoins

In their early phase, stablecoins were almost exclusively a tool within crypto trading – a way to lock in gains without moving to a bank. That has fundamentally shifted: today, real payment use cases drive most of the growth, above all cross-border B2B payments and payroll for international teams. Established financial institutions that long avoided the topic are now bringing their own regulated stablecoin products to market – a clear signal that the technology has made the leap from niche to a payment instrument taken seriously.

When stablecoins are genuinely worth it

Use classic payment rails when: the business is predominantly domestic, customers expect card or PayPal payment, or transaction volumes are small. Actively evaluate stablecoins when: you regularly pay or receive across borders, payments go to countries with weak banking infrastructure, large B2B sums move between international partners, or payouts go to globally distributed freelancers and creators. The decision is rarely all-or-nothing – many companies introduce stablecoin rails alongside existing routes first, and shift volume only after a positive experience.

The bottom line

Stablecoins are the rare crypto topic where the interesting question isn’t the price, but the cost centre. Anyone paying or receiving internationally loses real money by simply ignoring this rail – and regulation has brought the residual risk down to a level the financial industry itself now finds acceptable. The most pragmatic next step: run your own international payment flows against stablecoin costs once, before the next larger international transfer is due.