The Two-Stage Rocket: How Stablecoins Will Become the Invisible Infrastructure of the Global Economy

1. The Launchpad: The $240 Trillion Problem with Global Payments

The global financial system, for all its scale, runs on archaic, decades-old plumbing. While consumer payments have seen waves of innovation, the colossal world of business-to-business (B2B) commerce remains mired in inefficiency. This is a foundational problem at the economy’s core. The global B2B payments market is valued at an almost incomprehensible $240 trillion—nearly three times the size of the entire global GDP—reflecting the multiple payments made along complex supply chains. Yet, this massive economic engine is sputtering, choked by exorbitant costs, crippling delays, and operational friction born from manual processes. This deeply entrenched, quantifiable pain serves as the launchpad for a fundamental re-architecture of global finance.

The most visceral pain point for businesses is the delay in moving money, which directly impacts their lifeblood: working capital. Analysis reveals a staggering $3.1 trillion in funds is perpetually trapped in the financial ether, suspended in accounts receivable and accounts payable cycles, creating a massive drag on global working capital. Businesses wait, on average, a stunning 40.3 days to receive payment. The situation has worsened, with a 2023 study finding that 42% of businesses reported an average days sales outstanding (DSO) of over 60 days, a figure that had nearly doubled from the previous year, according to a comprehensive analysis of B2B payment trends. The consequences are severe. Nearly 68% of companies that receive more than half of their payments late suffer from cash flow problems, a strain so acute that a remarkable 97% of firms report that bottlenecks in their accounts payable departments could directly hinder their ability to grow.

Compounding the delays is the sheer cost of using the existing system. Processing a single supplier payment costs a typical organization nearly $8, and a stunning 62% of that cost stems directly from manual labor—a persistent inefficiency in corporate finance. Even the seemingly simple paper check, a relic still used by many businesses, costs between $2.01 and $4.00 to issue, with some businesses paying over $4.01 per check. When payments cross borders, these costs explode. A single B2B payment from Mexico to Vietnam can cost anywhere from $14 to $150 for every $1,000 transacted, passing through as many as five intermediaries who each take a cut—a common scenario in legacy cross-border payments. A survey of global business executives confirms this, with two-thirds reporting they typically pay between $10 and $50 in cross-border fees, in addition to foreign exchange fees ranging from 0.25% to 3%, as outlined in an analysis of stablecoin payment benefits. This financial fragmentation imposes punishing costs, as highlighted in a World Bank study on the Western Balkans, which found that sending €5,000 between Balkan countries is, on average, 10 times more expensive than making the same transfer within the EU.

This combination of high costs and long delays is exacerbated by deep-seated operational friction. SMB payers identify manual reviews as a top pain point, cited by 45% of respondents in a recent survey. The reliance on paper invoices leads to an 18% error rate, and with 75% of companies reporting experience with payment fraud, overall operational costs are driven even higher. This friction directly damages commercial relationships. In 2024, more than 80% of executives admitted to having lost business because of a payment process miscommunication—a stunning admission of operational failure.

The business case for a new payment infrastructure is not a matter of incremental improvement but of strategic necessity. The high fees charged by financial institutions are a legacy of a bygone era, built on closed networks and technological moats that are no longer sustainable in a digital-first world. The push by central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve towards faster domestic payment systems is a clear signal that speed and efficiency are becoming table stakes, not premium features, a trend analyzed in-depth by Deloitte. Stablecoins represent the logical endpoint of this trend, threatening to turn financial settlement into a hyper-efficient, low-margin utility. The $240 trillion problem is not just a market opportunity; it is a catalyst for a paradigm shift.

2. Stage One – The B2B Revolution: Making Global Commerce Instant and Invisible

The solution to the deep-seated inefficiencies of global B2B payments is materializing quietly, within the financial plumbing of the global economy. This is the first stage of the stablecoin rocket: an “invisible” integration where stablecoins act as a transient, hyper-efficient settlement layer. For the end-user, the experience is simply that payments become faster, cheaper, and more reliable. This revolution is already underway, with some of the world’s largest corporations and financial institutions leading the charge.

The core of this transformation is the “invisible” integration model. Payment service providers (PSPs) and fintech companies are embedding stablecoins into the background of their platforms, a trend highlighted in discussions about the future of payments. In a typical cross-border transaction, a PSP converts a sender’s dollars into a stablecoin like USDC, transmits it across a blockchain in seconds for a fraction of a cent, and the recipient’s provider converts it back into local fiat. This process, sometimes referred to as the “stablecoin sandwich,” completely bypasses the slow and expensive correspondent banking system.

The most compelling evidence comes from real-world adoption by blue-chip corporations:

• JPMorgan & Siemens: In a landmark move, JPMorgan’s Onyx unit developed a permissioned, euro-denominated stablecoin. Global industrial giant Siemens became the first corporate client to use this Euro JPM Coin, demonstrating the appetite for bank-issued, regulated stablecoins in a corporate setting—a strategic move that aligns with new playbooks for banks in the digital asset space.
• PayPal & Ernst & Young (EY): PayPal made its first real-world B2B payments with its stablecoin, PYUSD, by settling an invoice with global consulting firm EY and paying for cloud services from Google. This use case validates stablecoins as a legitimate tool for corporate disbursements.
• SpaceX & ScaleAI: SpaceX utilizes stablecoins to collect payments from Starlink customers in countries with underdeveloped financial systems, mitigating foreign exchange risk. Similarly, AI company ScaleAI offers its global contractors the option to be paid in stablecoins, ensuring timely compensation across borders, as reported by PaymentsDive.
• Visa & Mastercard: The world’s two largest payment networks are actively integrating stablecoins. Visa has initiated pilot programs to send USDC over networks like Solana to facilitate merchant settlements, effectively using stablecoins as a bridge in what is being called a defining moment for digital money. Mastercard, meanwhile, views stablecoins as a new universe for providing essential services, a sign of the growing importance of reserve-backed cryptocurrencies recognized by the World Economic Forum.

Beyond payments, stablecoins are unlocking “programmable treasury,” a new paradigm in corporate finance. Citi collaborated with shipping leader Maersk to use tokenized deposits and smart contracts to automate the release of bank guarantee payments, showcasing the transformative potential of deposit tokens as described by Markets Media. This represents a monumental leap from today’s manual, document-heavy processes.

The stark advantages of this new infrastructure become undeniable when compared directly with legacy systems.

This quantitative comparison moves the discussion from abstract benefits to concrete, order-of-magnitude improvements. By focusing on the back-end plumbing and delivering a clear ROI without forcing disruptive behavioral changes, stablecoins can achieve widespread adoption. Payment providers like Stripe and PayPal integrate stablecoins to lower their own costs and offer a superior product, a strategy observed across the fintech landscape. By the time stablecoin settlement becomes the industry standard, the global financial system will have been re-architected from the inside out.

3. Divergent Trajectories: Global Adoption from Buenos Aires to Berlin

The global adoption of stablecoins is unfolding along two parallel trajectories. While boardrooms in Berlin and New York are integrating stablecoins in a top-down push for efficiency, citizens in Buenos Aires and Lagos are embracing them in a bottom-up surge for economic survival. One path is a “pull” driven by ROI; the other is a “push” driven by the urgent need for wealth preservation.

The “efficiency” pull in developed markets is a calculated, strategic move to gain a competitive edge. The primary drivers are lower transaction costs, near-instant settlement, and the powerful new capabilities of programmable treasury, as detailed in a16z’s guide to stablecoins.

In stark contrast, the “wealth preservation” push in developing markets is a grassroots movement born of necessity. In countries like Argentina, which has been plagued by hyperinflation peaking at over 211% in 2023, holding local currency is a guaranteed loss. Traditional access to U.S. dollars is often severely restricted by capital controls.

For millions, stablecoins have become an economic “lifeline,” offering permissionless, digital access to the U.S. dollar. The adoption data is striking:

• In Argentina, an estimated two of every three cryptocurrency purchases on major exchanges are for dollar-pegged stablecoins, as a hedge against the peso’s depreciation.
• The trend is continent-wide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, stablecoins account for a dominant share of on-chain crypto transaction volume, indicating their primary role is for payments and value preservation, not speculation.
• A 2024 Visa survey found that 47% of crypto-tech users in certain emerging markets cited “saving money in U.S. dollars” as a primary reason for using stablecoins.
• Beyond saving, stablecoins are used for daily commerce and international remittances, allowing families to receive funds faster and more cheaply than through legacy services, providing a shield against hyperinflation.

The intensity of stablecoin adoption is a direct, real-time barometer of public trust in domestic monetary institutions. As faith in the local peso, lira, or naira plummets, on-chain stablecoin volume soars. This is more than a financial trend; it is a technology-enabled vote of no confidence. In these markets, mass adoption will not wait for regulatory clarity; it will precede and, in fact, drive it.

4. Stage Two – The AI Agent Economy: The Native Currency for Autonomous Commerce

If stage one is about optimizing the human-driven economy, stage two is about building the financial rails for the entirely new, machine-driven economy of tomorrow. An “AI Agent Economy” is emerging, where autonomous software agents transact with one another at machine speed. This future economy requires a new type of money, and stablecoins are a structural prerequisite for its existence.

Imagine AI agents managing a global supply chain, automatically negotiating prices and executing just-in-time procurement orders. This is the vision of an “always-on economy” that removes human latency from value chains, a concept detailed in discussions on AI-to-AI transactions. The scale is staggering. Market analysts forecast the agentic AI market will explode from approximately $5.2 billion in 2024 to over $196.6 billion by 2034, a CAGR of over 43%. PwC predicts AI could contribute as much as $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, and NVIDIA’s CEO has dubbed the opportunity a “multi-trillion-dollar” prospect, with some analysts believing the agentic economy could be 10x bigger than SaaS.

However, today’s AI agents are powerful minds trapped in a financial stone age. Legacy payment systems fail on every critical dimension: they are too slow, too expensive for the high volume of micropayments required, not autonomous, and not always on.

This is a vacuum only stablecoins can fill. Their properties align perfectly with the requirements of the AI economy:

• Instantaneous: On high-throughput blockchains like Solana, transaction finality can be achieved in milliseconds, matching the decision-making velocity of machines, as outlined in Helius’s developer guide to stablecoin payments.
• Micropayment-Friendly: With transaction fees of a fraction of a cent, stablecoins make high-frequency, low-value payments economically rational.
• Programmable and Permissionless: An AI agent can hold a stablecoin balance and execute transactions based on algorithmic logic without a human intermediary, becoming a “super-smart-contract” that can learn and adapt, a core concept in building the rails for the AI agent economy.

This new paradigm introduces novel systemic risks. The potential for “collusion or manipulation between agents” is a significant concern, as highlighted in research on empowering the AI agent economy. An algorithmic “flash crash” triggered by millions of agents executing flawed logic could cascade through the economy in minutes. This creates an urgent need for “AI auditors” and robust systems for verifiable credentials to police algorithmic behavior at scale.

5. Beyond the Dollar: The Geopolitical Reshaping of Digital Money

For most of its existence, “stablecoin” has been synonymous with “digital dollar.” That era is closing. A multi-polar world of digital currency is emerging, driven by regional economic needs and proactive regulation. This is a fundamental geopolitical reshaping of money for the digital age.

While USD-pegged stablecoins still command the lion’s share of the market, with USDT and USDC accounting for roughly 85% of the total market capitalization, a clear trend towards non-USD alternatives is underway. The most significant catalyst is the European Union’s landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. MiCA provides a clear legal framework, transforming regulation from an obstacle into an enabler.

This has spurred action from major European financial players. Société Générale launched EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), a euro-pegged stablecoin designed for MiCA compliance. Similarly, JPMorgan expanded its JPM Coin platform to support euro-denominated payments for clients like Siemens.

This move beyond the dollar is a global phenomenon. The new map of digital money, as detailed in guides for financial institutions, is increasingly diverse:

The rise of regulated, non-USD stablecoins signals the formation of “digital currency blocs.” This is a strategic response by powers like the EU to assert monetary sovereignty and create a counterweight to the digital dollar’s hegemony. This could lead to a new global financial architecture with several major digital currency zones—a Dollar bloc, a Euro bloc, and potentially a Yuan bloc.

This multi-polar world creates a critical challenge: interoperability. How does a German company seamlessly pay a Nigerian supplier, moving value from EURC on Ethereum to cNGN on another network? The risk is a balkanized digital economy. The opportunity is for a new layer of financial infrastructure—sophisticated “bridge” protocols and liquidity networks—to abstract away this complexity, a problem currently being solved by improvised methods like the “stablecoin sandwich.”

6. Strategic Outlook: Navigating the Stablecoin Trajectory

We have charted the course of the stablecoin rocket. It has launched from the quantifiable pain of today’s B2B payments, is achieving orbit through invisible integration into global commerce, and is accelerating towards a transformative second stage as the fuel for the AI economy. Navigating this transformation requires viewing stablecoins not as a niche crypto-asset, but as foundational economic infrastructure.

The “two-stage rocket” model provides a clear strategic framework:

• Stage One (Present – 5 years): The themes are efficiency and invisibility. The market is the $240 trillion B2B payments space. The winning strategy is embedding stablecoins into existing workflows to solve tangible business problems—delivering operational alpha through a superior, hidden settlement technology.
• Stage Two (5 – 15 years): The focus shifts to programmability and autonomy. The users are AI agents. The market is enabling entirely new forms of machine-to-machine commerce. The winning strategy is building open, hyper-scalable, near-zero-cost infrastructure.

Given this trajectory, the strategic imperatives are clear:

For Corporations & CFOs:
The conversation must evolve from “Should we invest in crypto?” to “How can we leverage new settlement technology to improve our bottom line?” Initiate pilot programs using regulated stablecoins for high-friction use cases: cross-border payments, international payroll, and inter-company liquidity. The goal is to quantify the ROI in cost, speed, and capital efficiency.

For Financial Institutions (Banks):
The high-margin business of moving money is being commoditized. The imperative is to move up the value stack. Become the premier service provider on top of the new rails: build institutional-grade custody, develop programmable treasury platforms, and lead in the tokenization of real-world assets.

For Investors (Venture Capital):
The thesis must be bifurcated.

• Stage One Plays: Fund the “picks and shovels” of the B2B revolution—next-gen payment providers, RegTech firms, and on/off-ramp infrastructure.
• Stage Two Plays: Fund the foundational infrastructure for the AI Agent Economy—highly scalable blockchains, interoperability protocols, and novel security solutions for an agent-run economy.

For Developers & Entrepreneurs:
Programmable money is a new design primitive. Build the applications that were previously impossible: user-friendly automated treasury platforms, marketplaces for AI agents to trade services, and tools for “algorithmic assurance” that provide trust in agent-to-agent interactions.

The evolution of stablecoins is one of the most profound re-architectures of the global financial system in a century. It is a multi-decade transformation that will touch every corner of the global economy. The individuals, companies, and nations that thrive will be those that understand the full trajectory of the rocket—building not just for the human-driven economy of today, but for the vast, autonomous, and machine-driven economy of tomorrow.