A survey found that companies' use of stablecoins is set to expand sharply over the next year. The key drivers were cited as cutting cross-border remittance costs and improving payment efficiency.

On June 30 local time, blockchain outlet Cointelegraph reported that in a survey by payments infrastructure firm Cybrid, 88 percent of respondent companies said they were likely or very likely to use stablecoins within the next 12 months.

There were already many real-world use cases. Some 42 percent of respondent companies said they currently use stablecoins for cross-border payments. By contrast, only 2 percent said they use only existing financial payment networks. The results show corporate payment methods are moving quickly from traditional financial systems to digital asset-based payments.

The effects of adoption were also clear. Companies using stablecoins said they cut cross-border payment costs by an average of 35 percent. For companies with monthly payment volumes exceeding $100 million, the average cost-cutting effect reached 47 percent. This suggests stablecoins are becoming a payment method that improves companies' cost structures, rather than a simple pilot project.

The most common uses were overseas payroll payments and payments to freelancers and outsourced workers. Next came payments to suppliers, customer payments, investment and revenue management, vendor settlements, and financial and liquidity management. The survey found that the more a task involves repeated international remittances, the faster stablecoin adoption proceeds.

Still, the biggest obstacle to broader corporate use remained regulation. Some 71 percent of respondents cited regulatory clarity as the most necessary element to expand stablecoin use. It was rated as more important than securing reliable infrastructure providers or linking with existing payment systems.

The market is also growing quickly. Coingecko said the global stablecoin market capitalisation now totals about $307.6 billion. Of that, Tether's USDT accounts for about $184.7 billion, and Circle's USDC about $73.5 billion, the largest shares. With related U.S. legislation recently being pursued, the market capitalisation of payment stablecoins that comply with a federal regulatory framework was also tallied at more than $76 billion.

Infrastructure investment is also continuing to support growing corporate demand. Falcon Finance in May launched the dollar-based stablecoin fUSD through the issuance platform of Anchorage Digital Bank. The service targets institutional investors' needs for trading and collateral management, and treasury operations.

BNY has also recently added USDC support to its digital asset custody platform. Institutional clients can now store and remit USDC directly through the bank, as well as handle issuance and redemption tasks.

Industry data also show the same trend. Payments platform Paybis said about 98 percent of stablecoin payouts processed on its platform in the first 4 months of this year came from corporate customers. That was up sharply from 36 percent in 2023. It also cited McKinsey data saying that of about $390 billion in global stablecoin payment volume last year, about 60 percent was business-to-business transactions.

The survey was conducted from April 28 to May 4 among 468 executives and finance and payments staff at technology, financial services and e-commerce companies in the United States, Canada and Britain. The results show stablecoins are quickly taking hold as a way for companies to cut remittance costs and improve operating efficiency, while also suggesting the pace of future expansion will depend on whether countries refine their regulatory frameworks.