A new study from the Bank of Italy has found that stablecoin-based remittances do not offer a consistent cost advantage over traditional money-transfer services, challenging one of the most common arguments made in favor of using digital assets for cross-border payments.
Researchers tested 200 USDC remittances across 10 bidirectional payment corridors spanning Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa. The study found that total costs for stablecoin transfers ranged from as low as 0.3% to nearly 9% of the transferred amount, depending heavily on which corridor was used.
Stablecoins Beat Wise in Only 3 of 7 Corridors
When measured against the World Bank's global average remittance cost of 6.65%, stablecoin transfers sometimes came in well below that benchmark and sometimes did not. In head-to-head comparisons with Wise, one of the most widely used low-cost transfer services, stablecoins were cheaper in only 3 of 7 comparable corridors, according to the study.
The researchers found that exchange fees and currency conversion — not blockchain transaction fees — accounted for the bulk of the total cost in most corridors. Blockchain fees themselves represented only a small share of what senders ultimately paid, undercutting the assumption that removing intermediaries automatically makes stablecoin transfers cheaper.
Speed Advantage Still Holds
Where stablecoins did show a clear edge was settlement speed. Transfers settled in less than 20 minutes in corridors with access to instant payment systems, compared with one to two business days in corridors lacking that infrastructure. That speed advantage held regardless of whether the transfer ultimately cost more or less than a traditional service.
The study's authors argued that the real gap holding back stablecoins is the requirement to convert back into local fiat currency at the end of a transfer. “If stablecoins could be spent directly in the real economy, for goods and services, rents, or school fees, without reconversion into local fiat currency, the economic advantages of stablecoin-based transfers would be substantially higher,” the researchers wrote.
Regulatory Backdrop
The findings arrive as regulators continue shaping the rules stablecoin issuers and users will operate under, with the study specifically referencing the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets framework and the United States' GENIUS Act. The researchers cautioned that prohibitionist regulatory regimes tend to push users toward unregulated offshore platforms rather than curbing stablecoin use outright.
The study lands at a moment when the global stablecoin market has grown to roughly $307 billion, expanding at an annual rate of around 16%, underscoring how much money now moves through instruments whose real-world cost advantages, according to Bank of Italy researchers, are more corridor-specific and conditional than commonly assumed.
