Stablecoins at Institutional Scale

Stablecoins are increasingly used as a practical form of digital money. While they originated within cryptocurrency markets, their use now spans payments, settlement, treasury operations, and a growing range of institutional activities. In these contexts, they are treated less as cryptoassets and more as digital representations of fiat currency operating on always on infrastructure.

This shift has changed how stablecoins are evaluated. Adoption is shaped less by experimentation and more by whether stablecoins deliver clear operational benefits within existing financial processes. As use increases, the surrounding infrastructure becomes central to how stablecoins are accessed, managed, and used in practice.

From trading tools to payment rails

Payments and settlement represent the most established stablecoin use cases. The ability to transfer value continuously, without dependence on banking hours or correspondent networks, makes stablecoins relevant where timing, certainty, and capital efficiency are important. This includes cross border payments, treasury movements, and settlement activity.

Stablecoins are not positioned as a replacement for existing payment rails. In many domestic and retail contexts, traditional systems remain effective. Stablecoins are used where those systems introduce delay, complexity, or inefficiency, reflecting a selective and use case driven approach to adoption.

Use has also extended into areas such as trade and commodities, private credit, and foreign exchange. In these contexts, faster settlement and programmability support more efficient capital movement across counterparties and jurisdictions.

The growth of institutional use cases

Institutional engagement with stablecoins now spans trading settlement, treasury operations, and internal capital movement across legal entities. In trade and commodities, stablecoins are used to streamline settlement processes and reduce reliance on correspondent banking structures.

Across these activities, the motivation is practical. Stablecoins provide a consistent digital unit of value that can be transferred and reconciled within existing operational frameworks. As volumes increase, the focus shifts from access to stablecoins themselves to the infrastructure required to support activity in a controlled and scalable way.

Changing requirements

As institutions increasingly interact with stablecoins, expectations around governance, control, and operational resilience become more defined. Financial institutions require clear accountability, segregation of duties, and alignment with established risk and oversight frameworks.

Stablecoins must integrate into existing treasury, reporting, and risk management processes. Secure access and controlled transfer mechanisms are baseline requirements. Infrastructure that cannot support these expectations limits institutional use, regardless of demand for the underlying asset.

Interoperability and operational integration

Stablecoins operate within a broader financial ecosystem that includes banks, payment providers, trading venues, tokenised deposits, and central bank digital currencies. These instruments serve different purposes and are expected to coexist across markets and jurisdictions.

Within this environment, interoperability becomes a practical consideration. Institutions need to move assets across systems without introducing operational fragmentation or complexity. Custody provides a consistent control layer that connects stablecoins with wider market infrastructure and institutional workflows.

Supporting confidence in digital money

As stablecoins are used in live financial activity, confidence remains central to adoption. Institutions require assurance around control, operational reliability, and alignment with regulatory expectations.

Custody underpins this confidence. By enabling secure access, integration with institutional processes, and defined control frameworks, custody allows stablecoins to function as digital money within established financial environments. As usage grows, custody remains a foundational component of the infrastructure that supports stablecoins at scale.