Stablecoin payments are fast, but local-currency settlement remains a bottleneck: Gravity Team CEO

Stablecoins can cross borders within seconds, but converting them into spendable local currency remains a slower and more fragmented process, Gravity Team CEO Mārtiņš Beņķītis told crypto.news as the firm launched its institutional OTC desk.

Summary

• Stablecoin transfers do not remove the need for local liquidity, banking access, and payout infrastructure.
• Gravity Team says traditional settlement can tie up 20% to 40% of monthly payment flows.
• Stripe and Mastercard have expanded their stablecoin infrastructure through major acquisitions.
• Gravity Team launched an OTC desk offering T+0 fiat settlement in more than 20 currencies.

Stablecoin payments depend on two types of liquidity

Mārtiņš Beņķītis, co-founder and CEO of emerging-markets liquidity provider Gravity Team, told crypto.news that stablecoin infrastructure has become a liquidity issue because the same tokens perform different jobs across trading and payments.

Market makers hold stablecoins to quote buy and sell prices, move inventory between exchanges, and respond to changes in trading activity. Payment companies, by contrast, use stablecoins to fund a conversion before releasing local currency to the recipient.

Trading inventory must remain available across multiple venues, while a payment balance can be used again after settlement. However, the payment company still needs enough local currency to complete the other side of the transfer when the stablecoin arrives.

"Stablecoin payment infrastructure is a liquidity story because stablecoin balances serve very different jobs," Beņķītis said.

Gravity Team's corridor analysis found that correspondent banking can leave the equivalent of 20% to 40% of monthly transaction flow in pre-funded accounts. The company said stablecoins may reduce this idle capital, but only when an operator maintains funded local-currency books and enough inventory to quote the conversion.

The conversion point remains a bottleneck

A stablecoin payment contains at least two distinct stages. The first moves the token on-chain, while the second converts it into the currency that a recipient can spend through a local bank account or payment service.

Beņķītis said the second stage has become the newest area of competition for payment providers. Every currency market has different levels of liquidity, bank operating hours, compliance controls, transaction limits, and counterparties.

Gravity Team currently supports settlement involving the Philippine peso, Indonesian rupiah, Mexican peso, Brazilian real, euro, British pound, and U.S. dollar. The company plans to add the Vietnamese dong.

Its internal data found that between 3% and 7% of traditional inbound wires in the Southeast Asian and Latin American corridors it serves are delayed or returned on their first attempt. Stablecoin transfers in those markets reportedly clear on-chain more than 99.9% of the time once broadcast.

Beņķītis cautioned that the on-chain success rate does not cover the entire payment.

"Local conversion and payout still have to complete after the token arrives," he said.

Operators using direct banking relationships can control funding, payment cut-off times, and failed transactions more closely. Partner-based models can reach additional countries but depend on another company's liquidity, availability, transaction limits, and handling of unsuccessful payouts.

The commercial test, according to Beņķītis, is therefore not how quickly a token reaches a wallet. It is how often the complete payment reaches the recipient at the quoted price and within the promised period, including when the primary payout route is unavailable.

Stripe and Mastercard move deeper into stablecoin payments

Large payment companies have already spent heavily to bring stablecoin infrastructure into their existing networks.

Stripe completed its acquisition of Bridge in February 2025. Bridge provides infrastructure for businesses to receive, store, convert, issue, and spend stablecoins.

Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK on Aug. 3. The card network had agreed to pay as much as $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments, for technology connecting fiat and stablecoin rails.

Beņķītis described both acquisitions as logical steps but said global platforms must still maintain consistent pricing and settlement as they add currencies with different operating conditions.

Gravity Team estimates that stablecoin settlement costs between 0.1% and 0.4% of the principal across the corridors it studied. Its estimated cost for correspondent banking ranges from 3% to 11% after including foreign-exchange spreads, intermediary charges, and capital held in pre-funded accounts.

A March 2026 Federal Reserve note separately found that correspondent banking chains can make cross-border payments slower, more expensive and less transparent. The Fed said intermediaries may repeat compliance checks and make it harder to determine where a payment is being held.

Gravity Team opens institutional OTC desk

Gravity Team launched an institutional over-the-counter desk on Aug. 24 as part of its effort to connect crypto liquidity with local fiat settlement.

The company said the service acts as the principal counterparty for transactions within agreed limits for size, price, and volatility. Clients receive quotes with defined validity periods instead of executing large orders through public exchange order books.

The desk offers stablecoin settlement in under 60 seconds and T+0 fiat settlement in more than 20 currencies where local banking conditions allow. T+0 means the fiat side is intended to settle on the same day as the transaction rather than after one or more business days.

Gravity Team said it has direct banking relationships in more than 20 markets and intends the desk for payment providers, fintech companies, brokers, and other institutions moving funds into emerging economies. It also offers request-for-quote execution and credit lines, subject to its counterparty terms.

The launch comes as emerging markets account for some of the fastest growth in crypto activity. Chainalysis reported that Asia-Pacific crypto volume rose 69% to $2.36 trillion during the 12 months ending June 2025, while Latin American activity increased 63%.

For U.S. payment companies, the issue also extends beyond moving dollar-backed tokens overseas. Although the GENIUS Act created a federal framework for payment stablecoin issuers, domestic issuer rules do not by themselves supply peso, real, rupiah, or other local-currency liquidity in destination markets.

Stablecoins can shorten the digital part of a cross-border transfer. Completing the payment still requires local funding, currency conversion, regulatory checks, and a functioning payout route.