Corporate treasury teams are turning to stablecoins in markets where local systems are still slow or costly, Paxos said
Three years ago, calls to US-based crypto firm Paxos about stablecoin stypically came from companies’ innovation teams.
Today, they largely come from firms’ treasury departments, which manage cash flow and financial risks, said Khairi Azmi, head of Asia-Pacific at Paxos.
Stablecoins are a type of digital currency designed to maintain a stable value against one or more fiat currencies. They can be transferred near-instantly, around the clock.
Business adoption has surged, Azmi observed. Business-to-business (B2B) stablecoin payments reached about US$226 billion (S$ 289 billion) in 2025, up 733 per cent from 2024, according to a February 2026 report by consulting firm McKinsey and blockchain analytics provider Artemis Analytics.
“It’s worth (noting) what actually grew: corporate treasury (activity), rather than consumer checkout,” Azmi said.
They use stablecoins to pay overseas suppliers and contractors in markets where local payment systems are slow or costly, he said. Using stablecoins could also free up “idle cash” in local accounts for working capital.
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Companies often keep such funds to avoid liquidity shortages caused by regulatory delays or inefficient banking systems, Big Four accounting firm PwC said in a November 2025 note.
Azmi said its main benefit is speed, not cost, since converting fiat to stablecoins and back carries fees.
Why treasurers are taking notice
The tech behind stablecoins has long worked, but the “permission has changed” in recent years, Azmi said.
Regulatory frameworks like the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) stablecoin framework, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), and the US Genius Act gave stablecoins a “recognisable regulatory shape,” he said.
He added that with clear rules, chief financial officers could approve stablecoins for payments and add them to their treasury policy.
Asia accounted for 60 per cent of global stablecoin payments in 2025, the February 2026 McKinsey and Artemis Analytics report found. Singapore was a key driver and could go further.
Under the MAS Single-Currency Stablecoin framework, only issuers licensed by the regulator may call their coins “MAS-regulated stablecoins”.
A September 2026 consultation paper proposes extending that label to stablecoins co-issued by a Singapore and an overseas issuer, and recognising select foreign stablecoins regulated under comparable rules.
Azmi said: “It’s (potentially) the most consequential stablecoin policy move in Asia this year.”
Paxos issues its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDG, in Singapore under the Major Payment Institution licence.
What is still missing
Despite the growth, stablecoins comprised just 0.01 per cent of global B2B payments annually, according to McKinsey and Artemis Analytics’ estimations.
Companies still need to link stablecoins to their finance software, decide how to account for them, set rules on the firms they can deal with, and name someone responsible, he said.
“The businesses ready to adopt (stablecoins) are the ones that already solved those four problems for other (financial) instruments,” Azmi said.
This was produced in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Global Finance & Technology Network.
For more stories, go to bt.sg/sff26
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