Bank of Italy Finds No Cost Advantage for Stablecoin Remittances

A recent study by the Bank of Italy found that stablecoin-based remittances do not offer a consistent cost or speed advantage over traditional payment channels.

The researchers tested 200 USDC remittances across 10 bidirectional payment corridors linking Italy with Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. They compared end-to-end costs and settlement times with traditional remittance services and found that exchange fees and currency conversion made up most of the cost.

Total costs ranged from 0.3% to nearly 9% depending on the payment corridor, while transfers settled in less than 20 minutes where instant payment systems were available and one to two business days where they were not.

The study found that stablecoin transfers were cheaper in most of the payment corridors examined but were less expensive than Wise in only three of seven comparable corridors. The authors concluded that investment in domestic instant payment infrastructure could improve the competitiveness of stablecoin-based cross-border payments.