Hyundai Card Completes $20K Cross-Border Payment on Avalanche in Just 7 Minutes

Hyundai Card has successfully completed a $20,000 cross-border intercompany payment using Tether's USDT on the Avalanche blockchain. The transaction was settled in roughly seven minutes between Hyundai Motor's US and Mexico units, significantly reducing the time it takes for traditional interbank wires.

The pilot, first announced in July 2022, routed fiat currency from Hyundai Motor America through a conversion to USDT, transferred the tokens via Avalanche's network, and converted them back into US dollars on arrival at Hyundai Motor Mexico. This process bypasses correspondent banking networks entirely, removing intermediary fees and delays that inflate costs on high-frequency intercompany transfers across jurisdictions.

According to internal benchmarks, traditional interbank wires between the two entities typically take three to four hours, making this seven-minute settlement a significant reduction for a routine treasury operation.

Axiym, a liquidity and settlement infrastructure provider, supported the conversions for the pilot. Ava Labs, the development team behind Avalanche, provided the blockchain layer.