Stablecoin Costs No Better Than Traditional Remittances, Study Finds

The Bank of Italy recently conducted a study on stablecoins and their efficiency in cross-border remittances. The researchers used a 'mystery shopping' exercise involving 200 USDC transfers across 10 remittance corridors linking Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.

The findings showed that while stablecoin transfers can be cheaper in some corridors, they do not provide a systematic cost advantage over conventional money transfer services. The researchers attributed the wide variation in costs to fiat on- and off-ramp costs, exchange rate spreads, and withdrawal fees, rather than blockchain settlement costs.

The study found that total transfer costs ranged from 0.3% to nearly 9% of the amount sent, depending on the remittance corridor and the service providers used. The researchers compared stablecoin transfers with Wise across the same payment corridors and found that stablecoins were cheaper for transfers from Italy to Argentina, Italy to South Africa, and Brazil to Italy.

However, they were more expensive on routes including Argentina to Italy, Italy to Brazil, and transfers between Italy and the UAE. The study concluded that stablecoins alone do not guarantee faster or cheaper remittances and instead depend on efficient traditional payment infrastructure to deliver meaningful benefits.