Stablecoins Fail to Deliver in Cross-Border Transfers, Italian Bank Finds
The Bank of Italy recently conducted an experiment to assess the benefits of stablecoins in cross-border transactions. Researchers sent 200 test transfers using USDC from Italy to five other countries: Brazil, Argentina, Japan, UAE, and South Africa.
The results showed that the cost of these operations varied between 0.3% and almost 9%, depending on the destination country. The delivery time ranged from less than 20 minutes in cases where real-time payment systems were used to 1-2 business days in areas without such infrastructure.
According to the study, stablecoins did not provide a systematic advantage over traditional transfers in terms of speed or cost. The Bank of Italy identified conversion of digital assets into fiat and payment infrastructure as major bottlenecks in this area.