Stablecoins Move from Potential to Practical Use

B2B stablecoin payments are the fastest growing segment in the digital payments sector, according to a McKinsey survey, accounting for around $226 billion in payments annually, or 60% of global stablecoin payment volume. With year-over-year growth of 733% in 2025, adoption momentum is building.¹

The potential benefits of stablecoin adoption are significant. Blockchain-based settlement can reduce payment delays, accelerate account rebalancing and provide greater visibility into the movement of funds. Stablecoins also reduce friction in cross-border payment flows and enable more continuous movement of liquidity across entities and regions. The broader implication is a more flexible operating model built around always-on settlement, potentially supported by programmable payment flows.

The question for treasury leaders is not whether stablecoins can move money more efficiently, but rather whether their organizations can use them safely and effectively. Successful adoption involves more than connecting to a new payment rail; it requires the right governance, controls, operating model and technology infrastructure. Before moving forward, treasury leaders should ask fundamental questions about the business case and the infrastructure needed to support it.

Questions Treasury Should Ask Around Stablecoin Adoption

1. What are the key use cases the organization wants to address with stablecoins?

This is the starting point for any serious treasury assessment. Stablecoin adoption is most effective when anchored in clear business priorities and aligned with broader strategic objectives — when it is a solution to a specific challenge the organization is facing and the value is tangible and measurable.

Stablecoins are particularly useful where they deliver material efficiency or liquidity benefits that justify their use as non-interest-bearing instruments. Today, the most relevant use cases include cross-border payments, intercompany transfers, settlement, collateral movement and cash management. Treasury teams globally are exploring and adopting these use cases, and additional applications may emerge over time.

2. How should the board of directors oversee stablecoin adoption?

Boards and senior management should view the use of stablecoins in treasury as a strategic infrastructure decision, rather than a narrow operational initiative. While a comprehensive understanding of the underlying technology may not be necessary for boards and senior executives, a sufficient working knowledge is necessary to set risk appetite, approve governance arrangements, update policy frameworks and establish effective oversight.

Boards should understand how the company’s risk exposure may change and approve any corresponding adjustments to the company’s risk framework. Management should be expected to demonstrate that an appropriate control framework is in place, with legal, compliance, operations, tax and accounting sign-off. Committee oversight should also be defined clearly, including which committees are responsible for different aspects of the program and what data and reporting is needed to monitor activity, exposures and emerging risks.

3. In what ways does treasury policy need to be updated?

Stablecoins differ from traditional payment rails in important operational and risk characteristics, so treasury cannot simply transpose existing policies into this new area. Key policy updates may include explicit coverage of payment stablecoins and other digital instruments, including approved and prohibited instruments, depeg thresholds, exposure limits and related risk metrics. Treasury will also need a clear governance structure for decision-making and execution, particularly as operational control depends heavily on the digital asset custody arrangements in place. Reconciliation and recordkeeping models may need to be expanded to operate across both traditional and blockchain-based systems. Policies should also reflect the needs of a 24/7/365 operating environment, with clear rules for overnight and weekend activity, incident escalation outside business hours and emergency approval chains.

These changes are unlikely to be sufficient on their own. Effective implementation will also depend on robust training for employees involved in stablecoin activity. Policies should also be reviewed and updated as applicable laws and regulations take effect.

4. What new risks will the organization encounter by engaging with stablecoins?

Stablecoins introduce a new trust relationship for many corporate treasurers: reliance on the stablecoin issuer. As such, treasurers should assess issuer and reserve risk, along with liquidity and redemption risk, and verify that the issuer is appropriately licensed or approved and subject to applicable regulatory oversight. Under the U.S. regulatory framework, permitted payment stablecoin issuers must maintain reserves in specified assets, like cash, insured deposits, short-dated Treasuries or qualifying government money market funds, so the quality, liquidity and transparency of those reserves matter. Depeg and liquidity risks also require close attention, including the possibility of a stablecoin trading below par, the depth of the market under stressed conditions and the ability to redeem into fiat quickly and at scale under applicable regulatory rules. “Stable” should not be interpreted as risk-free.

5. Are legal and compliance obligations met?

Legal guidance is necessary to determine whether and how stablecoin use is permitted in a specific jurisdiction. Therefore, a robust legal and compliance framework is required to support stablecoin use at scale, including meeting AML, KYC and sanctions obligations, as well as transaction monitoring through a know-your-transaction approach. Any applicable licensing, payments and financial entity regulatory requirements also need to be addressed.

It is equally important to understand the legal rights attached to the stablecoin itself, particularly any right of redemption against the issuer.  Proper due diligence on an issuer includes assessing reserve quality, the strength of attestations or audits, and the issuer’s regulatory standing. Given the pace of regulatory change, legal and compliance work should be treated as an ongoing element of risk management rather than a one-time exercise.

6. What kind of a new operational and control framework will the treasury team need?

A treasury team working with stablecoins will need a more advanced operating and control framework that extends beyond traditional cash and liquidity management practices. In addition to established treasury controls, that framework should address digital asset custody, wallet governance, blockchain-based transaction execution, continuous monitoring and accelerated exception handling.

Core requirements include clearly defined custody and key-management controls, strong authorization protocols for payments and transfers, and governance over wallet access and transaction approval. Because blockchain transactions are generally irreversible, preventive controls at the point of initiation become especially important. Treasury will also need supporting controls across technology resilience, cybersecurity, reconciliation, exception management and incident response.

Working with a trusted stablecoin custodian can help reduce risks and provide more transparency . For example, a highly rated custodian bank designated as a global systemically important bank (G-SIB) would apply institutional-grade key management, asset segregation and cybersecurity controls, while offering greater transparency into reserve arrangements and redemption mechanisms.

7. How do you integrate stablecoins into ERP and TMS environments to support cash forecasting and other treasury processes?

Integrating stablecoins into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Treasury Management System (TMS) and accounting environments should be approached as part of extending existing data, control and reporting frameworks into digital workflows. The goal is to ensure activity is captured, reconciled and reported consistently across the treasury environment.

In practice, that means treasury systems and enterprise platforms need to connect to wallet providers, custodians, exchanges and blockchain-based transaction services — a process that can be more complex in legacy technology environments. Many organizations will need an integration layer or middleware capability to normalize transaction, balance and reference data into formats their ERP, TMS and accounting platforms can consume. A supporting data and reporting architecture is also needed to enable reconciliation, auditability, controls monitoring, management reporting and cash-flow forecasting.

8. What is needed to support accounting, tax and reporting?

Before going live, treasury should align closely with the corporate controller, tax and audit teams controllership, on how each stablecoin-related event will be recognized, measured, recorded, reconciled and reported. That includes acquisition, transfers, redemption, valuation, fees, income treatment and period-end reporting. Establishing that governance upfront is important, particularly because global standard setters have not yet developed an accounting framework specifically for stablecoins.

Companies should not assume stablecoins can be treated as cash. Instead, they should assess them based on their legal form, contractual terms and economic characteristics under existing accounting standards. Depending on the facts and circumstances, including whether or not the holder has an enforceable redemption right, the stablecoin may be classified as an intangible asset, a financial asset or potentially cash and cash equivalent where the criteria are clearly met. Treasury teams should also evaluate the tax treatment of transfers, redemption and any associated yield, while ensuring reporting frameworks support auditability, disclosures and a clear end-to-end transaction trail. A qualified custodian bank can support these accounting and reporting requirements by providing independent records, reconciliations and transparent reporting that strengthen auditability and the end-to-end transaction trail.

Infrastructure, Governance and Execution Will Matter Most

As corporate treasurers continue to assess the practical role stablecoins may play in payments, liquidity and cross-border treasury operations, the focus is likely to move beyond the asset itself and toward the strength of the infrastructure surrounding it. Safe and scalable adoption will depend on more than transaction speed or technical capability. It will require robust operating models, clear governance, strong controls and integration across treasury, accounting, tax and reporting environments.

In that context, trusted institutional partners can play an important role in helping treasurers navigate both the opportunities and the operational realities of implementation. BNY supports organizations around the globe as they evaluate how these emerging capabilities may fit within established treasury structures and longer-term strategic priorities.

Related Platforms