Colin Swain, Global Head of Product – Corporate Solutions, Bottomline
Most corporate treasury teams have been filing stablecoins as “interesting, but not for us”. That’s changing, and the window to get ahead of stablecoin adoption is narrowing.
Unlike Bitcoin or other crypto assets, stablecoins are designed to track a fiat currency. A dollar-backed stablecoin is worth a dollar. That characteristic is what makes them fit for corporate finance in a way that other assets in the crypto ecosystem don’t. The question has moved from whether stablecoins are technically capable of functioning as a payment asset to whether trade and organisations are ready to realise their potential.
Regulation Is Catching Up
One of the most significant changes in the stablecoin landscape is the direction of travel on regulation. In the U.S., the GENIUS Act is tightening the rules around how stablecoins must be pegged to fiat currencies. If a company issues these coins, they must be backed by real, safe assets in reserve.
In the U.K., the FCA and the Bank of England are both progressing consultations on stablecoin issuance and infrastructure – publishing the CP25/14 paper in 2025 outlining a new framework for rules to qualify and safeguard crypto assets. The government also recently announced new measures to establish a single framework for tokenised payments, including stablecoins, along with the appointment of a new Wholesale Digital Markets Champion.
The structure is being built right now, and treasury teams that wait until it’s finished before they start preparing will already be behind.
The Use Cases Are Real – Start With What You Know
The clearest and most immediate use case for stablecoins in corporate finance is in foreign exchange (FX) and cross-border payments. This is an obvious starting point given the friction points, clear gains and a problem most treasury teams already know they have.
In markets where banking infrastructure is fragmented, stablecoins can remove layers of friction that slow payments and add costs. Think of it this way: instead of juggling foreign currency accounts and funds transfer across multiple countries, a treasurer holds one stablecoin balance in each of their trading currency and sets rules for when and where it moves. The system does the rest.
Treasury teams already manage FX movements and balance positions, and stablecoins just make that process faster and more automated.
The Bridge Is The Point
Much of the conversation around stablecoins assumes a clean break from the financial system as it exists today, a future where blockchain replaces traditional accounts and decentralised systems run entirely in parallel. But that framing is both wrong and unhelpful.
Corporate treasury teams don’t operate in a single, clean environment. They manage hundreds of bank accounts across multiple currencies, run on existing payment rails, answer to strict compliance frameworks, and manage audit trails that have been built up over decades. Any stablecoin solution that requires its own parallel infrastructure creates a second system to manage, audit and explain, and most organisations have no appetite for that.
For stablecoins to move from technically impressive to operationally useful, they have to connect to the same workflows, governance and reporting structures as everything else. When stablecoin balances show up next to bank account balances in your treasury system, and payments follow the same approval process regardless of the rail they run on, adoption becomes straightforward. Without that, stablecoins will stay in the pilot phase indefinitely.
This is the bridge that actually needs building. Not between old and new finance, but between stablecoin infrastructure and the payment models an organisation already runs on.
Preparation Is the Competitive Advantage Right Now
Most treasury teams are still early on the stablecoin learning curve. That is exactly why now is the right moment to move.
The C-suite will ask questions, whether from a board member who has read about the GENIUS Act or a CEO who wants to understand the company’s digital asset exposure. By the time stablecoins become a board‑level priority, it will be too late for treasury professionals to learn from scratch. Right now, simply being prepared is the advantage.
The Bridge Needed Between Traditional and Innovative Finance
Colin Swain, Global Head of Product – Corporate Solutions, Bottomline
Most corporate treasury teams have been filing stablecoins as “interesting, but not for us”. That’s changing, and the window to get ahead of stablecoin adoption is narrowing.
Unlike Bitcoin or other crypto assets, stablecoins are designed to track a fiat currency. A dollar-backed stablecoin is worth a dollar. That characteristic is what makes them fit for corporate finance in a way that other assets in the crypto ecosystem don’t. The question has moved from whether stablecoins are technically capable of functioning as a payment asset to whether trade and organisations are ready to realise their potential.
Regulation Is Catching Up
One of the most significant changes in the stablecoin landscape is the direction of travel on regulation. In the U.S., the GENIUS Act is tightening the rules around how stablecoins must be pegged to fiat currencies. If a company issues these coins, they must be backed by real, safe assets in reserve.
In the U.K., the FCA and the Bank of England are both progressing consultations on stablecoin issuance and infrastructure – publishing the CP25/14 paper in 2025 outlining a new framework for rules to qualify and safeguard crypto assets. The government also recently announced new measures to establish a single framework for tokenised payments, including stablecoins, along with the appointment of a new Wholesale Digital Markets Champion.
The structure is being built right now, and treasury teams that wait until it’s finished before they start preparing will already be behind.
The Use Cases Are Real – Start With What You Know
The clearest and most immediate use case for stablecoins in corporate finance is in foreign exchange (FX) and cross-border payments. This is an obvious starting point given the friction points, clear gains and a problem most treasury teams already know they have.
In markets where banking infrastructure is fragmented, stablecoins can remove layers of friction that slow payments and add costs. Think of it this way: instead of juggling foreign currency accounts and funds transfer across multiple countries, a treasurer holds one stablecoin balance in each of their trading currency and sets rules for when and where it moves. The system does the rest.
Treasury teams already manage FX movements and balance positions, and stablecoins just make that process faster and more automated.
The Bridge Is The Point
Much of the conversation around stablecoins assumes a clean break from the financial system as it exists today, a future where blockchain replaces traditional accounts and decentralised systems run entirely in parallel. But that framing is both wrong and unhelpful.
Corporate treasury teams don’t operate in a single, clean environment. They manage hundreds of bank accounts across multiple currencies, run on existing payment rails, answer to strict compliance frameworks, and manage audit trails that have been built up over decades. Any stablecoin solution that requires its own parallel infrastructure creates a second system to manage, audit and explain, and most organisations have no appetite for that.
For stablecoins to move from technically impressive to operationally useful, they have to connect to the same workflows, governance and reporting structures as everything else. When stablecoin balances show up next to bank account balances in your treasury system, and payments follow the same approval process regardless of the rail they run on, adoption becomes straightforward. Without that, stablecoins will stay in the pilot phase indefinitely.
This is the bridge that actually needs building. Not between old and new finance, but between stablecoin infrastructure and the payment models an organisation already runs on.
Preparation Is the Competitive Advantage Right Now
Most treasury teams are still early on the stablecoin learning curve. That is exactly why now is the right moment to move.
The C-suite will ask questions, whether from a board member who has read about the GENIUS Act or a CEO who wants to understand the company’s digital asset exposure. By the time stablecoins become a board‑level priority, it will be too late for treasury professionals to learn from scratch. Right now, simply being prepared is the advantage.
