The partnership, announced Tuesday (May 27), will let Worldpay clients in the U.S. and Europe make stablecoin payments to customers, contractors, creators, sellers, and other third-party beneficiaries across more than 180 markets almost instantly, without having to hold or handle stablecoins themselves.
“As confidence in emerging technologies like crypto and digital assets grows, clients are increasingly open to using stablecoins to streamline payouts, navigate currency fluctuations, and settle with third parties in regions where digital assets are preferred,” John McNaught, head of payouts at Worldpay, said in a news release provided to PYMNTS.
“Our new stablecoin payout service allows clients across all Worldpay’s verticals—such as marketplaces, travel, and gaming—to make seamless payouts without handling digital assets themselves,” he added.
According to the release, Worldpay clients will be able to access the new stablecoin payout service through their integration with Worldpay’s payouts platform. When the pilot goes live in the second half of the year, stablecoins will be the first type of digital asset enabled as a payout option on Worldpay’s payout platform.
Jesse Hemson-Struthers, BVNK’s co-founder and CEO, said in the release that while stablecoin usage is increasing, with roughly $5.7 trillion of stablecoin payments made last year, “interacting with crypto and blockchain technology can be daunting, which has limited adoption historically.”
“When trusted providers like BVNK and Worldpay work together, we can simplify some of the complexity and bring modern, efficient payments options — on high-speed payment rails — to businesses across the globe,” Hemson Sturthers said.
The partnership is happening at a time when, as PYMNTS wrote last week, stablecoins are poised to “become more mainstream within everyday commerce and in commercial settings.”
The market cap of these coins now exceeds $249 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com. The largest of the tokens, Tether, has a market cap of $152 billion and a daily trading volume in the neighborhood of $117 million.
Meanwhile, legislation is advancing through Congress that would create frameworks for issuers, and banks are exploring a consortium approach to develop an interoperable stablecoin.
“To succeed, the banks will need to articulate a clear value proposition — what does their stablecoin offer that existing ones don’t?” PYMNTS wrote in another recent report.
“One answer could lie in the integration with existing banking services. Imagine a Zelle payment settled instantly in a stablecoin, or a corporate treasury using tokenized dollars for real-time reconciliation. These are tangible use cases that banks are uniquely positioned to serve.”
