Stablecoins Will Disrupt Cross-Border Payments, Investment Bank William Blair Says

Stablecoins are poised to reshape the global financial system, with investment banking firm William Blair calling them a “major technology upgrade” over the traditional rails that have long underpinned cross-border money movement.

The Chicago, Illinois-based banking firm argued that stablecoins will not only replace legacy infrastructure for business-to-business transactions, but will also gain traction in some areas of consumer commerce in the report published Tuesday.

Unlike fiat-based cross-border payments, which William Blair characterized as “slow, expensive, and fragmented,” stablecoins offer key advantages, such as 24/7 availability, near-instant settlement, minimal intermediary involvement and the elimination of foreign exchange risk.

The report emphasized that stablecoin transactions also benefit from immutability, programmable execution and exposure to trusted currencies like the U.S. dollar.

William Blair believes that global regulatory clarity, including measures like the GENIUS Act, will lay the groundwork for what it calls a “golden age of stablecoin commerce.”

The firm was quick to note that legislation alone won’t drive mass adoption. Instead, it pointed to several catalysts, including growing corporate demand, advancements in digital infrastructure, and traditional financial giants like Mastercard (MA), Visa (V), and Corpay (CPAY) building out support for stablecoins, as necessary steps toward broader uptake.

While bullish on the long-term trajectory, William Blair cautioned that the greatest short-term risk for stablecoin-exposed equities like Coinbase (COIN) and Circle (CRCL) is market impatience. Investors may grow frustrated with the pace of adoption.

Despite this, the firm encouraged buying on weakness and reaffirmed its conviction that Circle and Coinbase are “the highest-quality public crypto companies.”

Looking ahead, William Blair predicts the market will consolidate around a few dominant payment tokens, as liquidity demands and network compatibility force convergence. This outlook underpins the firm’s optimism on Circle, which issues the USDC stablecoin, and on Coinbase as a key platform for stablecoin activity. Other potential beneficiaries include Visa, Mastercard, and Corpay, with Block (XYZ) and Fiserv (FI) also seeing some upside.

But for traditional correspondent banks, the future looks more uncertain. The analysts warned that even if those institutions integrate stablecoin rails, much of the economic upside will likely flow to newer entrants. In the firm’s view, stablecoins don’t just complement the existing financial system, they threaten to replace some of its core components.

Read more: DWS Sees Stablecoins Emerging as Core Payments Infrastructure