Blockchain technology is being applied to global payment markets worth more than $10 trillion annually, according to a 2024 report by the Bank for International Settlements. Cross-border payments alone account for more than $150 trillion in annual flows, with blockchain-based solutions targeting the roughly $10 trillion in fees, delays, and inefficiencies embedded in the current system. Companies like Ripple, Stellar, and Circle are processing billions of dollars in blockchain-based payments, and major banks including JPMorgan, HSBC, and Standard Chartered have built their own distributed ledger payment networks.
The Problem Blockchain Solves in Payments
Traditional cross-border payments are slow and expensive. A wire transfer from the US to Europe takes an average of 2 to 5 business days and costs between $25 and $50, according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database. The SWIFT messaging network, which handles more than 40 million payment messages daily, was designed in 1973 and relies on a chain of correspondent banks to move money between countries.
Each intermediary in the correspondent banking chain adds fees and processing time. The average cost of sending $200 internationally was 6.2% of the transfer value in 2024, according to the World Bank. For remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa, costs exceeded 8%. These fees represent a direct tax on migrant workers sending money to their families. Blockchain-based alternatives process the same transfers in minutes at a fraction of the cost.
Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity service uses the XRP token to settle cross-border payments in under 10 seconds. Ripple reported that ODL processed more than $30 billion in volume during 2024 across more than 70 markets. Stellar’s network, which partners with MoneyGram and the UN World Food Programme, processed more than $8 billion in payments in 2024. Fintech revenue growth at a 23% CAGR is closely linked to these payment infrastructure improvements.
Stablecoins as Payment Infrastructure
Stablecoins have become the most widely used blockchain payment tool. The total stablecoin market capitalisation exceeded $170 billion in early 2025, according to CoinGecko. Tether’s USDT alone processes more than $10 trillion in annual on-chain transaction volume, making it one of the most-transacted financial instruments in the world.
Circle’s USDC is positioned as a regulated alternative for institutional payments. Circle is licensed as a money transmitter in all 50 US states and holds its reserves in US Treasury bills and cash deposits at major banks. In 2024, Visa expanded its USDC settlement capabilities, allowing merchants to settle payments in USDC on the Solana and Ethereum blockchains. PayPal launched its own stablecoin, PYUSD, in 2023 and integrated it across its platform for peer-to-peer and merchant payments.
For businesses, stablecoin payments offer near-instant settlement compared to the 2 to 3 day settlement cycle for card payments. A merchant receiving a $1,000 credit card payment gets the funds 48 to 72 hours later. The same payment in USDC settles in under a minute. Fintech companies are capturing 25% of banking revenues partly by offering these faster settlement options.
Bank-Led Blockchain Payment Networks
Major banks have built proprietary blockchain payment systems. JPMorgan’s Onyx platform, which includes the JPM Coin system, processed more than $1 billion in daily transactions by late 2024. The platform is used for intraday repo transactions, cross-border payments between JPMorgan branches, and wholesale settlement. HSBC’s blockchain platform settled more than $2.5 trillion in foreign exchange trades during 2024, according to the bank’s annual report.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Ubin demonstrated that blockchain can settle interbank payments in real time. The Banque de France and Swiss National Bank completed Project Mariana, which tested cross-border CBDC transfers using automated market makers on a shared blockchain. These central bank experiments suggest that blockchain infrastructure will become standard for wholesale payment settlement within the decade.
Standard Chartered’s Partior joint venture with DBS and JPMorgan is building a multi-bank blockchain clearing system. Partior completed its first live cross-border payment in Singapore dollars and US dollars in 2024 and plans to add euro and yen settlement. As digital banking customers approach 3.6 billion, the infrastructure to serve them is increasingly blockchain-based.
Remaining Barriers
Regulatory uncertainty is the largest barrier. Different countries classify stablecoins and blockchain payments differently. The EU’s MiCA regulation provides clarity in Europe, but the US lacks a comprehensive stablecoin framework. Japan treats stablecoins as a form of electronic payment instrument. This patchwork creates compliance challenges for companies operating across jurisdictions.
Scalability has improved but remains a constraint for some use cases. Visa processes roughly 65,000 transactions per second at peak capacity. Ethereum’s base layer handles approximately 15 transactions per second, though layer-2 networks like Arbitrum and Base add millions of transactions per day. Solana processes more than 4,000 transactions per second but has experienced network outages.
Despite these barriers, the direction is clear. The more than 30,000 fintech companies operating worldwide include hundreds focused specifically on blockchain payments. As fees decline and speed increases, blockchain-based payment solutions will capture a growing share of the $10 trillion payment market.
