Cross-border settlement
Move value B2B across borders and settle in minutes.
What this layer does
Cross-border players use stablecoins as the settlement rail to move money between countries far faster and cheaper than SWIFT. The classic pattern is the 'stablecoin sandwich': local currency → USD stablecoin → destination currency.
Where it sits
Across borders — connecting a payer in one country to a payee in another, often in emerging-market corridors where banking rails are slow or expensive.
What they compete on
Corridors covered, settlement speed, FX spread, local payout reach (last-mile), licensing, and compliance.
How to tell them apart
Sphere/BVNK serve businesses with broad corridors; Conduit and Felix focus on specific emerging-market lanes; the moat is increasingly distribution + last-mile payout, not the rail itself.
The players
BVNK
Enterprise-grade stablecoin payment infrastructure — now Mastercard's on-chain rail.
Mastercard-acquired (~$1.8B, Mar 2026). ~$30B annualized volume, Visa Direct partnership, 25+ licenses (US MTLs, EU/UK EMI, MiCA CASP).
Deep dive →Sphere
An operating system for cross-border money movement.
Solana-VM permissioned ledger (SphereNet, built with Anza); compliance-first rail. Deep emerging-market (LatAm) corridor + last-mile push.
Deep dive →Mural Pay
Global accounts. Real-time payments. One API.
Stablecoin ⇄ local-currency last-mile across LatAm + global, with built-in KYB/KYC and one-API Global Stablecoin Accounts.
Deep dive →Conduit
Cross-border B2B payments on stablecoin rails — an alternative to SWIFT.
Deepest emerging-market last-mile (40+ countries in Africa via Onafriq; LatAm + Asia), 8 US banking partners, USDC issuer Circle as an investor.
Deep dive →Félix Pago
Remittances over WhatsApp, settled in stablecoins.
Distribution via WhatsApp (no app to download) + a conversational AI agent, settled on USDC rails with dLocal/Bitso last-mile. ~$3B annualized volume; QED-backed.
Deep dive →