Stablecoins and Cross-Border Payments: A New Stage in the Digitalization of Settlements

The solution is aimed at payment providers, fintech companies, banks, and global platforms that want to use stablecoin settlement without independently holding digital assets or building their own blockchain infrastructure. Under this model, Circle handles the issuance and redemption of USDC, payment routing, compliance control, and the technical infrastructure for settlements.(Source: Circle, April 8, 2026).

This technology has changed the approach to making payments using cryptocurrencies, particularly stablecoins. Previously, working with stablecoins required holding them in one’s own accounts (wallets), complying with regulatory requirements, and independently connecting to and interacting with blockchains — all of which demanded significant time and resources for setup and testing. CPN Managed Payments offers a different model in which participants continue operating within their familiar fiat framework, while blockchain is used as a settlement layer within the payment infrastructure. In practice, for banks and other financial institutions, this means that a significant portion of these functions is transferred to the infrastructure provider (Circle).

In the traditional model, cross-border transfers often pass through a chain of correspondent banks, local clearing systems, currency conversion processes, and multiple layers of verification. This increases execution time, transaction costs, and participants’ dependence on specific settlement routes. When launching the Circle Payments Network, Circle noted that cross-border payments may take more than one business day and cost over 6%, especially in emerging markets where correspondent infrastructure is less resilient (Source: Circle, April 21, 2025).

Circle’s model demonstrates that a stablecoin can be integrated into payment infrastructure in such a way that a bank or payment provider does not need to create its own blockchain system or assume the full operational cycle of managing a digital asset. However, the use of USDC in Russian foreign trade settlements is limited by the issuer’s jurisdiction, sanctions risks, and compliance requirements, making direct replication of this model impossible.

In Russian practice, adapting the stablecoin settlement architecture to a ruble-denominated settlement asset appears more feasible. RBC reports that the ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 has received the status of a digital financial asset and may be used by importers and exporters as a means of payment for cross-border settlements (Source: RBC Crypto, September 30, 2025).

Thus, for Russian companies, such an architecture potentially makes it possible to conduct international settlements almost directly, even if a partner company, for various reasons, cannot accept payment in cryptocurrencies. An approximate scheme of international settlements using CPN Managed Payments is shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 1. Simplified scheme of a cross-border payment using CPN Managed Payments, taking into account Russian specifics

However, risks remain related to the regulation of USDC circulation, the determination of the exchange rate between the ruble stablecoin and the dollar stablecoin, and the availability of sufficient liquidity to cover significant volumes of foreign trade settlements. According to the Federal Customs Service, imports of goods into Russia in 2025 amounted to $279.0 billion, while the public WA7A5/USDT pool on Uniswap provides approximately 159.3 thousand USDT in liquidity with a total TVL of $232.8 thousand (Source: Interfax, February 10, 2026; Uniswap, May 2, 2026). In other words, the current public dollar liquidity of this instrument cannot cover significant volumes of foreign economic activity settlements. For practical implementation, deeper liquidity pools, regulated market makers, and government support for this type of settlement are required.

Author: Assistant at the Department of World Economy and World Finance, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Nikita Dmitrievich Klevanets.