Stablecoins can move across blockchains in seconds, but turning those tokens into spendable local currency remains the biggest friction in cross-border payments, Gravity Team CEO Mārtiņš Beņķītis told crypto.news as his firm launched an institutional OTC desk. “Stablecoin payment infrastructure is a liquidity story because stablecoin balances serve very different jobs,” Beņķītis said. He explained that market makers hold stablecoins to quote prices, move inventory between exchanges and manage trading risk, while payment firms use them to fund a conversion and free up local currency for recipients. That difference in use-cases creates competing demands on the same tokens and on the local fiat needed to complete payouts. The bottleneck, Gravity Team’s corridor analysis argues, is the off-chain conversion and settlement leg: the token’s on-chain transfer is only the first half of a payment. The second half — converting that stablecoin into a bank-depositable currency and completing the payout — runs into varying liquidity, banking hours, compliance controls and counterparty limits across markets. Key takeaways from Gravity Team’s findings and launch: - On-chain reliability is high: the firm reports stablecoin transfers clear on-chain more than 99.9% of the time once broadcast. By contrast, 3%–7% of traditional inbound wires into the Southeast Asian and Latin American corridors it serves are delayed or returned on first attempt. - Correspondent banking ties up capital: correspondent models can leave the equivalent of 20%–40% of monthly transaction flow sitting in pre-funded accounts, the company found. - Cost comparisons (company research): stablecoin settlement across studied corridors is estimated at 0.1%–0.4% of principal, whereas correspondent banking — after FX spreads, intermediary fees and capital costs for pre-funded accounts — ranges roughly 3%–11%. Gravity Team notes actual numbers vary by corridor, payment size and compliance requirements. - The commercial test is complete payout: speed of the token into a wallet is insufficient; providers must deliver the recipient the quoted fiat amount within the promised timeframe, even when primary routes fail. To address the gap between crypto liquidity and local fiat settlement, Gravity Team on Aug. 24 launched an institutional over-the-counter (OTC) desk that acts as a principal counterparty for trades within agreed limits of size, price and volatility. The desk provides: - Stablecoin settlement in under 60 seconds (on-chain), - Same-day (T+0) fiat settlement in more than 20 currencies where local banking permits, - Direct banking relationships across 20+ markets, - Request-for-quote execution and credit lines (subject to terms). Current supported fiat corridors include the Philippine peso, Indonesian rupiah, Mexican peso, Brazilian real, euro, British pound and U.S. dollar, with plans to add the Vietnamese dong. Beņķītis also pointed to structural choices firms make: operators that maintain direct banking links can better control funding, cut-off times and failed payments; partner-based models can scale reach but remain dependent on third-party liquidity, limits and processing practices. That trade-off has made local conversion and payout “the newest area of competition” among payments providers, he said. Industry momentum and wider context Major payments and card networks are moving aggressively to bridge crypto and fiat rails. Stripe acquired Bridge in February 2025 to bolster stablecoin infrastructure for businesses; Mastercard closed on BVNK (with total consideration up to $1.8 billion) in August 2025 to link fiat and stablecoin rails. Still, integrating more currencies means wrestling with uneven operating conditions and keeping pricing and settlement consistent across markets. Macro research supports the operational concerns: a March 2026 Federal Reserve note found correspondent banking chains can slow, add cost to and reduce transparency in cross-border payments, in part because intermediaries may repeat compliance checks and obscure a payment’s status. Demand for better rails is rising alongside growth in emerging markets. Chainalysis data shows Asia-Pacific crypto volume climbed 69% to $2.36 trillion in the 12 months ending June 2025, while Latin America increased 63%. Bottom line: stablecoins shorten the digital leg of a cross-border transfer dramatically, but the final mile — local funding, FX conversion, regulatory checks and a working payout pipeline — remains the operational and liquidity challenge for payments firms. Gravity Team’s OTC desk aims to marry crypto liquidity with on-the-ground banking to reduce that friction, offering faster on-chain settlement plus same-day fiat in selected corridors. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news