Mercuryo, a payments infrastructure platform that provides on-ramp and off-ramp services for digital tokens, published data in August showing that stablecoins accounted for 60 per cent of crypto purchase value through its on-ramp in the first half of 2026, up from 43 per cent in the second half of 2025. On the cash-out side, USD Coin and tether tokens made up 57 per cent of accepted off-ramp transactions in the period, against 25 per cent a year earlier, with the company linking much of that activity to payroll.
Arthur Firstov, chief business officer at Mercuryo, answered written questions from The Fintech Times on what is driving the shift, how businesses are using stablecoins for treasury and payroll, what the weekend data says about banking hours, and what could stall adoption from here.
Firstov’s starting point is that the numbers describe a change in behaviour rather than a market cycle. “What we are seeing is a change in how people use stablecoins. They are increasingly being treated as digital money that can be held, moved and used for payments.” The rise in stablecoins as a share of purchase value has come alongside higher transaction frequency and larger average purchases, which he reads as a sign that the behaviour is becoming established rather than opportunistic.
The profile of first-time buyers is changing too. “There is also a clear change among new users, with more people choosing stablecoins as their first crypto purchase. They are looking for dollar-denominated value, access to global markets and a more efficient way to move money across borders.” Stablecoins such as USDt and USDC move over permissionless blockchain networks that run continuously and across borders, which in his view gives users access to financial rails that are global by design.
Neobanks built on blockchain rails
Mercuryo’s release described the rise of stablecoin-enabled neobanks. Asked what one is in concrete terms, Firstov drew a line between a product that uses blockchain as infrastructure and a bank account with a crypto feature bolted on. “A stablecoin neobank uses blockchain rails as part of the underlying financial infrastructure of the product, with stablecoins providing the digital value that moves across those networks.” A conventional neobank, by contrast, offers accounts, cards and transfers with the option to buy or hold crypto alongside them. The distinction matters, he said, because the blockchain provides the settlement infrastructure while the stablecoin gives users a familiar unit of value that can move across it.
“This is where the connectivity layer becomes particularly important. The objective is to make that movement of value seamless, so a customer or business can benefit from faster and more flexible settlement without having to understand which blockchain or payment rail is being used underneath.” That is most relevant, he added, for people and businesses operating across several countries, where traditional banking can add layers of cost, time and complexity.
Treasury, payroll and the weekend
On the business side, Mercuryo has pointed to three uses: rebalancing treasury positions across jurisdictions, moving working capital between subsidiaries and settling supplier invoices. Firstov said demand is visible in all three, but singled out treasury movement as the most compelling. “A company can have capital sitting in one jurisdiction while another subsidiary needs funds elsewhere, and moving that money through traditional banking infrastructure can involve multiple accounts, correspondent banks, settlement windows and reconciliation.” Stablecoins give treasury teams another route, with dollar-denominated value moving between entities over blockchain rails and conversion into local currency when the funds are needed.
The example he offered was a multinational with operating entities in Europe, the US and emerging markets that needs to move funds between them during the week. Rather than holding separate pools of liquidity and waiting for international transfers to settle, the treasury team moves value in stablecoins and converts when required. He did not name a company doing this today.
Payroll is where the off-ramp data points. “The strongest adoption is coming from globally distributed workers, including contractors, freelancers and digital professionals working for companies based in another country.” Those workers can collaborate with businesses anywhere, he said, while getting paid can still depend on local banking systems, foreign exchange processes and settlement windows. Stablecoin payroll lets a company send dollar-denominated value over blockchain rails and lets the employee convert to local currency when they choose.
Asked what this means for the banks and remittance providers that used to carry those flows, Firstov was careful not to write them out. “For banks and remittance providers, this changes the structure of the payment flow rather than removing their role entirely.” They continue to provide local settlement, compliance and access to the traditional financial system, while blockchain networks increasingly carry value between markets. The relationship between the two systems, he said, becomes more important as the flows grow.
Mercuryo’s data shows weekend stablecoin cash-out volumes running at about 86 per cent of weekday levels. For Firstov that is evidence of real demand for continuous settlement: businesses are moving money on Saturdays and Sundays because their operations do not stop at the end of the banking week. “Permissionless blockchains do not close at the weekend or wait for a settlement window to reopen, so stablecoins running on those networks can move continuously.” Traditional banking hours, he argued, were shaped by batch processing and fixed settlement windows. “As customers become used to value moving at any time, waiting for the next banking day will increasingly feel like a limitation of the existing rails.”
What regulators still have to settle
The GENIUS Act in the US has set out a legal framework for stablecoin issuance, reserve backing and consumer protection, and the UK is developing its own regime. Firstov said the direction is becoming clearer, which matters because businesses need certainty before committing significant resources to stablecoin payment products. “The next stage is creating clarity across the full lifecycle of a stablecoin, including issuance, reserves, redemption, custody, compliance and consumer protection.”
There is also a practical question about how regulated stablecoins operate across permissionless networks and interact with existing rules in different jurisdictions. A single cross-border payment can involve a stablecoin issuer, a blockchain network, a payment provider, a financial institution and a local currency conversion, and businesses need to know how responsibility and compliance are handled along that chain. The opportunity for regulators, in his words, is “to create frameworks that recognise the global nature of the underlying blockchain rails while maintaining strong safeguards around issuance, access and redemption.”
That same point is his answer to what could stall the growth curve. “The biggest risk is regulatory fragmentation.” Stablecoins move across networks that are global by design while the rules on their issuance and use are still being written, which creates uncertainty for any business that wants to build stablecoin payments into operations spanning several jurisdictions. Mercuryo’s own figures, he said, show stablecoins already becoming relevant for practical uses such as payroll and cross-border payments, which makes consistent rules more pressing as adoption develops. “Greater alignment will give businesses more confidence to invest in the products and connections needed to bring stablecoin-based financial services into much wider use.”
Mercuryo’s findings are based on off-ramp transactions processed on its platform, comparing customer activity in the first half of 2026 with the first half of 2025. The company counts Revolut, Mastercard and Visa among its partners.
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