The promise of instant payment settlement and dramatically lower costs of stablecoins has captured the attention of industry heavyweights like PayPal and Mastercard, which are currently testing their own offerings.
A surprising number of businesses still rely on outdated payment systems that hinder cash flow and incur unnecessary fees. A paper check can take several days to clear; a cross-border wire transfer may incur additional fees that exceed the invoice amount itself. But instead with stablecoin, a digital token pegged to the U.S. dollar, the payment settles in minutes for a few cents.
PayPal has already put its U.S. dollar-backed PYUSD to the test (PayPal, 2023). After launching the stablecoin in 2023, the company quietly used PYUSD last fall to settle two of its own large payments: one to consulting firm Ernst & Young and another to Google Cloud, demonstrating that even enterprise-scale invoices can be settled in real time. In parallel, PayPal enabled two Xoom remittance partners, one in the Philippines and one in Africa, to process international transfers with PYUSD. Those pilots successfully slashed settlement times from days to minutes and cut fees by as much as 75 percent, proving that a blockchain-based dollar can handle high-volume, mission-critical payments.
Mastercard, on the other hand, has adopted a complementary strategy. Rather than replace its existing rails, the card network treats stablecoins as a “companion rail,” CFO Sachin Mehra said at a recent investor conference (Investing.com, 2025). In practice, a corporate treasurer could send a stablecoin payment to a supplier in Tokyo, then tap Mastercard’s FX engines to convert that token into yen—all in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional wires. Mehra hinted that the acquisition of or collaboration with stablecoin providers remains on the table, underscoring the company’s conviction that tokenized dollars will coexist alongside legacy payment corridors.
Mastercard and PayPal have teamed to integrate PayPal’s services into Mastercard’s One Credential platform so that users can access multiple payment methods (debit, credit, and installment) through a single digital interface (FinTech Magazine, 2024). This partnership builds on existing PayPal debit-card products and aims to simplify checkout by letting consumers seamlessly switch between payment options online or in stores. Issuers can configure payment hierarchies based on customer profiles, enabling real-time payment method selection while maintaining required security and compliance standards.
Yet rolling out stablecoins across corporate finance demands more than issuing tokens. ERP systems like SAP and Oracle must integrate blockchain wallets so CFOs can view every payment in a unified dashboard. Compliance teams need real-time AML and KYC checks to be built into each transfer so that wallet addresses are mapped to verified business entities. IT departments must run blockchain nodes alongside legacy payment gateways, orchestrating seamless handoffs between tokenized settlement and traditional fiat processing.
The potential benefits of stablecoin justify the build out of that infrastructure. Near-instant settlement, transparent audit trails, and minimal fees offered by tokenized payments could free up working capital, reduce reconciliation headaches, and open new trade corridors. In the coming months, watch for deeper stablecoin infrastructure across corporate finance—ERP plug-ins that speak blockchain, bank partnerships that offer instant on-ramps, and evolving regulatory frameworks to safeguard every transaction. As those building blocks fall into place, businesses may finally trade on rails fit for the digital age, where cash flows more quickly than data.