Stablecoin payment infrastructure saw renewed momentum on Oct. 14 as two separate updates highlighted efforts to reduce execution costs and improve card economics.
Eco announced an upgrade to its stablecoin API that lets businesses set settlement conditions before funds are sent. The company said Programmable Addresses V2 provides live quotes before users fund a dedicated address, and its all-or-nothing execution model refunds money when transaction requirements cannot be met. According to Eco, a 1% difference on a $1 million transfer can cost a business $10,000.
Ryne Saxe, Eco's CEO and co-founder, said enterprise customers need confidence that funds will only move when their requirements are met. He added that even a small execution-price difference can translate into thousands of dollars in unexpected costs.
McKinsey and Artemis estimated B2B stablecoin payments reached an annualized pace of about $226 billion based on December 2025 activity, up 733% year over year and representing roughly 60% of identified stablecoin payment volume. Total annualized stablecoin payments across categories were approximately $390 billion. Stablecoin treasury use has already been tested outside the API layer: Hyundai Motor America and Hyundai Motor Mexico moved $20,000 in Tether's USDT over Avalanche in about seven minutes during a July trial, according to Tether.
Separately, Wirex CEO Pavel Matveev said currency conversion savings of up to 2% are a stronger reason for stablecoin card usage than cashback rewards. He said active users average about $95 per purchase and roughly 12 transactions per month, and Wirex-issued cards handled around a fifth of September's $1.2 billion in stablecoin card spending.
Matveev said Wirex settles in six fiat currencies alongside stablecoins, helping customers avoid two currency conversions. "Any issuer can switch cashback off tomorrow, whilst an FX saving is there every time you tap the card," he said. He also noted that Wirex payment volume increased during February's crypto market downturn.
Visa has separately reported nearly 200% year-over-year growth in stablecoin-linked card payment volume across more than 160 programs, with business and commercial programs generating about 17% of that volume in fiscal 2026 year-to-date. The broader expansion by players such as Stripe and the SoFi-Mastercard SoFiUSD settlement program underscores the competitive buildout of stablecoin payment rails.
Yet risks remain. Blockaid said an attacker exploited a Rain contract on Aug. 28, stealing approximately $1.1 million from stablecoin card programs on Solana. Rain said it upgraded every program still using the affected contract version.
