By Wesley Rios
Institutions are building stablecoin momentum, but are freelancers and small businesses enjoying the benefits of the technology yet?
If media reports are anything to go by, stablecoins are transforming how money moves across borders and making the whole process much cheaper. But have stablecoins become cheaper for smaller businesses to use?
I spent most of my career in traditional payments, and I’ve witnessed how access to better pricing and more flexible services often depend on how much business a customer brings to the table.
A freelancer sending a few invoices abroad had, and still has, little room to command how a technology or a platform should be developed. This is the gap I worry about.
The recent expansion of Citi’s collaboration with Coinbase is another sign of stablecoins’ institutional momentum. But the question for smaller businesses remains yet unanswered: will this give them better access to better terms? Or will their providers simply become more efficient at serving them while still charging the same fees?
Does it mean anything for a small business owner when a big institutional name declares it’s joined the stablecoin bandwagon?
A “stablecoin moment” for freelancers and small businesses
A consultancy in Brazil that does Salesforce implementations took me through what it’s like to wait for a payment from a customer in the US. It invoiced the client in dollars and waited three to five days for payments to reach its Brazilian bank, already converted into Brazilian reais at a rate it had not seen beforehand. By its estimate, it lost around 8% of what it earned to wire fees, intermediary charges, and the foreign-exchange spread.
Could stablecoins change things for small businesses like that? In terms of speed and visibility, I think the upgrade is evident. A USDC payment can reach a wallet within seconds, including outside banking hours. Both parties can check the transfer, reducing uncertainty over whether the money has actually arrived. The consultancy could also retain a dollar-denominated balance and choose when to convert, provided it has access to a suitable service.
But what about savings in fees? Does a stablecoin payment come out ahead of a cross-border bank transfer?
A business that needs reais for its expenses still has to convert the payment. Depending on the provider and route, that can involve trading or conversion fees, a margin built into the quoted exchange rate, and a charge to withdraw the proceeds. Even if the transfer itself is inexpensive, some of the costs associated with getting paid internationally remain.
I would call for faster settlement and clearer payment tracking progress. Whether this is a “stablecoin moment” for small businesses, that’s still debatable.
Changing how we view the problem
A large customer can use its transaction volume to negotiate. A small business chooses from the prices it is offered. Moving the interaction onto the blockchain does not alter that position because providers will prioritise and value larger accounts.
“An institutional client moves millions in a single transaction,” I was told by a stablecoin issuer at an event. “So, our focus is really not on retail at the moment.” I get it: it’s a better use of resources to maintain that one relationship that brings you millions than to support 50 consultants that bill less than $200,000 a month. While this explains the institutional focus, it assumes that smaller players will automatically go to where the big boys go.
So, let’s change how we approach the problem.
How do we make a customer with modest, irregular payment volumes worth serving?
For a payments platform, this could mean reducing the work required to open and support an account. When I speak with small business owners, they want to focus on delivering their service or product; their payments platform should make running their business easier, not take up more time.
The next thing is removing the complexity. A “moment” doesn’t have to be one where you decide to drop everything to learn something new. For a small business, the stablecoin moment is adoption that feels as intuitive as a friend sending money for their share of dinner using an app.
We made the mistake of positioning crypto as a tech for those “smart” enough to see through the failings of the traditional financial system. AI did not. It made performing tasks, from searching to coding an app, as simple as a conversation.
There is still time to make stablecoins approachable in the same way. A business owner should be able to try receiving one payment, understand what it costs, and decide whether it works better. That first experience needs to give them a reason to use it again.
Institutional interest generates investment and encourages the building of infrastructure. These initiatives are important because they make it more economical to serve smaller customers. But the savings need to go back to the businesses adopting the technology, not just the institutions implementing it.
Many businesses, like the consultancy in Brazil, already know how to find clients overseas and deliver the work. They should be able to collect the money and easily put it to use, whether in the form of an employee’s salary or an investment decision. Speed, visibility, and fees will help make stablecoin adoption a straightforward business decision.
We can still create that stablecoin moment for small businesses. It starts with treating them as customers worth building for today.
About the Author
Wesley Rios is Morph’s Senior US Payment Partnership Manager. Wesley is a fintech and payments leader with 15+ years of experience in product strategy, market expansion, and strategic partnerships across Mastercard, J.P. Morgan, and Citi. He specializes in payments infrastructure, stablecoins, digital identity, issuer processing, and cross-border growth, with a focus on building scalable financial products across global markets.
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