Why Airwallex customers didn’t need stablecoins, and why we’re building for them now

While I was at Coinbase, I kept wondering why Airwallex hadn’t leaned into stablecoins. Airwallex provides the global business accounts companies use to operate across more than 120 countries, so I expected more of its customers to need stablecoins.

Coinbase had spent years helping companies and developers hold and move dollars onchain, but it didn't provide what global businesses needed to use those dollars across markets, like converting them into pounds to pay suppliers or pesos to pay contractors, meeting local regulatory requirements, and moving fiat funds into accounts their finance teams already used. I joined Airwallex because it had spent nearly a decade building the regulated accounts, FX, controls, and local payment connections that let a solopreneur or an enterprise hold money in one place and pay people in their own currency across markets. 

Airwallex customers already had a fast way to move money globally

After starting at Airwallex, it didn’t take me long to see why stablecoins had not been a priority for many of our customers. They already had a fast way to collect dollars, convert them, and pay suppliers and employees in local currencies. Jeff John Roberts made a similar point in Fortune in 2024: Airwallex could move money quickly and cheaply by managing local currency pools and using local payment networks. Most transfers arrive the same day, and nearly half arrive instantly through local payment networks.

An Airwallex customer converts dollars once into the currency the recipient needs, and sends the transfer through a local network in that market. A company without that coverage has more work to do – especially if it relies on stablecoins, which also means managing things like wallets, blockchains, network fees, and compliance requirements in each market.

Businesses that use stablecoins still need local payment infrastructure

Some businesses hold stablecoins for reasons that have little to do with paying suppliers, like those that operate onchain. Stablecoins are also important in markets with unreliable banking or high inflation; people hold them to keep and move U.S. dollars. But neither group can use stablecoins to pay a supplier, an employee, or a contractor in local currency without a regulated provider that can convert the stablecoins and complete the payout.

Few providers can convert stablecoins and pay recipients in local currency across all the markets where a global business operates. Airwallex already operates the global and local financial infrastructure required for seamless fiat payouts in more than 120 countries, so I think it is one of the few that could do this everywhere our customers operate. Our customers would have one place to manage both stablecoins and local currency, where local rules allow, instead of working with a different provider in each market.

Why businesses fund agents with stablecoins

Some companies are beginning to let AI agents find and pay for services without asking a person to approve every transaction. Before doing that, a business has to identify the agent, limit what it can spend and buy, name the person or institution responsible for each payment, record every transaction, and retain the ability to revoke access. One effective way to limit how much the agent can spend is by giving it a stablecoin wallet with a fixed balance.

Cards work well above a certain amount, because a $10 purchase absorbs a fixed processing fee. Microtransactions do not, since the processor charges that fee on every transaction regardless of size. If an agent pays ten cents for an API call, a few seconds of compute, or a data lookup, the seller pays more in card fees than it collects, and an agent may make many of those purchases while completing a single task. When a business funds an agent with stablecoins instead, the seller doesn't have to pay that fixed fee on every purchase the agent makes.

Airwallex is integrating stablecoins now

Companies are putting agents into production, and regulators in the U.S. and Europe have paved the way for businesses to hold stablecoins and convert them legally. That combination is new, and it is why I think stablecoins now make sense for payments our existing rails don’t serve well. Agent payments will account for most of the demand, since a business running agents at scale has no cheaper way to pay for what they buy. Slower corridors are the other case, where a recipient that can legally hold stablecoins doesn’t have to wait for its bank to open its next clearing window.

This is why Airwallex invested to incubate Metal and become its first design partner. Metal is settlement infrastructure for regulated financial institutions, built so they can move money at the speed agents transact. We are also working to add stablecoin support for customers in the markets where regulators allow it.

I spent five years building money that moves like software. What was missing was everything that needs to happen after it arrives, which Airwallex has already built. As agents start making more payments and transfers on behalf of our customers, I want them to choose whether the money moves in stablecoins or in local currency, based on how their business operates. That’s when I believe we’ll see stablecoins start to realize their full potential.