In an era where technology has transformed nearly every aspect of our daily lives, international money transfers remained stubbornly archaic—until now.
The emergence of stablecoins has revolutionized how we think about cross-border payments, offering a glimpse into a future where sending money internationally is as simple as sending a text message.
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Traditional Wire Transfer Nightmare
Today, I had the option to either send an international wire or send stablecoins. If I had sent the international wire from my bank account, like I used to in the past, I would have had to:
- Call my bank and likely be on hold for 20 minutes
- Verify my identity through an IVR (which often ends up not working and routes me to an agent)
- Tell the agent that I want to send an international wire
- Make sure they are pulling from my USD-denominated account, not my CAD one
- Give the agent the alphanumeric beneficiary bank’s SWIFT/BIC code, bank name, and bank address, undoubtedly needing repetition and probably saying “E as in Echo” for every single letter
- Give them the beneficiary’s name, account number, and address
- Give them the intermediary bank’s SWIFT/BIC code, bank name, and bank address
- Pay a $45 fee
- Oh, and the recipient has to pay a fee to their bank too
- Wait 2-7 business days for it to clear — constantly checking my account, not notified when it clears.
- Oh, and my bank charges a fee for investigations if I find it hasn’t cleared after 7 days
And, based on my experience with international wires, this is truly a best-case scenario articulation of the process. With one of the biggest banks in Canada.
The Stablecoin Solution
With stablecoins, I:
- Opened my wallet, pasted the address & amount in
- Hit ‘send’, paid pennies in gas
- Sent the recipient a confirmation link 2 minutes later
I get shudders imagining going back to the old world.
The Game-Changing Impact
The contrast between these two experiences illustrates more than just technological advancement—it represents a fundamental shift in how financial services can and should work.
While traditional banking infrastructure remains mired in decades-old processes, stablecoins offer a preview of a financial future built for the digital age.
Stablecoins have WAY more than 10x’ed my personal international remittance experience. Now that’s product-market fit (PMF).
As adoption grows and regulatory frameworks evolve, we may look back at this moment as the beginning of the end for traditional international wire transfers.
The question isn’t whether this technology will reshape global finance, but how quickly the rest of the world will catch up to what early adopters already know: the future of money is here, and it’s remarkably simple.