Sibos 25: where stablecoin will help

Digital assets have a critical role to play in the real-time payments space but are unlikely to become as common as cash when it comes to everyday retail purchases.

That’s the view of Monica Bartolo, Head of Transaction Banking Financial Institutions at ANZ Institutional, when asked about the potential for stablecoin to becoming an everyday purchasing tool.

“We see stablecoin as an interesting tool for the institutional space, particularly the real-time liquidity aspect, rather than an actual replacement for cash itself,” Bartolo told an ANZ staff call on return from the 2025 Sibos financial services conference in October.

Bartolo said the application of stablecoin had been common theme at Sibos, particularly in innovation-focused settings – but that in advanced economies like Australia, many of the benefits the tech provides were already available through existing payment systems.

“I think, pure and simple, the view is stablecoins won't replace cash,” she said. “And we question whether they're actually really needed in regions where there are significant real-time payment networks operating currently."

Adoption

According to the 2025 McKinsey Global Payments Report, stablecoin issuance has doubled since the beginning of 2024, reaching transaction volumes of around $US30 billion a day.

Despite that, stablecoin’s “role in the broader global payments landscape remains somewhat limited”, the report said, representing just a “fraction of the trillions of dollars transacted worldwide each day”.

If stablecoin is to compete anywhere with cash, according to Bartolo, it’s likely to occur in markets with high levels of unbanked individuals, or less-sophisticated payments infrastructure.

“That's where you're seeing some adoption in the context of stablecoin,” she said.

Speaking after the event, Hari Janakiraman, Head of Industry and Innovation, TB, at ANZ, said stablecoin had “already proven very useful” for retail payments in these spaces.

“We’ve seen cross-border transfers to and from countries with unstable currencies and unbanked populations, as well as tokenised asset settlement,” he said.

“As cross-border e-commerce grows and $US remains dominant currency, a seller in a dollarised Pacific country would likely accept $US stablecoin from a buyer in a South American country, as a practical way to settle instantly at minimal cost.”

Yet to emerge

Janakiraman said stablecoin was at a “very early stage” of adoption, and the full range of use cases were yet to emerge.

“Digital currencies are likely to become a common payment instrument is specific industry segments like remittances, e-commerce, gig economy, streaming services, gaming and, of course, the digital-asset ecosystem,” he said.

“Combining stablecoins with smart contracts also introduces powerful programmability. We expect to see practical, high-impact applications of this capability.”

Digital assets have grown in prominence since the GENIUS Act, passed in July, installed a broad regulatory framework around stablecoins in the United States, in a boost to the $US238 billion global market. 

ANZ is on the leading edge of the application of the technology, including its work with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. As part of the HKMA’s Phase 2 e-HKD Pilot Programme, ANZ worked with Chainlink to allow the facilitation of ANZ’s stablecoin, A$DC, across both public and private networks.