Banca d’Italia has launched a July 2026 research discovering that stablecoin remittances don’t constantly beat conventional switch companies on price or velocity.
Researchers executed actual transfers of 200 $USDC throughout ten corridors linking Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.
The mystery-shopping research recorded whole prices from 0.30% to nearly 9%. The blockchain leg averaged solely 0.4%, whereas trade purchases, funding strategies, withdrawals and foreign-exchange conversion produced many of the expense. The authors stated stablecoins confirmed “no systematic price benefit” over conventional channels.
Stablecoin remittance prices diversified sharply by hall
The Italy-to-Argentina switch was the most affordable at 0.30%, whereas Argentina-to-Italy price 8.96%. The research warned that the low outbound Argentina consequence partly mirrored variations between the nation’s official and market trade charges, slightly than blockchain effectivity alone.
Brazil-to-Italy price 2.21%, in contrast with 2.70% in the other way. South Africa-to-Italy price 5.44%, whereas Italy-to-South Africa reached 4.58%. The 2 UAE routes have been among the many costliest at 7.20% and eight.95%, partly as a result of card funding and withdrawal expenses elevated the overall.
$USDC beat Smart in solely three comparable routes
Banca d’Italia in contrast its transactions with Smart simulations for a similar $200 quantity. $USDC was cheaper in three routes: Italy to Argentina, Italy to South Africa and Brazil to Italy. It was dearer in 4, together with each UAE routes and Italy to Brazil.
The researchers cautioned that the transfers and Smart simulations occurred on totally different dates. Additionally they described the World Financial institution comparability as an indicative benchmark slightly than a like-for-like check. The paper covers one stablecoin and a restricted variety of transactions, so its findings “can’t be readily generalized” to each supplier or hall.
Quick home funds decided switch velocity
The onchain portion took lower than quarter-hour in seven of eight immediately comparable corridors. Nonetheless, full settlement relied on the banking programs used to fund exchanges and withdraw native foreign money.
Transfers involving Italy’s TIPS, Brazil’s Pix and Argentina’s Transferencias 3.0 completed in beneath 20 minutes. South African routes took one or two enterprise days as a result of normal financial institution transfers slowed the fiat endpoints. The research subsequently discovered that stablecoin rails and home instant-payment programs labored as enhances, not substitutes.
Japan introduced a separate downside. The Japan-to-Italy switch price 1.6%, however regulatory limits required an unhosted pockets and fragmented transactions, making the method unsuitable for a direct timing comparability. The reverse route price 1.3% with out finishing the ultimate off-ramp.
Higher on-ramps might matter greater than cheaper blockchains
The findings assist Banca d’Italia Governor Fabio Panetta’s Could evaluation that stablecoins may match in chosen corridors however don’t present a common reply to costly remittances. He argued that regulators ought to enhance home cost infrastructure and join fast-payment programs throughout borders.
A March 2026 BIS paper reached a associated conclusion, figuring out weak interoperability, fragmented requirements and institutional variations as the primary limitations to cheaper cross-border funds. That implies blockchain settlement alone can not take away compliance, banking and local-currency bottlenecks.
Trade deployments proceed to check the opposite aspect of the argument. As crypto.information reported, Borderless.xyz discovered aggressive stablecoin pricing throughout 260 business-payment corridors throughout the second quarter. In associated protection, a Hyundai trial moved $20,000 between the U.S. and Mexico in about seven minutes, whereas SBI Remit partnered with Fasset to develop stablecoin remittance infrastructure.
These circumstances don’t immediately contradict the central-bank experiment. They contain totally different switch sizes, enterprise fashions and endpoints. The following step is broader testing throughout extra tokens, suppliers, dates and transaction quantities, with full disclosure of trade spreads, withdrawal prices and native payout instances.
