Payments Processor Zelle to Use Stablecoins for International Transactions

Payments processor Zelle’s parent company said Friday that Zelle would start using stablecoins to make international transactions for the firm. 

Early Warning Services, which manages Zelle, said that using stablecoins would “enable Zelle to deliver faster and more reliable cross-border money movement.”

“The effort marks an important step in expanding the reach of Zelle globally by leveraging stablecoins,” an announcement by Early Warning Services said in an announcement read. 

Early Warning Services CEO Cameron Fowler added: “Zelle transformed how Americans send money at home.”

“Now, we’re beginning the work to bring that same level of speed and reliability to Zelle consumers sending money to and from the United States, building on what we have learned from the market, our users and our network banks and credit unions.”

The announcement underscores stablecoins’ growing importance in finance. Earlier this month, U.K. bank Standard Chartered wrote in a note that Stablecoins could siphon $1 trillion in deposits away from banks in emerging markets in the “next three years or so.”

In an ongoing Myriad market, 54% of respondents expect stablecoins’ market capitalization to surpass $360 billion by the end of next January. Stablecoins’ current value sits at $312 billion. (Myriad is a unit of Dastan, the parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)

Stablecoins, which are the most-traded digital tokens in the crypto space, are pegged to the value of fiat currencies like the dollar or euro and aim to make transactions faster and more efficient.

The statement did not specify which stablecoins Zelle would use. Early Warning Services is owned by major American banks Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo.

U.S. President Donald Trump in July signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing a framework for issuing and trading stablecoins. 

Now, major companies like Amazon, Meta, and PayPal, as well as big banks, are interested in issuing their own versions of the tokens. 

USDT, the biggest stablecoin on the market, is issued by El Salvador-based company Tether. It is by far the most-traded cryptocurrency, and with a market capitalization of more than $182 billion, the third largest among digital assets, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko.