Stablecoins offer uneven FX savings as costs shift by payment direction and timing, Orbital research finds

Stablecoins don’t always mean cheaper FX. Often they just move the cost around.

Stablecoins beat two leading fintechs on 30 of 32 payment routes but mostly just match an institutional FX desk, with the cost shifting into weekends, the direction of the payment and a token that trades below $1.

LONDON, GIBRALTAR – 27th October 2026. For businesses already holding USDT, sending money through stablecoins costs more than receiving it in 15 of 17 currencies, according to new research from Orbital, a global payment orchestration platform spanning stablecoins and traditional payment rails. The report, The Honest Price of Stablecoin FX, challenges the assumption that stablecoins automatically deliver cheaper foreign exchange, revealing how costs vary significantly depending on the liquidity provider, direction of the transaction and timing.

Based on 27,057 quotes from 20 stablecoin liquidity providers across 52 currencies, each at a $100,000 notional, and compared with two leading fintechs and an institutional FX desk, the research shows where stablecoins deliver genuine FX savings, and where they do not.

Luke Wingfield Digby, co-founder of Orbital, said: “Stablecoins can make cross-border payments cheaper, but the devil is in the details. Our research shows that the same payment can have very different economics depending on which way the money moves, who provides the liquidity and when the transaction takes place.”

Key findings include:

Sending $100,000 in stablecoins can cost up to $210 more than receiving it

For businesses already holding USDT, paying out into local currencies costs 10–21 basis points more than collecting in 15 of the 17 currencies analysed. On a $100,000 transaction, that represents an additional $100–$210 in FX costs.

Brazil and Argentina bucked this trend, with collecting money significantly more expensive than sending it. In Brazil, a dollar-to-real conversion cost seven basis points below the fiat mid-market rate, while converting reais into dollars cost 83 basis points above it – a 90 basis point difference.

Stablecoins typically beat fintechs on price, but rarely outperform institutional FX

Stablecoins were cheaper than two leading fintech providers in 30 of 32 comparisons, typically saving 10 to 40 basis points (0.10% to 0.40%). Against an institutional FX desk, they were cheaper in just six of 22 comparisons, with the remaining 16 within 5 basis points of institutional pricing.

For businesses already accessing institutional FX rates, the additional savings from stablecoins may therefore be negligible.

Stablecoin FX can more than double at weekends

Round-the-clock stablecoin settlement doesn’t guarantee round-the-clock, competitive FX pricing. Orbital’s research found that some liquidity providers doubled their charges at weekends or stopped quoting altogether.

Quoted conversion costs for Mexican pesos were 2.6x weekday levels, while Japanese yen costs rose 2.3x. Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone costs also more than doubled.

Traditional FX providers weren’t immune: one leading fintech tripled its FX fee from 0.48% on weekdays to 1.48% on weekends.

The same stablecoin conversion can cost 20x more depending on the provider

In one Southeast Asian currency, one regional liquidity provider quoted a round trip at 16 basis points and another at 322, a 20-fold difference. Other currencies in the region, where competition was thinner, cost 138 to 286 basis points for a round trip.

Pricing differences were also evident in other currencies, with a gap of approximately 44 basis points between the best and worst quotes for Brazilian reais and 19 basis points for Mexican pesos.

One USDT is not always worth one dollar

Across six months, USDT traded at a median price of $0.99922, representing a discount of approximately 0.08% against the US dollar. For a business holding $1 million in USDT and valuing each token at exactly $1, the discount could mean receiving approximately $800 less than its recorded value when converting back into dollars, before fees.

Pricing differences were also evident in other currencies, with a gap of approximately 44 basis points between the best and worst quotes for Brazilian reais and 19 basis points for Mexican pesos.

“The opportunity is significant, but realising it requires businesses to understand the true cost of each payment and access competitive pricing rather than assuming stablecoins will always deliver the best rate,” concludes Wingfield Digby.

Methodology & Limitations

About the research

Orbital Research collected 27,057 indicative quotes for USDT against local currencies from 20 stablecoin liquidity providers across 52 currencies between 28 April and 6 October 2026, using a $100,000 notional transaction value. Head-to-head comparisons with two leading fintechs and an institutional FX desk used data from 29 July to 6 October, with the institutional FX desk sampled for three weeks in August. Eight institutional desks, polled four times a day, are the basis of every corridor figure; five regional desks appear only in the Southeast Asia comparison. Providers are anonymised, and the number of desks quoting each currency is not published.

Door-to-door stablecoin costs included both conversion legs, allowing comparison with traditional FX pricing, using the XE fiat mid-market rate as a reference. The findings reflect indicative quotes rather than executed transactions and exclude on-chain fees and execution outcomes such as slippage. The research focuses on USDT; its token valuation findings should not be generalised to other stablecoins.

Full methodology can be found here.

-ENDS-

Important: The Honest Price of Stablecoin FX is produced by Pay Perform Technologies Ltd. The views and information shared here are for general informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, legal, or other professional advice. No representations or warranties are made as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the data or content provided. The analysis is subject to known limitations, assumptions, and estimation methods including but not limited as outlined in the Methodology & Limitations section. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult with a qualified advisor before making any financial decisions. Mentions of specific digital assets, protocols, or platforms are for analytical purposes only and do not constitute endorsements or evaluations of their quality, stability, legality, or regulatory status. Orbital does not recommend buying, selling, or holding any particular digital asset and makes no representations regarding the suitability of any such asset for any use.

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