Bank of Italy Finds Stablecoins Lack Consistent Cost Edge in Remittances
A Bank of Italy study of USDC transfers across corridors including South Africa found fiat conversion and payment infrastructure, not blockchain fees, drive remittance costs.
AfroEuropa Newsroom
AfroEuropa desk
The Bank of Italy has published research questioning the widely cited claim that stablecoins reliably cut the cost of sending money across borders. According to the study, stablecoin transfers do not consistently undercut traditional remittance services.
Researchers ran a "mystery shopping" exercise involving 200 USDC transfers across 10 remittance corridors linking Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. The results indicated that although stablecoin transfers proved cheaper along some routes, they did not deliver a systematic cost advantage over conventional money transfer options.
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