No. 86 - Are Stablecoins Efficient for Remittances? Evidence from a Mystery Shopping Exercise by Banca d'Italia
This paper examines whether stablecoin-based cross-border transfers are more efficient, in terms of cost and speed, than traditional remittance channels. To this end, we conduct a mystery shopping exercise executing transfers of 200 USDC across ten corridors linking Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. Stablecoins show no systematic cost advantage over traditional channels: total costs - of which the on-chain transfer accounts for only a marginal share - range from 0.30% to nearly 9% of the transferred amount. Execution speed is similarly heterogeneous and largely determined by the quality of the domestic payment infrastructures. Where instant payment systems exist, end-to-end settlement concludes in under 20 minutes; where standard bank transfers are required, the process extends to one or two business days. On and off‑ramp frictions are the main source of cost and transfer duration.
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