Bank of Italy tests 200 stablecoin remittances

• A Bank of Italy study tested 200 USD Coin transfers and found no consistent cost or speed advantage over traditional remittances.
• Stablecoin transfer costs ranged from 0.3% to nearly 9%, depending on the payment corridor.
• Researchers said wider direct stablecoin spending could improve their economic advantages by removing local fiat conversion costs.

A Bank of Italy study tested 200 USD Coin (CRYPTO) transfers and found no systematic cost or speed advantage over traditional remittances.

Researchers tested 10 bidirectional corridors linking Italy with Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa.

“If stablecoins could be spent directly in the real economy, the economic advantages of stablecoin-based transfers would be substantially higher,” said Bank of Italy researchers.

Stablecoin transfer costs ranged from 0.3% to nearly 9%, with exchange fees and currency conversion accounting for most costs.

Transfers were cheaper than the 6.65% global remittance benchmark in most corridors but beat Wise in only three of seven comparisons.

Settlement took under 20 minutes where instant payment systems existed, compared with one to two business days elsewhere.

The global stablecoin market was worth about US$307 billion, up roughly 16% over the previous year, according to DefiLlama.