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Key Takeaways
- Most costs came from funding, conversion and withdrawal rather than the onchain transfer.
- The same country pair produced different results depending on transfer direction and provider.
- The experiment did not cover informal P2P markets or users who keep USDC instead of converting it back to fiat.
The July 2026 research paper compared the cost and speed of sending 200 USDC across ten routes connecting Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.
Researchers Alberto Di Iorio, Enrica Di Stefano, Michele Mascioli and Giorgio Trebeschi conducted real transfers rather than relying only on advertised fees.
USDC was cheaper than conventional alternatives on several routes and more expensive on others. The results did not support a general claim that stablecoin remittances are always cheaper.
The paper was published in Banca d’Italia’...
English (US)