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Frameworks, core principles and top case studies for SaaS pricing, learnt and refined over 28+ years of SaaS-monetization experience.
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Executive Summary
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) was signed into law by President Trump on July 18, 2025, establishing the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins [1]. This landmark legislation transforms stablecoins from experimental digital assets into regulated payment instruments, creating unprecedented opportunities for B2B software companies. With over 27.5 million active stablecoin users globally and major enterprises like SAP testing cross-border payments, the market has reached an inflection point [2]. B2B stablecoin transactions accounted for $36 billion out of $94 billion in total stablecoin volume in mid- 2025, surpassing P2P and card-linked uses [3]. This guide provides actionable strategies for integrating stablecoin payments into your B2B operations.
The GENIUS Act: What You Need to Know
Core Provisions
Under the GENIUS Act, only “permitted payment stablecoin issuers” — banks, credit unions (through subsidiaries), or OCC-chartered nonbank entities — may issue stablecoins in the U.S. [1, 4]. The law creates three critical changes:
Regulatory Clarity: Payment stablecoins issued by permitted issuers are explicitly not securities under federal securities laws or commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act, removing them from SEC and CFTC oversight [1, 5].
Reserve Requirements: The Act requires 100% reserve backing with liquid assets like U.S. dollars or short-term Treasuries, with monthly public disclosures of reserve composition [6].
Consumer Protection: In the event of issuer insolvency, stablecoin holders’ claims have priority over all other creditors [1, 6].
Implementation Timeline
Key dates for businesses:
July 18, 2025: Act signed into law
120-day application window: Federal regulators must decide on issuer applications
Ongoing: Treasury Department developing implementation rules
2026: Full regulatory framework expected to be operational
Current Market Dynamics
Explosive Growth Metrics
Stablecoin transfer volumes reached $27.6 trillion in 2024, surpassing the combined transaction volumes of Visa and Mastercard by 7.7% [7]. Active stablecoin wallets increased from 19.6 million in February 2024 to over 30 million in February 2025, representing a 53%year-over-year growth [7]
Stablecoin payment settlements have surged 70% in 2025, with monthly B2B volume more than doubling since February to reach $6.4 billion by August [8].
Leading Players and Market Share
Stablecoins by Market Position:
Tether (USDT): 79% of payment volume, dominant in Africa and Latin America [8]
Circle (USDC): Growing from 14% to 21% market share since February 2025 [8]
EURC: Emerging leader for intra-European B2B transfers
PYUSD (PayPal): Growing adoption in remittances
Blockchain Networks:
Tron’s dominance is declining from 66% to 48% as newer networks like Base, Solana, and others capture market share [8]. Solana offers 1–2 second settlement at fees under $0.01 [9].
Why B2B Companies Must Act Now
The Inevitable Digital Economy Transition
The shift from physical cash to digital payments isn’t a future possibility — it’s happeningnow at unprecedented speed. 85% of global point-of-sale transactions are now digital, withprojections showing 90% will be cashless by 2028 [10]. In the U.S., 86.9% of POS transactions were cashless in 2024, with forecasts projecting 94.1% by 2027 [10]. This isn’t merely a trend — it’s a fundamental restructuring of the global economy. Global cashless payment volumes are set to increase by more than 80% from 2020 to 2025 (about 1T → 1.9T transactions) and to almost triple by 2030 [11]. The global digital payments transaction value is projected to reach $11.55T in 2025 [10].
The Private Sector Digital Dollar Has Arrived
While the U.S. government has explicitly rejected a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)with President Trump’s Executive Order 14178 prohibiting federal agencies from creating a CBDC [12] the private sector has filled this vacuum with stablecoins. This creates an
even more compelling case for B2B adoption: -
Stablecoins Are the De Facto Digital Dollar:
Unlike a government CBDC that would be centrally controlled, stablecoins offer market-driven innovation. The GENIUS Act ensures stablecoins will strengthen the U.S. dollar’sreserve currency status by requiring reserves in U.S. Treasuries and dollars [6]. Businesses gain the benefits of digital currency without concerns about government surveillance or control.
The Market Has Already Decided:
3.2B people globally are expected to use mobile payment apps by 2025 [10]. 4.8B users —nearly 60% of the world’s population — are forecast to be using mobile wallets by 2025 [10]. 90% of Americans used at least one digital payment method in 2023 (up from 78%) [13]. 91% of consumers aged 18 to 26 prefer using digital wallets [10]. Gen Z’s mobile wallet adoption rose from 85% in 2023 to 91% in 2025 [10]. Consumers aged 35–44 will use cash only 9.80% of payments in 2024 [13]. Millennials lead account-to-account payment adoptionat 50.5%, with Gen Z following at 47.5% [10].
B2B Implications
Decision-makers increasingly expect the same seamless digital experiences in B2B that they have in consumer payments. Companies clinging to traditional payment methods will appear outdated to younger procurement professionals.
Compliance Requirements: What B2B Organizations
Need to Know
This section provides practical, non-legal-advice guidance to help U.S. B2B software companies understand the legality of accepting and transacting in fiat-backed stablecoins.Your exact obligations depend on your role in the flow of funds, your custody model, and the
jurisdictions of you and your customers. Consult qualified counsel to finalize policy and implementation.
1) Determine Your Role in the Value Chain
Map what you actually do with stablecoins. Most B2B sellers who merely accept stablecoins for invoices or subscriptions and promptly convert to fiat are acting as “merchants,” not as money transmitters or virtual asset service providers (VASPs). Obligations change if you (a) provide hosted/custodial wallets, (b) transmit stablecoins for others, (c) operate an exchange/desk, or (d) hold client funds in omnibus accounts—any of which can trigger additional licensing and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) duties.
2) Licensing & Registration Considerations
Merchants that simply accept stablecoins as payment generally do not need money-transmitter licenses. However, if you receive, store, and remit stablecoins on behalf of others(beyond payment acceptance), you may fall under federal/FinCEN money services business(MSB) rules and state money-transmitter licensing (MTL). Review your flows, custody,settlement timelines, and whether you intermediate transfers between third parties. When in doubt, structure to avoid custody and rely on regulated processors.
3) AML/KYC & Sanctions Controls
Even when not an MSB, you still need a risk-based program to prevent sanctioned or illicitactivity. At minimum: (a) screen counterparties and wallet addresses against OFAC lists, (b)use on-chain analytics for risk scoring, and (c) implement a Customer Acceptance Policy for
higher-risk geographies and industries. If you operate custodial wallets or otherwise becomean MSB, you must implement a full BSA/AML program (KYC, CIP, SARs, recordkeeping,
training, independent testing).
4) Cross-Border Payments & the “Travel Rule”
For pure merchant acceptance, the FATF Travel Rule typically applies to VASPs rather than end-merchants. But your exchange/processor may require certain originator/beneficiary data. Set data-sharing terms with your processor, and be prepared to collect business identifiers for
cross-border clients above thresholds.
5) Custody Model & Customer/Business Protections
Prefer non-custodial acceptance (customer pays from their wallet to your address) or use aregulated processor that settles to your bank account in fiat. If you must hold stablecoins,define segregation, reconciliation, and redemption policies. Make clear in contracts whobears key risks (private-key loss, chain reorgs, failed transactions, smart-contract bugs) andinclude finality definitions (e.g., number of confirmations).
6) Accounting, Tax & Treasury Treatment
Work with tax and accounting to set a consistent policy for initial recognition (at fair value atreceipt time), gains/losses if you hold beyond receipt, and revenue recognition if pricing is denominated in USD but settled in stablecoin. Define conversion SLAs (e.g., auto-convertwithin T+0/T+1 to reduce FX-like exposure), wallet-to-GL reconciliation, and proof-of-reserves statements from processors. Ensure 1099/backup-withholding workflows are unaffected by your acceptance path.
7) Contracting, Terms & Disclosures
Update Order Forms, MSAs, and Billing Policies to cover: accepted stablecoins andnetworks, gas/fees responsibility, pricing currency of record (USD), exchange-rate timestampand source, refunds/“chargebacks” (blockchains are push-only), dispute windows, address-format errors, and force-majeure-like blockchain incidents. Include a right to requirealternative payment if regulatory posture changes.
8) Data Privacy, Security & Recordkeeping
On-chain data is public and often linkable to entities; treat wallet addresses and transaction hashes as personal/business data under your privacy program. Maintain PCI-like discipline for API keys and signing materials. Retain audit logs tying invoices to TXIDs, exchange rates, and confirmations. For custodial flows, protect private keys with HSMs/MPC through your processor and enforce least-privilege access and four-eyes initiation.
9) State & Federal Interplay
If you rely on a “permitted payment stablecoin issuer” or a regulated payments processor, ensure their licensing footprint covers your operating states and the customer states you serve. Monitor federal rulemaking and state guidance to understand any preemption or safe harbors for payment acceptance. Keep a living register of states where you transact and your vendor’s licenses or exemptions.
10) Vendor Due Diligence
Select processors with strong compliance: licensing/MSB registration, OFAC screening, on-chain analytics integrations, SOC 2/ISO 27001, proof-of-reserves where applicable, and audited financials. Contract for uptime SLAs, incident reporting, refund workflows, and regulatory-change support.
11) Incident Response & Disputes
Augment your IR plan for crypto-specific events: address poisoning, invoice-address spoofing, failed confirmations, stuck transactions, chain outages, or processor downtime. Define customer-support scripts and make refunds deterministic (e.g., all refunds in USD to bank account or only to the original source address after re-verification).
Practical takeaway: minimize regulatory burden by avoiding custody, using reputable regulated processors, documenting exchange-rate and settlement rules, and implementing proportionate AML/sanctions screening. Treat stablecoin acceptance as a payments-method change with specific controls, not as a move into financial intermediation.
Pricing & Monetization Implications
Accepting stablecoins isn’t just “another payment method.” It changes how you set prices, quote value, manage billing edge-cases, and recognize revenue. Treat this as a pricing-and-billing program, not a checkout toggle.
1) Pricing Strategy: Denomination, Metrics, and Fees
Denomination & display. Keep list prices denominated in USD (or your home currency) and settle in approved stablecoins to avoid confusing “crypto-native” price points and to keep RevRec consistent. If you decide to quote in stablecoin (e.g., USDC), lock the FX source and timestamp used to compute the USD equivalent at invoice time, and define rounding rules and minimums.
Price metric alignment. Stablecoins enable near-instant, micro-settlement. That makes more granular pricing practical (e.g., per job, per API call, per GB-hour) because you can collect frequently without card minimums or cross-border friction. Revisit your metric to ensure it correlates with value and can be metered cleanly; avoid metrics that inflate on-chain transaction counts without customer value.
Network and gas fees. Decide who pays network fees and how you expose them. Common patterns:
- “All-in” price (you absorb gas; simplest CX, slightly lower margin).
- “Plus network fee” line item (transparent, variable; requires fee-estimation logic).
“Fee thresholds” (you absorb up to X; above X, pass-through).Document fee policy in Order Forms and invoices.
Spread & conversion policy. If you auto-convert to fiat, define the allowed price-impact spread and conversion window (e.g., convert within T+0 using VWAP ± X bps). If you hold reserves, set treasury bands (e.g., 80–120% of 30-day stablecoin AR) and a rebalancing cadence; incorporate small “conversion/handling” basis-point charges if needed to preserve margin.
Discounting & incentives. Stablecoins can cut payment costs; consider sharing part of that efficiency: small incentives for prepay or annual commit paid in stablecoins, or faster service activation SLAs. Keep discount governance consistent with your deal-desk rules to avoid “shadow pricing” in stablecoin.
2) Packaging & Offers: What Changes
Prepaid usage wallets. For usage-based products, allow customers to pre-fund a balance (stablecoin “credits”) and draw down with real-time metering. Publish top-up minimums, auto-replenish triggers, and grace thresholds.
Micro-commit and burst add-ons. Instant settlement enables short-term capacity boosts (e.g., 72-hour “burst” pack) and trial extensions that are uneconomic on cards/wires. Price these as fixed USD with stablecoin settlement to keep revenue clean.
Refunds & reversals. Chains are push-only. Set refund currency (USD vs stablecoin), rate source, and re-verification requirements to prevent address-poisoning scams. Create a “non-deliverable refund” fallback (e.g., bank transfer) if on-chain return is operationally risky.
3) Billing System Updates: What You’ll Need
Core objects.
- Payment method: Stablecoin type (USDC, PYUSD…), network (Base, Solana…), and customer wallet address(es) with allow-list/verify flows.
- Rate oracle: Source, timestamp, and lock-in rules for converting USD invoice to stablecoin due.
- Transaction evidence: On-chain TXID, number of confirmations, and the block time used for “paid” status.
Invoicing & dunning.
- Add “Pay in Stablecoin” with a unique per-invoice address or a customer-scoped address plus memo/tag, then reconcile by TXID and amount.
- For subscriptions, support pre-billing (invoice generated, amount fixed) or “pull” via a processor that can initiate authorized debits (custodial wallets).
- Replace card chargeback logic with on-chain exception handling: underpayments (gas/FX drift), overpayments, late confirmations. Dunning should escalate with off-chain comms while monitoring chain events (webhooks from your processor).
Accounting & RevRec.
- Sub-ledger: Add a crypto payments sub-ledger that captures: invoice USD, stablecoin due, stablecoin received, oracle rate, realized/unrealized gains if you hold, and fees.
- Revenue recognition: If prices are USD-denominated, recognize revenue as usual when performance obligations are satisfied; treat stablecoin receipt as a cash equivalent. If you hold stablecoins, track subsequent remeasurement.
Tax: Confirm sales/use/VAT flows are unaffected; ensure tax engine applies pre-conversion on USD price, not the fluctuating on-chain amount.
Reconciliation.
Enforce four-eyes approval for address creation and payout changes. Separate duties between billing admins and treasury operators. Log every rate-lock and conversion event.
Controls & permissions.
Enforce four-eyes approval for address creation and payout changes. Separate duties
between billing admins and treasury operators. Log every rate-lock and conversion
event.
4) KPIs & Governance to Add
Track stablecoin share of collections, successful first-attempt settlement rate, average confirmation-to-activation time, FX/spread leakage, gas cost per $100 collected, refund cycle time, and dispute rate. Add guardrails: minimum invoice size for on-chain payments per network, networks approved for enterprise buyers, and price-book consistency checks to avoid USD vs stablecoin drift.
5) Segmentation & Geo Considerations
In emerging-market corridors (high card decline rates, currency controls), stablecoins can justify regional price-book harmonization: keep USD list price constant but reduce total cost-to-collect and pass a portion to the buyer via improved net terms or small price relief. For regulated sectors, restrict to specific issuers/networks with stronger compliance footprints.
6) Partner & Marketplace Flows
If partners resell or bill-on-behalf, decide whether partners:
Collect stablecoins and remit fiat to you (partner bears conversion), or
Route payments directly to your processor (you control conversion).Align partner discount bands and SPIFs so stablecoin acceptance doesn’t create arbitrage between direct and channel.
7) Experimentation Roadmap
Pilot with: one stablecoin + one network + one segment + one processor. A/B test incentives (0.5–1.0% prepay credit), prepaid wallets vs monthly invoicing for usage, and fee policies. Expand only after reconciliation accuracy and dispute handling meet targets for two consecutive cycles.
Bottom line: keep pricing in USD, exploit instant settlement to unlock finer-grained metrics and prepaid models, and upgrade billing to handle wallets, rate-locks, TXIDs, and crypto sub-ledger entries. The monetization win comes from lower cost-to-collect, improved cash velocity, and new packaging options—not from quoting prices in “crypto.”
Competitive Advantages of Acting Now
Speed: Transactions settle within minutes, operating 24/7, unlike traditional banking systems that may take days [7].
Cost Savings: Traditional cross-border payments can cost 5–7% per transaction, while stablecoins dramatically reduce these fees [3].
Global Reach: Particularly valuable for trade corridors in Latin America and Africa where businesses use stablecoins to sidestep currency devaluation [14].
Customer Demand: 88% of North American financial institutions view upcoming stablecoin regulations favorably [14].
Looking Ahead: 2026 and Beyond
Market Projections
At current growth rates, daily stablecoin transaction volumes could reach at least $250B within the next three years [9]. If growth continues at this pace, stablecoin transactions could surpass legacy payment volumes in less than a decade [9].
Strategic Imperatives
The strategic imperative is unmistakable: stablecoin adoption is not a question of if, but of how to execute. Firms investing in infrastructure today — wallets, compliance, and rails — will power the next era of digital finance [14].
Conclusion
The GENIUS Act has transformed stablecoins from experimental digital assets into legitimate payment instruments backed by federal law. With President Trump fulfilling his campaign promise to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world,” B2B software companies that act now will position themselves at the forefront of the digital payment revolution [1].
The combination of regulatory clarity, massive market growth, and clear operational benefits makes stablecoin adoption not just an opportunity but a competitive necessity. Companies that integrate stablecoin payments today will enjoy lower costs, faster settlements, and expanded global reach — while those that wait risk being left behind as the stablecoin economy continues its exponential growth.
The infrastructure is ready. The regulations are clear. The market is demanding it. The question isn’t whether to adopt stablecoin payments, but how quickly you can implement them to capture the competitive advantage.
References
1. Latham & Watkins – Analysis of the GENIUS Act
2. Nilos – Stablecoin user metrics / SAP cross-border testing
3. PYMNTS.com – B2B stablecoin volumes and fee benchmarks
4. Sidley Austin LLP – Permitted issuer definitions and regulatory analysis
5. Arnold & Porter – Securities/commodities treatment under the Act
6. The White House – Reserve requirements & policy statements
7. Modern Treasury – Stablecoin transfer volume and wallet adoption metrics
8. BeInCrypto – 2025 B2B settlements and market share shifts
9. McKinsey & Company – Settlement performance and market projections
10. CoinLaw – Cashless adoption and wallet usage statistics
11. PwC Australia – Global cashless payment volume forecasts
12. Congress.gov – Executive Order 14178 (CBDC prohibition context)
13. Capital One Shopping – U.S. digital payment usage and cash usage stats
14. Fireblocks – Institutional adoption, corridors, and strategy guidance