The iGaming Stablecoin Playbook webinar made a strong case for stablecoins in treasury and cross-border settlement – but panellists were clear that visible, retail-facing adoption still has a long way to go…
Stablecoins have picked up considerable momentum in iGaming, but the case for adopting them looks very different depending on who you are and where you operate.
That was the throughline of Payment Expert‘s iGaming Stablecoin Playbook webinar, sponsored by Rapyd, which brought together David Rosa, GM of FX Wallets and Payout at Rapyd, Digital Solutions Consultant Sergio Pisani, and Blockchain Architect Jean-Michel Azzopardi.
Each came with practical experience of where stablecoins work, where they create new problems, and what operators tend to get wrong when they move too fast.
Stablecoins: Geography shapes the argument
A European operator with solid banking infrastructure and SEPA access has a very different relationship with stablecoins than one managing player flows across several emerging markets on unreliable rails.
Pisani said: “Relevance is entirely dependent on where the friction sits. If you’re a European operator with strong banking rails, then possibly stablecoins are incremental. But if you’re from an emerging market with unstable banking rails, expensive banking solutions, then stablecoins become very relevant — they’re patching an infrastructure gap.”
USDT and USDC dominate stablecoin volumes for a reason, Rosa argued — they connect US dollar liquidity to markets where Swift is simply too slow. “We’re talking about industries driven by instant gratification,” he said.
“The US dollar, outside of the US, doesn’t move in real time. Stablecoins have been the way to connect it to that world.” Dollar denomination brings FX costs at both ends, but for operators whose treasury is already dollar-based, that is a known variable rather than a dealbreaker.
Treasury yes, retail not yet
Azzopardi drew a clear line between the B2B and retail sides of the argument, and was sceptical about the latter. “I think stablecoins have a big role to play — but not nearly as large a role in the retail segment as they do on the B2B and treasury side,” he said.
“There is still the little-known problem of cryptography that users have to deal with, which is arguably the greatest barrier there is.” Most players still think in fiat, expect fiat payouts, and are not equipped to navigate chain selection or irreversible transactions. Azzopardi noted that he still sends a test amount before any crypto transfer himself, regardless of how routine it should be by now.
On the treasury side, the panel was more aligned. Rosa described the ideal implementation as one where the stablecoin never surfaces to the player at all — local fiat in, stablecoin settlement in the background, fiat out the other end. “The ultimate value is where the stablecoin is invisible,” he said.
“It facilitates offshore US dollar money movement, and that’s really going to grow.” Speed is the genuine gain here; the stablecoin is a rail, not a selling point.
Complexity that doesn’t show up in the brochure
The panel spent time on the operational costs that tend to get buried in stablecoin pitches. Liquidity fragmented across chains, wallets and providers creates bridging and conversion overhead that can eat into the savings operators were chasing.
“Having liquidity is not enough,” Pisani said. “You need it in the right form at the right time. There are bridging costs, conversion costs and significant operational overhead before this can go mainstream.”
Rosa’s advice was to avoid splitting the on-ramp, treasury and off-ramp across multiple providers, the orchestration alone creates friction and cost that undercuts the whole point.
Azzopardi’s was slightly more fundamental: “The first question I ask every client is: why blockchain? Because if you understand exactly why you want stablecoins and you’re clear about your driver, at least when the problems come up, you’ll understand and remember why you’re doing it.”
Without that, he said, the first serious issue becomes a reason to walk away entirely.
The iGaming Stablecoin Playbook webinar is available to watch on demand. To catch up on the full session, visit the webinars section of paymentexpert.com.
