Kevin Lehtiniitty in Payments Dive: Stablecoins Set to Transform Cross-Border Payments

As global companies race to modernize their international payment flows, stablecoins are emerging as the quiet disruptor of legacy networks like Swift and MoneyGram. Giants such as PayPal are already testing the waters—using its PYUSD stablecoin to settle Xoom cross-border transactions and sidestep the constraints of “traditional banking hours.” What was once the domain of crypto startups is now being adopted by mainstream payment players seeking faster, cheaper, and always-on settlement rails.

Kevin Lehtiniitty, CEO of Borderless has been watching this convergence unfold up close. Having built stablecoin infrastructure connecting money transmitters to regulated partners across emerging markets, Lehtiniitty sees adoption following a pragmatic, corridor-specific path rather than a one-size-fits-all revolution. “Even in cross-border remittance—which is one of the best use cases for stablecoins today—it’s really corridor-dependent where it actually makes sense and is better, faster, cheaper,” he noted at the Stable SF 2025 conference.

Lehtiniitty’s view contrasts with the hype-driven narrative of crypto as a wholesale replacement for the financial system. Instead, he frames stablecoins as a bridge technology—one capable of quietly embedding itself into payroll systems, remittance corridors, and treasury operations without users ever realizing they’re touching blockchain rails. In his telling, the future of digital currencies lies not in speculation, but in the unglamorous plumbing of global payments infrastructure—linking compliance-heavy institutions with the speed and efficiency of crypto-native networks.