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What is the essence of stablecoin B2B payments?
Written by: DeFi Cheetah - e/acc
In the perception of many people, B2B payment systems seem to simply involve pressing a "send" button to transfer funds from one entity to another. Therefore, many stablecoin projects also focus on improving the efficiency of transaction channels, such as checks, wire transfers, or digital transfer technologies, while often neglecting the crucial workflows that are highly relevant to specific business scenarios before and after the transfer of funds.
In fact, B2B payments are the final result of a large number of workflows. These workflows mainly revolve around data verification, compliance review, and multi-party approval, with a significant amount of preparatory work completed before the actual payment takes place.
This misunderstanding of B2B payments—from "just need to make a payment" to "must verify contract terms and operational details first"—is particularly prominent in cross-border transactions. The legal frameworks of different countries, localized tax regulations, and exchange rate fluctuations significantly increase the complexity of cross-border operations. Meanwhile, with the rise of digital assets, especially stablecoins (as mentioned by @hadickM), these emerging tools are gradually intersecting with traditional workflows, and if combined with powerful process automation capabilities, they are expected to greatly simplify the flow of funds.
The core point of this article is: the introduction of stablecoins should not only be seen as an enhancement of payment execution efficiency but must be part of the overall workflow optimization. Only in this way can we truly unleash the market potential worth trillions of dollars proposed by @PanteraCapital. In the entire stablecoin payment stack, the most value-creating link is the coordination layer, as emphasized by @robbiepetersen_, which can effectively simplify complex workflows and cover more regions.
B2B payment demand hierarchy model
Understanding B2B payments can be aided by a "demand pyramid" model, with each layer being:
Data Collection and Invoice Management
B2B transactions typically require consolidating supplier information, analyzing invoice contents, and reconciling with purchase orders or delivery records.
Compliance and Regulatory Review
Businesses must ensure that suppliers comply with local or international regulatory requirements, such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) regulations.
Tax reconciliation
Cross-border transactions involve complex tax obligation assessments, such as withholding tax, value-added tax (VAT), etc., which are particularly complicated in the international transportation of goods.
Approval and audit processes
Most organizations have multiple layers of approval chain requirements and need to maintain complete audit trails and real-time approval visualization throughout the entire process.
Payment Execution
The actual movement of funds—whether through checks, ACH, SWIFT, or other channels—occurs at the top of the entire pyramid.
Recognizing that payment execution is merely the surface action, and its success depends on the collaborative support of multiple underlying links, is key to designing an efficient and reliable B2B payment system. Ignoring data traceability, compliance processes, or the integrity of the approval chain may lead to delays or failures in the entire capital flow process.
Cross-border payment workflow: where is the real bottleneck?
Compared to domestic payments, cross-border B2B payments have amplified the existing challenges in various aspects:
Each jurisdiction has unique requirements for foreign currency transactions, which not only include AML/KYC compliance checks but often also involve specific documentation requirements related to trade regulations and customs procedures.
From import duties to value-added tax (VAT), cross-border transactions require precise tax tracking, and sometimes even necessitate the allocation of tax liabilities across different countries and regions.
There is usually a complex chain of approval processes between subsidiaries and the parent company. Any mistakes in local compliance, product classification, or document preparation can result in the payment process being indefinitely stalled.
In fact, these complexities often pose a greater barrier to timely and accurate payments than the friction of the payment channels themselves.
Industry Case Analysis
Background:
In the field of freight and logistics, multiple carriers may charge separate fees for transportation, loading and unloading, additional charges, and even penalties for early or delayed arrivals. Fluctuations in fuel prices, combined with multi-segment transportation arrangements, often lead to extremely complicated bills.
Workflow Pain Points:
At the heart of the matter is not simply "paying the trucking company", but reliably matching each expense to the contract, checking that the weight of the cargo and the distance traveled are calculated correctly, and properly handling any exceptions.
Importance:
If B2B payment solutions only focus on simplifying the payment interface while neglecting the heavy task of invoice verification, they cannot truly address the pain points of enterprises. A better approach is to directly integrate shipping documents, track changes in shipping arrangements in real-time, provide alerts for abnormal invoices, and intercept errors before payment.
Case Study:
Companies like Loop first focus on transportation auditing and workflow logic, and then integrate payment functions. Another approach is to use AI to automatically scan and parse transportation documents, push anomalies to the processing queue, and trigger payment after verification is completed.
Background:
Construction projects typically involve multi-layered supply chains, ranging from timber, cement to electrical and mechanical subsystems, and the tax burden varies significantly based on the region and type of project.
Workflow Pain Points:
Payment is not just about "purchasing 50 cubic yards of concrete"; it must also ensure that the procurement is linked to a specific project or permit number, the correct local tax rate is applied, and the procurement activity complies with the project budget and authorization code.
Importance:
If the focus is solely on speeding up payments without capturing and automating the approval and compliance processes, it will ultimately be difficult to solve the fundamental issues. A more valuable B2B solution can automatically complete approvals, integrate construction permit management, coordinate subcontractor budgets, and handle partial delivery situations.
Practical case:
The Nickel platform integrates a tax rate calculation engine that can manage the complex situations of different tax rates for the same material based on usage, buyer classification, and geographical location. Other solutions ensure that all stages before payment comply with requirements by embedding material usage forms and automatically generating compliance documents.
Background:
In the daily operation of corporate fleets (trucks, cars, engineering equipment, or official vehicles), fuel expenses account for a significant portion of operating costs.
Workflow Pain Points:
Although fuel costs are obvious, drivers may also use it to purchase non-work-related items (such as snacks, fuel for personal use, etc.), so real-time control and visual management of expenses are more important than simply "fuel payment" itself.
Importance:
Platforms like Wex, Fleetcor, Mudflap, AtoB, and Coast combine payment actions with real-time policy controls, allowing managers to promptly detect and intercept unauthorized spending while optimizing gas station selection and reducing costs.
Case Study:
Some solutions integrate onboard communication systems and route optimization software, capable of automatically detecting anomalies in mileage or fuel consumption, marking suspicious transactions, and only releasing payments after approval.
Background:
Large enterprises often have thousands of suppliers, with various invoice formats—some in electronic version, some in PDF, and some still in paper documents.
Workflow Pain Points:
The Accounts Payable (AP) team needs to ensure that each invoice is valid, non-duplicate, correctly allocated to the budget code, and complies with the terms of the agreements signed with suppliers.
Importance:
In fact, the actual step of "payment" (such as issuing a check or initiating an ACH transfer) is the simplest part. Verifying whether a $3,500 invoice is accurate (for example, whether there is a $100 markup) often requires a lot of manpower.
Case Study:
Solutions like Tipalti, Coupa, or SAP Concur integrate invoice reception, expense management, and vendor onboarding processes, standardizing chaotic data, supporting multi-level approvals, automatically handling currency exchange, and ultimately triggering payment actions.
Background:
SaaS companies typically have complex sales commission structures that differentiate commission rates and bonuses based on product type, sales region, or subscription package.
Workflow Pain Points:
Calculating and verifying each commission is far more complex than actually issuing sales bonus checks. If mistakes occur, it can easily lead to disputes and employee dissatisfaction.
Importance:
Building a correct and transparent commission automation system requires a robust system that integrates with CRM data, allowing for real-time tracking of subscription usage or sales expansion, while managing the distribution of commissions among multiple sales personnel.
Real case:
Platforms like CaptivateIQ and Spiff focus on solving the data and workflow issues behind commission calculations. They automatically process and clean up a large amount of complex data before payments occur, avoiding the errors that are common in traditional manual spreadsheets.
Enhancing workflow efficiency through the integration of stablecoin payments.
Although traditional payment channels (such as checks, ACH, SWIFT) are often slow and costly in cross-border payments, stablecoins have emerged as a highly attractive digital settlement alternative. Key considerations include (as pointed out by many industry insiders, such as @proofofnathan):
Stablecoins enable near-instantaneous fund settlement, bypassing the multi-tier intermediary banks often involved in traditional cross-border payments. This feature is particularly advantageous in scenarios where a well-established workflow is in place, ensuring that all operational conditions and approval processes have been completed, effectively avoiding unnecessary payment delays.
After integrating the stablecoin transfer function into the workflow platform, it can be designed to initiate on-chain payments only when the conditions set by the smart contract are met, such as supplier identity verification, compliance documents passing inspection, or delivery proof being uploaded. By automating compliance, manual intervention and human errors are significantly reduced.
Many stablecoin assets are pegged to major fiat currencies (such as the US dollar), thereby reducing the risks associated with exchange rate fluctuations. This stability can simplify payment reconciliation and financial processing. Furthermore, by integrating stablecoin payment rails with advanced workflow systems, automatic conversion to the recipient's local currency can occur before payment completion, reducing the burden of manual fund management.
For B2B arrangements involving cross-border small and frequent payments (such as paying overseas contractors for micro-invoices), stablecoins can effectively reduce fixed transaction costs. A workflow-based approach can further optimize gas fees and network costs on the blockchain network by bundling or scheduling batch payments.
Once the company incorporates stablecoins into its payment workflow, it will be able to explore more new business opportunities. For example, implementing features like instant financing, real-time invoice factoring, or embedded dynamic discounting—all of which can be automatically executed through workflow logic, with the stablecoin system serving as the underlying support for the flow of funds, achieving minimal friction in operations.
The strategic advantage of workflow-first in cross-border payments.
By emphasizing documentation and automated approvals, enterprises can ensure that every step from KYC/AML reviews to contract matching is clearly recorded, thereby reducing the likelihood of disputes and strengthening compliance protection.
Human operations at every stage are not only prone to errors but also extend the overall cycle. Adopting end-to-end workflow management (with stablecoin settlement as the endpoint) can automate and smoothly connect various stages, significantly shortening the overall payment cycle.
Relying on scattered and temporary cross-border payment methods makes it difficult for enterprises to scale up. In contrast, a workflow platform that integrates stablecoin payment rails and dynamic compliance management can enter new markets with lower operating costs and faster speeds.
Simply providing "payment" services has limited differentiation. By integrating document management, compliance processing, and payment flows on the same platform, enterprises can become indispensable partners for their clients, thereby achieving more stable and higher-margin business relationships.
Conclusion
Although traditional views see B2B payments mainly as a problem of accelerating fund transfers, the real constraint on the efficiency of cross-border payments is actually the fragmented and unsystematic management of workflows. These obstacles stem from fragmented data management, complex regulatory requirements, lengthy approval chains, and variable tax obligations.
Although there are currently many stablecoin projects aimed at improving existing payment channels, relying solely on stablecoins cannot fundamentally solve the multi-layered complex workflow issues behind B2B payments. Many stablecoin projects are positioned at the "payment execution layer"; however, I believe that those projects that approach from a systematic, workflow-first mindset and solidly handle the underlying processes will be the ones to capture the largest share of the payment market. These projects achieve a faster, more transparent, and lower-error global payment system through real-time settlement and simplified currency exchange.
In other words, these leading projects must create powerful tools that deeply integrate vendor qualification verification, invoice reconciliation, tax management, and multi-layer approval into automated and intelligent workflows.
This trillion-dollar opportunity belongs to projects that adopt a holistic approach, optimize workflow orchestration, and maximize the efficiency of stablecoins. They can not only provide faster and more cost-effective international payment services but also seamlessly integrate compliance, tax, and documentation management requirements.
This deep collaboration can significantly enhance the efficiency of daily payment operations, help companies explore emerging markets, launch new financial products, and establish a lasting, differentiated competitive advantage in the global B2B financial sector.