AFP Executive Guide
Stablecoins and Treasury: What Financial Leaders Need to Know
I am pleased to introduce this guide on stablecoins and their growing role in the financial ecosystem. As innovation in payments and liquidity management continues to accelerate, we believe it is important to provide clear, practical insights that help our clients and colleagues understand emerging developments and evaluate their relevance to their businesses.
Stablecoins are gaining attention as a potential tool to support faster settlement, improve transparency and enable new approaches to moving and managing funds, particularly across borders. At the same time, they introduce important considerations related to regulatory expectations, risk management and operational readiness. This guide is designed to present a balanced, fact-based view of the topic—grounded in current realities while recognizing that the landscape continues to evolve.
At PNC, our focus is to help clients make informed decisions that align with their strategic and operational goals. We see digital assets as part of a broader shift in how value moves through the financial system. For corporate treasurers and finance leaders, understanding this shift is increasingly important as they evaluate future opportunities and risks.
This guide outlines key concepts, use cases and considerations to support thoughtful evaluation and informed discussion, with the goal to equip you with practical knowledge and a clear perspective so you can engage confidently in this evolving space.
Thank you for your continued partnership.
Best regards,
Tom Lang Head of Treasury Management Product and Operations, PNC Bank
Table of Contents
Introduction
As cryptocurrency emerges from obscurity into the mainstream, stablecoins are attracting the attention of treasurers and other financial professionals. Major payments players like Visa, Western Union and PayPal — which offers its own stablecoin, PYUSD — have stablecoin initiatives underway or have already adopted them. Even companies like DoorDash are getting into the game by using stablecoins to pay gig workers and merchants.
Treasurers and treasury practitioners are eyeing stablecoins as a potential way to enable faster, more efficient, 24/7 payments and liquidity management at lower cost than some other options, particularly wire transfers. But realizing these advantages will hinge on several factors, including emerging regulations, ecosystem maturity and on/off-ramp costs.