Juan Marchetti, director of the trade in services and investment division at the WTO, stated that regulatory fragmentation currently hinders the widespread adoption of stablecoins in international trade. He emphasized that the primary barrier is not technological, but rather the absence of unified regulatory frameworks across different jurisdictions.
According to an October 2025 report from the Financial Stability Board, only 11 out of 28 surveyed jurisdictions have finalized their stablecoin regulations. This lack of consistency contributes to the fact that stablecoins currently account for only 3% of total international payments, despite their potential to reduce trade finance friction.
The WTO report highlights that stablecoins could address five key issues in global trade finance: high transaction costs, slow processing speeds, limited market access, lack of transparency, and foreign exchange constraints. Despite these challenges, the use of stablecoins in cross-border payments grew 35-fold between 2020 and mid-2024.
