The conversation about stablecoins has changed. It is no longer about whether digital assets have a role in payments — it is about how quickly enterprises can embed them without becoming crypto specialists in the process.

Nabil Manji oversees enterprise growth, partnerships, payouts, B2B and digital assets at Global Payments, one of the largest payment technology companies in the world. His vantage point sits at the junction of traditional payment rails and emerging blockchain-based infrastructure — and from there, he sees stablecoins not as a speculative side story but as a practical answer to problems that have frustrated cross-border commerce for decades.

Stablecoins Are Already in Production — The Pilots Are Over

The framing that stablecoins are still being tested misses what is actually happening. Institutions have moved past experimentation and are deploying stablecoins inside live payment flows. Global circulation climbed 59% in a single year to US$316bn, a trajectory that reflects genuine operational adoption, not speculative accumulation.

Manji's expectation for the next five years is straightforward: stablecoins will be embedded even more deeply into operational payment workflows as regulatory clarity improves across key markets and as more businesses graduate from pilots into full production. The commercial logic, he argues, becomes easier to justify once a clear framework exists — and that clarity is now arriving in several major jurisdictions simultaneously.

The critical mindset shift, in his view, is treating stablecoins as part of the payments toolkit rather than as a separate crypto product. Businesses that make that distinction early will be better positioned to extract the efficiency gains on offer.

Why the Euro Is Getting Its Own Stablecoin Moment

The surge in euro-backed stablecoins is not accidental — it is a direct consequence of Europe's decision to establish a clear regulatory framework before the market matured around dollar-denominated alternatives. MiCA has given banks and fintechs the confidence to build, because they now understand the rules around issuance, reserves, safeguarding and supervision.

There is also a strategic dimension. Europe has no appetite for a future in which the dominant digital money infrastructure runs entirely on dollar-backed stablecoins. In response, a coalition of major European banks is preparing to launch a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026, designed to support near-instant, low-cost payments and settlement across the continent.

The numbers still reflect how early this is. Euro-denominated stablecoin market capitalisation stood at around €450m in January 2026 — a dramatic increase from the €50m recorded at the start of 2024, but still a fraction of the dollar-backed market. The trajectory, though, is clear. Regulatory clarity unlocks institutional participation, and institutional participation builds liquidity.

What Stablecoins Actually Fix in Cross-Border Payments

Traditional international settlement is slow not by accident but by design — it routes value through chains of intermediary banks, local clearing systems and currency conversion steps, each of which adds time, cost and uncertainty. For a business managing treasury across multiple markets, that friction is not an abstraction; it shows up directly in working capital, partner relationships and customer experience.

Stablecoins remove most of those intermediary steps. Moving value directly on a blockchain network can reduce settlement from days to minutes and eliminate several layers of conversion cost. The liquidity benefit is equally significant: funds no longer need to sit fragmented across accounts in multiple jurisdictions waiting for clearing windows to open.

Manji frames the enterprise opportunity specifically around cross-border settlement, where Global Payments has already identified stablecoins as a strong complement to existing rails — improving speed, transparency and liquidity visibility without requiring businesses to abandon the infrastructure they already rely on.

Most businesses are not asking about stablecoins. They are asking how to settle faster, reduce costs and pay out to more markets with less friction — and stablecoins are increasingly the answer to those questions. — Nabil Manji, Executive Lead for Enterprise Growth and Partnerships, Global Payments

The Payout Use Case: Speed Without the Complexity

Among the enterprise benefits Manji highlights — speed, efficiency, transparency, reach and reduced conversion costs — the payout use case stands out as especially compelling. Global Payments has announced work to enable stablecoin payouts for clients across the US and Europe, allowing businesses to settle with customers, contractors, creators, marketplace sellers and other third parties in near real time.

The design principle is deliberate: businesses enabling these payouts do not need to hold or manage stablecoins themselves. The complexity is abstracted away so that the experience feels like a familiar payment rather than a crypto operation. That approach reflects a broader truth about enterprise adoption — the technology succeeds when it disappears into the workflow rather than demanding that businesses reinvent how they operate.

The underlying ask from most enterprises, Manji notes, is not stablecoins specifically. It is faster settlement, lower costs, and access to more markets with less friction. Stablecoins are increasingly the mechanism that delivers those outcomes — but only when the implementation keeps the complexity out of sight.

What the UK Needs to Get Right

The UK has a credible shot at becoming a globally significant centre for stablecoin infrastructure, but the window is not indefinitely open. The direction from HM Treasury, the FCA and the Bank of England is encouraging: stablecoin payments have been identified as a regulatory priority for 2026, substantial testing of UK-issued stablecoins is planned, and forthcoming payments reform is expected to bring qualifying stablecoin services into the regulated perimeter.

Manji's prescription for getting the framework right centres on a few essentials: certainty on the practical questions that matter most to issuers and operators — reserves, safeguarding, redemption, issuance rules and payment services permissions — paired with rules that are proportionate rather than punishing for non-systemic use cases. Consumer protection and financial stability must be preserved, but the framework should not make the UK a less attractive destination than competing markets that move faster with fewer hurdles.

He also points to the distinction that policy thinking needs to sharpen. A stablecoin used for speculative trading and a stablecoin used for merchant settlement or regulated payouts are fundamentally different instruments. Regulation that treats them identically misses the point. The good news is that UK policy is beginning to reflect that distinction — HM Treasury on legislative direction, the FCA on qualifying stablecoin issuance and custody, and the Bank of England on systemic risk. The priority now is translating those different roles into rules that are clear, consistent and workable in practice.

The ambition Manji sets out is not merely to be a jurisdiction that permits stablecoin activity, but to be the place where trusted stablecoin infrastructure is actually built. That requires a regime that attracts investment and gives firms a clear path from authorisation to scale — and a commercial environment focused on the use cases where stablecoins genuinely create value: cross-border payments, merchant settlement, platform payouts, treasury movement and tokenised financial markets.