Introducing new stablecoin capabilities

Stablecoin on-ramps, off-ramps, and new cross-border payout options are now part of Lead's banking infrastructure platform

Moving money around the clock has typically meant building a web of providers. A partner might need a bank, an exchange, and a cross-border payments vendor, then have to reconcile across all of them, prefund accounts, and still wait on banking hours. Every added vendor meant another integration, another diligence process, and another place for a payment to stall.

Today I'm excited to announce three new products on Lead's banking infrastructure platform: stablecoin on-ramps, stablecoin off-ramps, and cross-border FX payouts.

Start with the building blocks

Lead's platform takes a different approach. It's a set of pieces that partners put together to build their own products: accounts to store money, payments to move it, cards to spend, and credit to provide liquidity. Each piece works on its own, and each works with the others. A fintech can open accounts for its users, fund them over ACH, hold the balance in USDC, and put a card on top, all through the same APIs. Our stablecoin-backed cards are one example, and they sit alongside the same accounts and payments products as everything else on the platform.

We think of stablecoins the same way. They are another payment rail next to ACH and wires, and we built them to be used that way. End users shouldn't have to learn what a wallet, a chain, or a block confirmation is.

What's new

• Stablecoin on-ramp: A partner, or its users, converts dollars in a Lead account into USDC and sends it to a wallet. The money leaves the account over blockchain rails, at any hour. USDC available today, with additional stablecoins to follow.
• Stablecoin off-ramp: A partner, or its users, receives USDC and ends up with dollars in a Lead account. Converted funds connect natively to Lead's payment rails, so they can move over FedNow, RTP, ACH, or wire, or internationally through cross-border FX payouts.
• Cross-border FX payouts: Dollars in a Lead account move to a stablecoin, then onto the local payment rail, and the recipient is paid in local currency. This works across 44 countries. Since the local rail is real-time, funds can land in seconds. Partners can still choose wires when they're a better fit for a payment.

What you can build

So what does this look like in practice?

A neobank can give users access to dollars where holding them is hard or expensive. A user holds stablecoins, and when they need to pay a vendor in dollars, the off-ramp makes that happen.

An investment firm can let investors buy in with stablecoins even though the product itself is only sold in dollars. The off-ramp converts the investor's stablecoins on the way in, and the on-ramp returns them on redemption. Investors aren't waiting on banking hours.

A global payroll provider can pay employees in stablecoins. Many people abroad want dollars but have trouble getting a US dollar account, and this gives them a way in.

A remittance company can send $5 from the US to Mexico almost instantly. With a wire, the fee can be larger than the payment. The alternative is prefunding accounts abroad, which ties up capital.

Why a bank is building this

Three things stand out:

• Always on: These products run 24/7/365. Stablecoin payments don't wait for Fedwire or ACH to open on Monday.
• Composable: These products work together with the rest of Lead's platform. A partner can receive USDC, settle it in dollars, and pay a supplier abroad in local currency, all within one account and one API.
• National coverage: Lead operates in all 50 states and so do our products.

What's next

On-ramps, off-ramps, and FX payouts are available now to Lead partners.

We're at Money20/20 today going deeper on all of it. To learn more, contact your Lead account manager or read the API docs.

‍