Stablecoin remittance costs 0.30% to nearly 9%… not always cheaper

The Bank of Italy’s July 30 study of 10 remittance corridors linking Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the UAE and Japan found stablecoin transfer costs ranging from 0.30% to nearly 9% of the amount sent, and stablecoins were not consistently cheaper than traditional remittance channels. The central bank attributed the wide spread to frictions in converting fiat into stablecoins and back into local currency, noting that on-chain token movement alone is a poor gauge of true transfer costs. The findings matter because they undercut the assumption that stablecoins are always a low-cost remittance rail, with total cost depending heavily on the corridor and the off-chain conversion steps.