Hyundai Motor's U.S. and Mexico subsidiaries have completed a pilot cross-border payment using Tether's USDT stablecoin, processing a $20,000 transfer on the Avalanche blockchain in about seven minutes. The test demonstrated significantly faster settlement compared to traditional bank transfers, which typically take three to four hours.
Pilot Details and Infrastructure
Hyundai Motor America converted funds into USDT, sent them to Hyundai Motor Mexico, and then converted back to U.S. dollars. The entire transfer and verification process took roughly seven minutes. The pilot used settlement infrastructure from Axiym, while Hyundai Card designed the transfer structure and reviewed regulatory, compliance, accounting, and operational requirements. The key goal was to confirm whether stablecoin-based settlement is feasible without major changes to existing corporate treasury systems.
Growing Corporate Adoption of Stablecoins
Corporate treasury management is emerging as a key focus for stablecoin firms. In April, KIRBA partnered with Circle to integrate USDC into its corporate finance platform, and Bitso Business reported that its stablecoin transaction volume rose 81% year-over-year in the first half of this year, with over 60% of new clients being financial institutions like banks and licensed payment providers. A Paybis survey found that 22.5% of companies already use or plan to adopt stablecoins for international payments within 12 months. The total stablecoin market cap has grown to about $312.3 billion, up 21.5% from $257.1 billion a year ago, with Tether's USDT still holding the largest share.
Implications for Cross-Border Payments
Hyundai's pilot signals that stablecoins are moving beyond individual investment tools into corporate finance and settlement. The speed and low operational barriers confirmed in the test could drive significant changes in how global companies handle cross-border transfers. Hyundai and Tether plan to expand the trial to more payment routes and local currency settlements. While stablecoins are unlikely to fully replace traditional banking, they are increasingly seen as a complementary infrastructure for cross-border payments, intra-company fund movements, and supply chain settlements.