Fabric Payment Standards Foundation · Stablecoin Stack

The next generation
of payment infrastructure
is already here.

A complete, open-source payment stack that lets fintechs and payment processors offer instant, global, low-cost stablecoin payments — without rebuilding from scratch.

Open specification Production-ready stack Apache 2.0 licence EVM-compatible
01 / 08

The market signal

Stablecoins have crossed the threshold.
The window to act is now.

Stablecoins have moved beyond early-adopter territory. Regulatory frameworks are arriving. Enterprise payment desks are starting to allocate. The question is no longer whether stablecoin payments will scale — it is who will be positioned to process them when they do.

$27T
Stablecoin settlement volume in 2024
Source: Chainalysis, 2025
$230B+
Total stablecoin market cap, 2025
Source: CoinGecko, mid-2025
40+
Jurisdictions with stablecoin regulatory frameworks in progress
Source: BIS, 2025
<5s
Average settlement time on modern EVM networks
vs. 1–3 business days on card rails

"Stablecoins are becoming a core part of the global payments landscape. Financial institutions that do not prepare now will be playing catch-up for years."

— Common institutional view across major payment conferences, 2024–2025

Why now, specifically

  • ✓Regulatory clarity is arriving in the EU (MiCA), UK, UAE, and across Southeast Asia — creating the compliance foundation that institutions required
  • ✓Major card networks and banks are running live stablecoin pilots, signalling that the infrastructure will be expected, not optional
  • ✓A generation of mobile-first users in high-remittance corridors is already transacting in stablecoins — merchants serving them need acceptance infrastructure

Why this creates risk for processors

  • !Early movers will establish the merchant relationships and brand recognition that latecomers cannot easily displace
  • !Building stablecoin payment infrastructure from scratch takes 18–36 months; deploying an open, proven stack takes weeks
  • !The revenue model is already mapped. Processors who delay are ceding a real, quantifiable opportunity to competitors
02 / 08

The Stablecoin Stack

A complete payment stack.
Open, deployable, production-ready.

The Stablecoin Stack is an open-source specification and reference implementation for processing stablecoin payments on any Ethereum-compatible network. It was built by the Fabric Payment Standards Foundation — not a startup, a standards body — to be neutral infrastructure that any operator can deploy and extend.

Merchant
Merchant server
Merchant dashboard
Webhooks & reconciliation
↕
Checkout Engine
Payment session manager
Public checkout widget
mTLS API
↕
Broadcast Layer
wallet-gateway
broadcast-service
Relayer
Balance & history
↕
On-chain
Settlement Contract
ERC-2612 token contracts
↕
Payer
Client wallet (mobile / web)
wallet-gateway SDK
⛓
No crypto knowledge required
The payer sees a familiar payment screen. The merchant sees an API they already understand. The blockchain is invisible infrastructure, not a user-facing concept.
🔒
Cryptographic — not policy-based — guarantees
Every payment is authorised by a cryptographic signature. The Settlement Contract verifies it on-chain. No operator can move a payer's funds without valid authorisation.
⚡
Gas-free for the payer
The payer holds only the stablecoin they want to spend. Network fees are covered by the Relayer and recovered through the processor's base fee — invisibly.
03 / 08

Value proposition

Different audiences. Clear advantages for each.

The Stablecoin Stack addresses the specific needs of every participant in the payment chain — without requiring any of them to understand how the underlying system works.

Fintechs Neobanks Payment gateways
  • ✓Launch a new payment product in weeks, not years — the technical stack is already built and open-source. Deploy it, configure it, brand it.
  • ✓Add a new revenue stream to an existing customer base without acquiring a single new merchant. Every transaction earns a processing fee, on-chain, automatically.
  • ✓Multiple business models are supported — from simple per-transaction fees to custodial fiat-out services, white-label licensing, and float-yield models not possible on card rails.
  • ✓The acquirer model is built in — register distribution partners or your own wallet as an acquirer, and commissions are distributed automatically on-chain with no bilateral billing.
  • ✓No chargeback exposure — payments are cryptographically authorised by the payer. The processor bears zero fraud liability on the payment authorisation itself.
  • ✓Enable your merchants to accept international payments with the same infrastructure used for domestic ones — no correspondent banking relationships required.
  • ✓Non-custodial option available — operate as a relay rather than a custodian, significantly reducing the regulatory footprint for processors who choose this model.
Stack vs. build from scratch
Build in-house Stablecoin Stack
Time to market 18–36 months Weeks
Smart contract audit Your cost Foundation provides
Spec & protocol design Your team Open standard (SS-001)
Wallet SDK Build required @stablecoin-stack/wallet-sdk
Acquirer model Custom build Built into contract
Licence cost Internal R&D budget Free (Apache 2.0)
E-commerce Marketplaces Cross-border
  • ✓Settlement in seconds, not days. Funds arrive in the merchant's wallet within the same session as the payment — not the next business day.
  • ✓No chargebacks, by design. Payment authorisation is cryptographic. Fraud that relies on chargeback exploitation is structurally eliminated.
  • ✓Accept payments from anywhere in the world with a single integration. No per-country banking setup. No rejected foreign cards.
  • ✓Lower processing fees than traditional card rails in most configurations — there is no card network taking a cut.
  • ✓No customer identity data passes through the payment. Merchants accept a payment without storing card numbers, expiry dates, or billing addresses.
  • ✓Custodial fiat-out option: if your processor offers it, you can receive EUR or USD to your bank account just like today — with none of the complexity visible to you.
Settlement timeline
1
T+0 seconds
Customer confirms payment
Two cryptographic signatures. No transaction submitted by the customer.
2
T+2–5 seconds
On-chain settlement
Relayer broadcasts. Settlement Contract executes. Funds move.
3
T+~30 seconds
Confirmed & reconciled
Webhook delivered to merchant. Balance updated. Order fulfilled.
Compare: traditional card rails
Settlement: T+1 to T+3 business days. Chargeback window: 120 days. Card network fee: 1.5–3.5%. Merchant fraud liability: yours.
Mobile users Cross-border senders Unbanked populations

Most payers will never know the Stablecoin Stack exists. They open a wallet, confirm a payment, and it is done. That is the point. For those who do engage more deeply, the advantages are significant.

  • ✓Send money internationally for a fraction of what wire transfers and remittance services charge — and it arrives in seconds, not days.
  • ✓No bank account required. A wallet is all that is needed to participate in the global digital economy.
  • ✓You control your money. Funds only move when you sign the payment. Nobody can debit your account without your explicit authorisation.
  • ✓No hidden charges or network gas fees. The processor's infrastructure absorbs network costs. You pay only what you agreed to pay.
  • ✓Stable value. Stablecoins are pegged to fiat currencies like USD or EUR. You are not exposed to volatility.

Where stablecoins are the best fit

Cross-border remittances
Send EUR to family abroad for near-zero cost. Recipient converts or spends directly.
Freelance & international B2B payments
Get paid by clients in any country without the friction of international wire transfers.
Markets with limited banking access
Participate in digital commerce using only a smartphone — no bank account required.
Privacy-sensitive purchases
Pay without sharing card numbers or billing data with the merchant.
High-value B2C in volatile-FX markets
Hold USD-denominated stablecoins as a stable store of value and spend directly.
04 / 08

Business models

Revenue structures for every operator profile.

The Stablecoin Stack does not prescribe a business model. It provides the infrastructure primitives — on-chain fee collection, acquirer commissions, custodial or non-custodial settlement — that operators combine into the commercial structure that suits them.

Transaction fee (on-chain, automatic)
Subscription (fiat, recurring)
Acquirer commission (on-chain, guaranteed)
Conversion spread (custodial)
Float yield (custodial)
PP-1
Transaction-fee processor
Simplest model. Earn a base fee on every transaction. Non-custodial. No subscription. Pure volume play.
On-chain fee per transaction
PP-2
Subscription processor
Charge merchants a recurring fiat subscription for access. On-chain fees at cost recovery only. Predictable cash flow.
Monthly / annual subscription
PP-3 · Recommended
Blended fee processor
Combine a lower subscription with a per-transaction fee. Revenue floor plus volume upside. The dominant model in mature payment businesses.
Subscription + per-transaction fee
PP-4
Custodial fiat-out processor
Accept stablecoin, convert to fiat, disburse to merchant's bank account. Merchant never sees the stablecoin layer. Opens conversion spread and float income.
Fee + conversion spread + float
PP-5
White-label processor
License your deployed stack to banks, fintechs, or platforms who want stablecoin payments under their own brand. Wholesale distribution model.
Licence fee or revenue share
PP-8 · Novel
Float-yield (zero-fee)
Charge merchants nothing. Revenue comes entirely from deploying idle stablecoin balances. Not possible on card rails. Creates powerful volume incentive alignment.
Yield on stablecoin float

The acquirer model

The Settlement Contract includes a built-in acquirer fee mechanism. Any third party — a wallet provider, a POS vendor, a distribution partner — can register as an acquirer and earn a percentage of every transaction they refer. Commissions are distributed on-chain, automatically, at settlement. No invoicing. No bilateral billing reconciliation.

This enables distribution models that simply do not exist on traditional payment rails — including the wallet-as-acquirer model, where a wallet developer passively earns commission on every payment their users make.

Acquirer model examples
Wallet-as-Acquirer: Build a wallet. Every payment your users make earns you a commission — automatically.
Platform Acquirer: A marketplace embeds Stablecoin Stack and earns commission on all merchant transactions — without building payment infrastructure.
Hardware Acquirer: Pre-configure POS terminals with your acquirer ID. Every payment on a deployed device earns you a passive commission, indefinitely.
Agent Network: Recruit regional agents, each signing up local merchants. Commission flows through the chain automatically.
05 / 08

The opportunity

There is a defined window.
Here is how to use it.

The stablecoin payment market is not hypothetical. It is live, growing, and generating revenue for early operators today. The question for any payment processor is how quickly they can position themselves to capture it.

Path to revenue for an existing processor

1
Weeks 1–4
Deploy the stack
Deploy the open-source Stablecoin Stack on your infrastructure. Configure the Settlement Contract, set your base fee, and fund the Relayer. No new protocol design. No smart contract engineering from scratch.
2
Month 2
Onboard your first merchants
Roll out to a cohort of existing merchants who have cross-border customers or who have expressed interest in alternative payment methods. A single integration through the standard Checkout Engine API.
3
Launch the wallet SDK
Month 2–3
Deploy a branded payer wallet using the @stablecoin-stack/wallet-sdk. Register your wallet as an acquirer — now you earn a commission on every payment made through it in addition to your base processing fee.
4
Month 3+
Monetise the distribution layer
Register distribution partners as acquirers. Offer white-label access to platforms and neobanks in your network. Add custodial fiat-out to expand the addressable merchant market.
Revenue illustration

Illustrative example. A processor with 500 active merchants, average transaction volume $5,000/month/merchant.

Monthly transaction volume $2.5M
Base fee (1% blended) $25,000/mo
Subscription ($49/mo × 500) $24,500/mo
Total (illustrative) $49,500/mo

Excludes acquirer commission income, white-label licensing, float yield, and custodial spread. Actual results depend on transaction volume, fee structure, and merchant base.

The compounding effect
Each merchant onboarded creates recurring fee income. Each wallet user registered creates passive acquirer commission. The two revenue streams compound as both merchant and user bases grow.

The operators who move in 2025 will set the market standard.

Merchants who adopt stablecoin payments now are building loyalty to the first processor who offered it. That relationship does not easily transfer. The window is not permanent.

Discuss with our team →
06 / 08

What we bring

We deliver the stack.
You operate the business.

We are the technical delivery partner for the Stablecoin Stack. Our role is to ensure that the infrastructure works, the integration is smooth, and your team is fully capable of operating and extending it. The commercial strategy, the merchant relationships, and the brand are yours.

🚀
Deployment & integration
We deploy the full Stablecoin Stack on your infrastructure — on-premise, cloud, or managed. Settlement Contract deployment, Relayer configuration, Checkout Engine, wallet-gateway, all services.
📱
Wallet & SDK delivery
We deliver a production-ready branded wallet application and the TypeScript SDK your team needs to maintain and extend it. Your payers use your product — not ours.
🎓
Onboarding & training
Full technical and operational onboarding for your engineering, product, and compliance teams. Documentation, runbooks, and direct access to our engineers during go-live.
🔐
Security & audit readiness
The Settlement Contract is publicly audited and open-source. We assist with regulatory and compliance documentation, and support any third-party audit your institution requires.
🔄
Ongoing support
Post-deployment support, version updates as the Fabric Payment Standards Foundation releases new specification versions, and dedicated engineering access for critical issues.
🌐
Multi-network expansion
The Stablecoin Stack is EVM-compatible and can be deployed on multiple networks simultaneously. We support expansion to additional chains as your merchant and user base grows.

Engagement models

Fixed-scope delivery
Full stack deployment and integration delivered under a fixed scope and timeline. Includes all components, wallet SDK, and go-live support. Clear deliverables, predictable cost.
Partnership model ✦ Preferred
Long-term technical partnership. We remain embedded as your stablecoin payments engineering partner — handling upgrades, new features, compliance changes, and network expansion alongside your team.
Pilot programme
A time-bounded, reduced-scope deployment with a defined cohort of merchants — designed to validate the commercial opportunity with real data before a full commitment.

What you own

  • ✓The deployed infrastructure — all services run on your systems or your cloud account
  • ✓The merchant relationships and fee revenue — these are yours, entirely
  • ✓The wallet brand — payers use your name, not ours
  • ✓The acquirer registrations and commission structure you create
  • ✓Full source access — the stack is Apache 2.0 licensed, fork it, modify it, audit it
No lock-in
The Stablecoin Stack is an open specification. You are not dependent on any vendor. If you choose to run it independently after deployment, you can. We earn trust, not dependency.
07 / 08

Built on open standards

The Fabric Payment Standards Foundation

The Stablecoin Stack is a specification published by the Fabric Payment Standards Foundation — an independent standards body whose purpose is to advance open, interoperable payment infrastructure. The Foundation is not a commercial entity competing with operators. It maintains the specification so operators can build on stable, audited, vendor-neutral ground.

Open by default
All specifications, reference implementations, and supporting materials are published under open licences (Apache 2.0). There are no proprietary extensions, no closed test suites, and no tollgates on the information required to build a compliant implementation.
Governance via RFC Portal
Changes to the specification follow a documented RFC process with mandatory community review periods before any breaking change is adopted. Operators who deploy the Stablecoin Stack have a voice in its evolution.
Current specification: SS-001 v1.0.0
The foundational specification covers the complete system architecture, Settlement Contract interface, cryptographic conventions, payment submission protocol, and conformance requirements. Companion specs for individual component interfaces are in progress.
Community
The Foundation maintains a self-hosted community forum for developers, operators, and institutional participants. Protocol discussions, implementation questions, and governance proposals all happen there.

Read the specification

The full technical documentation — spec, guides, reference, and governance — is available at docs.stablecoinstack.org. Everything needed to evaluate, deploy, and audit a conformant implementation is public.

View documentation → stablecoinstack.org
08 / 08

Next steps

Three ways to move forward.

There is no generic proposal here — the right engagement depends on your infrastructure, your merchant base, and your commercial priorities. The conversation starts with understanding those.

📋
Technical review
A structured session with your engineering and product team to review the full stack architecture, integration points, and deployment requirements. No commitment required.
🤝
Commercial discussion
Map the revenue opportunity against your existing merchant and user base. We model the specific business case for your organisation — blended fee, acquirer model, or custodial structure.
🚀
Pilot programme
A live deployment with a defined cohort of merchants within 6–8 weeks. Real transactions, real revenue data, and a clear go/no-go decision framework at the end.
Start the conversation
Fabric Payment Standards Foundation
Contact us through the Foundation's website. Reference the Stablecoin Stack and your organisation type in your message.
Contact the Foundation →