From friction to flow: how stablecoins could reshape International B2B collections
Stablecoins are gaining momentum as businesses look for faster, more flexible ways to manage international payments. Yet despite growing interest, practical adoption remains limited.
New research from Neo reveals that while 88% of senior finance professionals at SMEs operating internationally believe stablecoins could improve cross-border B2B collections, just 27% currently accept them for customer payments.
To explore this gap, Neo surveyed 100 senior finance professionals at SMEs across the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, examining the challenges of international collections, barriers to stablecoin adoption and the role these digital assets could play in modern treasury operations.
The report explores three key areas:
The challenges of international collections
Discover the biggest obstacles SMEs face when collecting international payments, from high costs and compliance requirements to settlement delays.
The growing role of stablecoins in treasury
Explore how SMEs are using stablecoins, where they see the greatest benefits and why these digital assets could complement traditional payment methods.
Overcoming barriers to stablecoin adoption
Find out what’s preventing wider adoption and why automatic stablecoin-to-fiat conversion is attracting interest among finance professionals.
To understand attitudes towards stablecoins and the barriers to adoption, Neo surveyed 100 corporate treasurers, finance leaders and senior finance professionals working at SMEs that operate internationally and collect payments from one or more overseas markets. Respondents were based in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Five findings stand out:
1. Adoption is wide but shallow: 86% report some form of stablecoin activity, yet only 27% use them for customer payments or collections and just 17% use them for supplier or counterparty payments.
2. The case for collections has strong support: 88% believe stablecoins could improve international B2B collections, while only 9% do not expect an improvement.
3. The value varies, but speed is a clear benefit: No single benefit was cited by more than 29% of respondents, suggesting stablecoin value depends on the specific payment flow. However, speed-related benefits stand out: 29% cite faster access to liquidity and 22% value 24/7 settlement, highlighting the potential for better working-capital management.
4. The barriers are operational, and they constrain adoption: Operational complexity is the leading barrier (29%), alongside integration challenges (24%) and regulatory uncertainty (23%). While 94% already accept or would consider accepting stablecoin payments, only 27% currently do so, highlighting the gap between interest and implementation.
5. Simplicity matters: 74% find automatic stablecoin-to-fiat conversion attractive, rising to 82% in France, while only 9% would hold stablecoins as treasury assets. Taken together, the findings suggest businesses are more likely to adopt stablecoin rails when they require less additional operational complexity.
Businesses are increasingly interested in the benefits stablecoins can provide, but do not necessarily want to become digital-asset operators themselves. Adoption will therefore depend on infrastructure that connects payment technologies while preserving familiar treasury processes.
“Stablecoin adoption is gathering momentum, particularly where businesses need faster and more flexible ways to move money across borders. The challenge now is making that technology simple enough to fit seamlessly into existing treasury operations.” – said Laurent Descout – CEO and co-founder, Neo.
Stablecoin market
Digital assets are becoming part of mainstream finance, with stablecoins emerging as a practical tool for payments, collections, and liquidity management. Once considered a niche crypto innovation, the stablecoin market has now grown from less than $10 billion in 2020 to more than $300 billion, according to the European Central Bank. The scale of stablecoin payments has also increased. McKinsey details that actual stablecoin payments reached an estimated $390 billion in 2025, with $226 billion of this being within B2B payments.
For SMEs operating internationally, the value of stablecoins lies in their ability to bypass many of the pain points associated with traditional banking processes. Businesses need to collect, convert and manage funds across multiple currencies and markets. However, traditional banking processes can take several days or longer, involve multiple intermediaries and incur high processing costs.
Stablecoins can reduce these inefficiencies, providing businesses with 24/7, near-instant, and low-cost transactions.
While the opportunity that stablecoins provide for businesses is significant, B2B adoption of these digital assets is still in its infancy. B2B might represent approximately 60% of stablecoin payment volume, yet stablecoins still account for only around 0.01% of global B2B flows.
“Stablecoins are not a replacement for fiat currency. Their strongest role lies in payment flows where traditional infrastructure operates poorly. As a result, regulatory frameworks are becoming clearer across major markets, helping define how stablecoins can operate safely within mainstream finance.” – added Laurent Descout.
Download the report to explore the findings
