Coinbase partners with Thunes to enable stablecoin payments conversion to local bank accounts and mobile wallets globally.
DeFi & Yields ·
Coinbase has partnered with Thunes to enable stablecoin payments to be converted into local bank accounts and mobile wallets on a global basis. The partnership connects Coinbase's stablecoin infrastructure with Thunes' settlement capabilities, allowing users to move value across borders and then into traditional financial endpoints without intermediary friction.
Stablecoin payments have transitioned from experimental crypto infrastructure to mainstream payment rail over the past two years, with monthly settlement volumes exceeding $390 billion. The mechanism eliminates exchange-rate risk by using dollar-pegged tokens—USDC or USDT—as the unit of account, settling transactions on-chain in seconds rather than days, and bypassing the correspondent banking relationships that traditionally delay cross-border transfers. This infrastructure addresses a fundamental pain point: traditional wires between non-partner banks can take two to five days and cost $25–$50 per transaction, often with hidden intermediary fees.
The scope and mechanics of how Coinbase will route payments through Thunes' network—including transaction limits, supported currencies, and fee structure—remain unspecified. The announcement does not clarify which stablecoin denominations will be supported or whether the service will be available to all Coinbase users or a subset of its customer base.