TL;DR
- Stablecoins recorded prices below the interbank rate in every month of the second quarter of 2026, according to Borderless.xyz.
- Failing to diversify payment providers cost companies $2,330 for every $1 million transferred, the largest avoidable loss margin in cross-border payments.
- Africa widened its median spread by 166 basis points to 512.8, while Latin America compressed it to 89.0 and Asia held steady at 6.1 bps.
Stablecoins recorded prices below the reference interbank rate in every month of the second quarter of 2026, according to the Q2 2026 Benchmark published by Borderless.xyz, a platform specializing in cross-border payments.
The report was compiled from 260 payment corridors across 108 countries, and found that the so-called Parity Gap —the difference between the stablecoin delivery price and the interbank rate applied between banks— stood at a median of negative 3.2 basis points during the quarter.
In June it reached its deepest level of the year, at negative 5.9 bps. A negative result means that the price delivered to the customer fell below the mid interbank exchange rate, something the report describes as exceptional for any international transfer mechanism.
The Routing Tax and Stablecoins: An Efficiency Tool
The cost of moving a payment with stablecoins has stabilized. Transferring $10,000 in a typical corridor cost approximately $27 during the quarter, with a variation of just 30 cents over five consecutive months. Borderless attributes this stability to competition among providers: when the cheapest provider changes every few days, no single quote sustains a prolonged advantage and the market finds its equilibrium.
With delivery costs essentially commoditized, the report identifies provider selection as the remaining variable with the greatest impact. A company operating with a single provider pays around $2,330 more for every $1 million transferred compared to the best available market price, a difference Borderless calls the Routing Tax.
In the Brazilian real corridor, the cheapest USDT stablecoin provider changed 34 times in 88 days, with none holding the lead for even half the quarter. At the asset level, USDC and USDT operated with a difference of just 0.4 basis points globally, though with divergences by corridor: in Peru, USDC quoted at a persistent discount of 99 bps against USDT.
Regional Turbulence in Africa
Global metrics remained stable compared to the first quarter, but regional disaggregation revealed significant contrasts. Africa widened its median spread by 166 basis points to reach 512.8 bps, driven in part by Malawi, whose spread jumped from approximately 296 bps to 1,975 following a 5.8% repricing on April 9.
With no alternative provider available, the new price simply became the market price. Ghana experienced a different dynamic: its spreads on the USDC route widened by 596% between the first and last week of the quarter, but the presence of multiple providers kept a cheaper option open, with the best price 258 bps below the median on a typical day.
