Thunes Meets Demand for Always-On Global Payments with USDC
The steady shift towards regulatory clarity in the crypto space gave us confidence to do the diligence needed to integrate stablecoins into the core of our business. USDC quickly emerged as a natural choice for a company that spans the divide between traditional financial services and the digital asset space."
By late 2024, cross-border payments were under increasing pressure. Rising FX volatility, weekend settlement gaps, and delayed funding in high-growth corridors — particularly Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America — made it harder for payment networks to meet customer demand for real-time money movement.
Thunes, a cross-border payments service that connects more than seven billion mobile wallets and bank accounts across 130 countries through its Direct Global Network (DGN), felt this challenge acutely. Pre-funding over traditional banking rails for DGN members and partners often took three-to-five business days and required significant amounts of capital to be held in nostro accounts to cover weekends and holidays. Meanwhile, intraday swings in currency markets amplified risk and eroded efficiency. Thunes was determined to remove friction in operations and transform how quickly it could support its DGN Members in fast-moving sectors like gig economy payouts and remittances, areas where immediacy is critical.
The introduction of frameworks like MiCA, the Travel Rule for virtual assets and, most recently, the passage of the GENIUS Act, which creates a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the US, gave Thunes clear signal that stablecoins had moved from an experimental curiosity to an essential component of the modern payments stack.
Real-time liquidity with USDC
As an early adopter of stablecoins, Thunes partnered with Circle to introduce always-on settlement with USDC across its DGN addressing several critical needs simultaneously. Settlement speed improved dramatically, reducing multi-day pre-funding delays to transactions that can settle in minutes or seconds. The ability to settle near-instantly helped Thunes limit exposure to FX volatility, enabling sharper liquidity management for Thunes and its DGN Members. Continuous 24/7/365 liquidity also eliminated the requirement to hold excess float over weekends or bank holidays.
And, perhaps most importantly, the partnership with Circle and integration of USDC came in response to growing customer demand for reputable digital assets, whether from traditional financial institutions seeking to optimize liquidity or digital-native companies looking for a direct bridge into fiat networks.
Circle’s APIs and Thunes’ SmartX Treasury platform integrated seamlessly, making it possible to automate liquidity management, and reconciliation, turning what had once been a rigid funding model into a dynamic, on-demand system.
Thunes adopted a pragmatic, phased rollout to maximize speed to market while proving value at every stage. The journey began with small-scale pilots that validated wallet creation, webhook notifications, and semi-automated flows. Early sandbox testing then confirmed mint-and-burn functionality, enabling Thunes to bridge between stablecoin and fiat worlds. Circle helped Thunes optimize working capital, while automated webhook workflows eliminated the need for manual checks and accelerated operational efficiency. Within months, USDC had shifted from an experiment to a fully embedded production capability at the heart of treasury operations.
What stood out with Thunes was their ability to move fast without compromising on rigor. They treated digital assets as an operational advantage rather than a side experiment, and that mindset accelerated their path to real impact. It’s a great example of how forward-thinking partners can redefine treasury in practice, not just in theory."
A business model transformed with stablecoins
The impact of this transformation has been substantial. Millions of dollars in working capital across the entire Thunes Network can be strategically redeployed every day, rather than sitting in nostro accounts. In Ghana, Thunes quickly enabled a settlement shift from T+2 to same-day, while in the Philippines funding times dropped from T+1 to T+0. In South Africa, what once required half a day is now completed in minutes. Liquidity reliability has improved and previously trapped working capital is now freed up.
Growth has been equally striking, as companies discover the payment efficiencies Thunes brings to market. Thunes members’ funding volumes using USDC have increased by almost a third month-over-month since going live. Adoption has spread quickly: both the number of DGN Members onboarded and Thunes partners accepting USDC directly hit double digits within nine months from forming the partnership. Demand has exceeded forecasts, as both established financial institutions and digital-native services move to take advantage of the new rails.
Circle’s hands-on support played a pivotal role throughout this process, from technical office hours and compliance workshops to collaborative roadmap planning. Thunes found in Circle a partner that combined shared vision with pragmatism and deep business acumen. Both companies believe in the transformative potential of bridging fiat and digital currency rails. Both favor a phased, test-and-learn approach in pursuit of wholesale disruption. And, both see the opportunity not just in new technology, but in the network effects that unlock tremendous value across traditional and digitally-native ecosystems.
Circle is more than a provider, they are a strategic partner in our quest to bridge the digital asset ecosystem with bank networks and mobile wallet providers. Their collaboration was a critical factor in our successful integration and implementation."
Looking ahead, Thunes plans on expanding USDC settlement capabilities in emerging markets, with corridors such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Pakistan as early priorities. Over the longer term, the company sees further opportunities as stablecoins and the legacy financial system continue to converge. Thunes finds itself in a unique position with the ability to bridge both worlds, further differentiating themselves in an intensively competitive market.
Note: Circle has a commercial relationship with Thunes.
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