Bank of Italy Study Finds Stablecoin Remittances Cost Up to 9%, Challenging Cost Advantage Claims

A July 2026 study by the Bank of Italy challenges the narrative that stablecoins offer cheaper, faster global remittances. By executing 200 real USDC transfers across 10 corridors, researchers found total costs ranged from 0.30% to nearly 9%. While on-chain fees averaged just 0.4%, fiat conversion on- and off-ramps drove the bulk of expenses. Furthermore, end-to-end speed depended heavily on local banking rails, taking under 20 minutes with instant payment systems but up to two days without them.

Bank of Italy remittance study

• ▪The Bank of Italy study compared stablecoin transfers against World Bank average remittance costs and Wise, finding stablecoins did not consistently offer a pricing advantage over Wise.
• ▪The Bank of Italy published a research paper in July 2026 titled "Are Stablecoins Efficient for Remittances? Evidence from a Mystery Shopping Exercise" challenging the cost and speed advantages of stablecoins.

Mystery shopping methodology

• ▪The Bank of Italy study evaluated 200 real USDC transfers across 10 bidirectional international payment corridors connecting Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.
• ▪Researchers Alberto Di Iorio, Enrica Di Stefano, Michele Mascioli, and Giorgio Trebeschi executed the mystery shopping transactions on the Ethereum blockchain between March 24 and 26, 2026.

Stablecoin transfer cost variation

• ▪Total end-to-end stablecoin transfer costs across the 10 tested corridors ranged from 0.30% to 8.96% of the amount sent.
• ▪The Argentina-to-Italy and United Arab Emirates-to-Italy corridors were the most expensive routes, costing approximately 8.96% and 8.95% respectively.
• ▪The Italy-to-Argentina corridor recorded the lowest total cost at 0.30%, which researchers attributed to exchange rate distortions between Argentina's official and parallel market rates.

On-ramp off-ramp friction

• ▪The majority of stablecoin remittance expenses were generated during the fiat on-ramp and off-ramp stages when converting between local fiat currencies and USDC.
• ▪On-chain blockchain transaction fees represented a marginal fraction of the total remittance cost, averaging roughly 0.4% of the amount sent.
• ▪A credit card funding surcharge of 3.8% contributed to a combined funding and USDC purchase cost of 6.17% on the United Arab Emirates-to-Italy route.

Settlement speed infrastructure dependency

• ▪End-to-end stablecoin transfers were completed in under 20 minutes in corridors supported by domestic instant payment systems, such as Italy's TIPS, Brazil's Pix, and Argentina's Transferencias 3.0.
• ▪Transfers involving South Africa required one to two business days to settle because deposits and withdrawals depended on standard, slower bank processing rails.