At SiGMA Central Europe 2025 in Rome, industry leaders from payments, fintech, crypto and gaming gathered for a panel titled, From Swift to Stablecoins: Reinventing Cross-Border Payments. Powered by Kea, the panel was moderated by Nathalie Oestmann, Partner at The Payments Association and brought together Xavier Gomez, Group COO at Vancelian, Dmitry Lazarichev, Co-Founder for Wirex, Meryem Habibi, CRO at Bitpace and Mark Berkovich, CEO of Kea to explore how stablecoins and blockchain rails are reshaping global money movement, especially in gaming and high-growth markets.
On-chain speed
The panel opened with a critical question. What problems do stablecoins actually solve? For Meryem Habibi, the answer is evident, that everything starts with the pain of moving money into and out of emerging markets. “In Europe or the US, banking isn’t usually the issue,” she explained. “But in Latin America, Africa, or Asia, operators struggle to repatriate revenue because of Swift delays, correspondent banking layers, and liquidity shortages.”
Bitpace addresses this using what she calls the stablecoin sandwich, a model that removes Swift from the equation entirely. “We accept local currencies, convert into stablecoins, move value on-chain, and pay out in another local currency. What takes days through Swift can settle in hours with stablecoins.”
The entire panel agreed on this point. Stablecoins do not eliminate Visa or Mastercard yet but they already compete directly with Swift’s slow cross-border corridors.
Cooperation over competition
When asked whether stablecoins will replace card schemes, Habibi suggested that “It’s not competition, it’s collaboration. Mastercard, Visa, even Swift, are building on blockchain. Everyone will join the dance.”
Mark Berkovich, whose company Kea Bank serves global Web3 merchants, echoed this sentiment. “Stablecoins let you access trapped liquidity in exotic-currency markets. Local payments stay local, compliance stays simpler, and operators avoid huge FX risks.” he said. He added that 99% of stablecoin volume is still USD-denominated, giving merchants in volatile markets access to a more stable store of value.
Dmitry Lazarichev argued that mass adoption hinges on hiding complexity, “Most users don’t care about hash IDs or chains. They care about speed, convenience and cost.” Wirex’s solution is to make blockchain invisible. “We settle with Visa and Mastercard in stablecoins, even at the point of sale, while the user interacts with a simple Web2 experience.”
The future is a triangle of stablecoins with AI and gaming, where smart automation makes on-chain payments feel effortless.
Compliance non-negotiables
As the conversation shifted to regulation, Xavier Gomez stressed that traditional safeguards must remain just adapted for a blockchain world.
“You still need segregation of funds, AML, robust governance, just like in TradFi,” he said. Blockchain also improves transparency, “Everything is on-chain. You don’t need PDFs and proofs of payment. The ledger is the proof.”
With MiCA in Europe and new US frameworks emerging, the group agreed that issuer regulation will define the next phase of adoption.
A multi-currency future
With dozens of new stablecoins launching, interoperability becomes the next frontier. Lazarichev expects on-chain FX markets to flourish, “Soon every major currency will have a stablecoin, all exchangeable on-chain, maybe via AMM pools, maybe via traditional FX logic.”
As the panel drew to a close, each speaker shared a forward-looking vision for a multi-currency future. Anton Lazarichev predicted the rise of “smart, programmable, AI-driven money,” while Mohammad Habibi emphasised the role of stablecoins in giving unbanked markets meaningful access to the global financial system. Ilya Berkovich forecast a world where “AI agents pay each other in stablecoins,” unlocking new waves of innovation and Manuel Gomez summed up the discussion by asserting that “stablecoins are the new future of finance and gaming.” Ultimately, the panel underscored a powerful message that stablecoins, AI and accessibility are converging to reshape the financial systems of tomorrow.
originally published on sigma.world