Invest 1 publisher2 min readPublished September 14, 2026 at 6:03 PM PDT

Emerging-market neobanks give away up to 5% on forex to keep 1% to 2% on a swipe

Circle's USDC market cap reached about $75 billion in 2025 after 73% growth. Roughly 76% of the emerging-market digital banks routing dollars over those rails have yet to turn a profit on the customers they sign.

The Investor · Invest desk

What happened

The fastest-growing digital banks in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia settle overwhelmingly in two coins, Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT, according to cryptobriefing.com.
Rizon, Altitude, Fuse, Cleva, Plasma One and Kast are all built on stablecoin infrastructure, and Nubank, one of the largest digital banks anywhere, has integrated stablecoin functionality.
USDT grew more slowly than USDC last year, the second consecutive year in which the smaller coin outpaced its larger rival in percentage terms.
Circle has approval for an OCC national trust bank charter, the first granted to any major stablecoin issuer.
Tether, long cautious about US regulatory engagement, plans a US-regulated stablecoin called USAT issued through Anchorage Digital Bank.

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Why it matters

constraint Customer acquisition, compliance overhead and multi-jurisdiction friction all come out of the card fee before a digital bank earns anything, so signing more users in a low-revenue market does not on its own close the gap to profit.
exposure Issuer balances depend on distributors staying solvent, and cryptobriefing.com allows that a wave of neobank failures would temporarily cut stablecoin demand in the affected corridors even while it judges the demand driver durable.
precedent Choosing settlement rails becomes a licensing decision for the distributor once both candidate issuers are placing themselves inside US bank regulation.
contradiction cryptobriefing.com names the issuers as the boom's beneficiaries, and it reports market caps and growth rates without reporting issuer revenue or breaking that growth out by customer type.

The saving a neobank advertises runs two and a half to five times the fee it keeps. Up to 5% of a dollar transfer goes to the customer as the reason to switch ^[6]. Between 1% and 2% of a card transaction comes back to the bank as interchange ^[5], and the ratio between those two numbers is the whole distribution economics ^[4].

The issuer is counted differently, in balances. Working back from the 73% growth rate, USDC stood at roughly $43 billion a year earlier and added about $32 billion over the twelve months ^[1]^[2]. The fiat-backed stablecoin market grew about 46% in the same year ^[3], so USDC's share of that market rose by roughly 18% in relative terms ^[3].

The sources do not say which customers the $32 billion came from. cryptobriefing.com credits USDC's faster expansion partly to Circle's regulatory positioning and fintech partnerships ^[14], a category broad enough to cover neobanks without naming them. The one corridor the publication describes in detail is Lipaworld's, moving cross-border payments into Kenya, where traditional transfer costs stay high ^[8].

Two developments would change the reading. Some platforms are shifting toward net interest income, subscription tiers and lending, and cryptobriefing.com says none of those has resolved the profitability problem ^[12].

The second is size. USDC's faster percentage growth has not taken the market cap lead, and cryptobriefing.com says it could eventually challenge it ^[14].

I think Circle's position is the stronger one, for a reason that has little to do with the digital banks themselves: the balances grew through a year in which most of the apps sitting on top of them lost money ^[1]^[4]. The claim is testable. If USDC adds another $32 billion in a year when emerging-market neobanks are closing, the corridors were not what drove the balances ^[2].

What to watch

Any Circle disclosure of USDC balances by fintech partner, which would size the neobank contribution for the first time.
The launch of Tether's USAT through Anchorage Digital Bank, and whether existing USDT distributors move balances onto it.
A failure or funding shortfall at one of the named stablecoin-based neobanks, and whether balances in that corridor fall with it.

Claim ledger

Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.

[1]
Circle's USDC market cap surged to approximately $75 billion in 2025, representing a 73% year-on-year increase.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[2]
Tether's USDT also grew in 2025 but at a slower clip, marking the second consecutive year in which USDC outpaced its larger rival in percentage terms.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[3]
The fiat-backed stablecoin market expanded roughly 46% year-on-year in 2025.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[5]
Most neobanks rely on interchange fees, the cut a card issuer takes when a customer swipes, which typically land between 1% and 2% per transaction.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[6]
Neobanks targeting volatile economies pitch skipping the legacy banking system, avoiding forex fees that can eat up to 5% of a transaction, and instant settlement on blockchain rails.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[7]
Rizon, Altitude, Fuse, Cleva, Plasma One and Kast have all built their services on top of stablecoin infrastructure, and Nubank, one of the world's largest digital banks, has integrated stablecoin functionality.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[8]
Lipaworld is using stablecoins to facilitate cross-border payments in markets like Kenya, where traditional transfer costs remain punishingly high.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[9]
Circle received approval for an OCC national trust bank charter, a first for any major stablecoin issuer.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[10]
Tether, historically more cautious about US regulatory engagement, is planning to launch a US-regulated stablecoin called USAT through Anchorage Digital Bank.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[11]
Interchange revenue has to be set against customer acquisition costs, compliance overhead and the regulatory friction of operating across multiple jurisdictions.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[15]
The stablecoins powering the fastest-growing digital banks in emerging markets are overwhelmingly USDC and USDT.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[16]
The article reports stablecoin market caps and growth rates but does not give issuer revenue figures or the share of stablecoin growth attributable to neobank customers.
ReportedSupportedView cited source
[d1]
A market cap of about $75 billion after 73% growth implies USDC stood at roughly $43 billion a year earlier.
DerivedSupported1 source— sign in to open
[d2]
USDC added roughly $32 billion of outstanding balances over the twelve months.
DerivedSupported1 source— sign in to open
[d3]
Growing 73% while the fiat-backed market grew 46% raised USDC's share of that market by about 18% in relative terms.
DerivedSupported1 source— sign in to open
[d4]
A forex saving of up to 5% of a transaction is between two and a half and five times the 1% to 2% interchange a neobank collects on a card transaction.
DerivedSupported1 source— sign in to open
[4]
Roughly 76% of neobanks across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia remain unprofitable, according to cryptobriefing.com.
ReportedInsufficientView cited source
[12]
Some platforms are pivoting toward net interest income, subscription tiers and lending products, but none of these approaches has fully resolved the challenge of making a digital bank profitable in markets where the average customer generates modest revenue.
ReportedInsufficientView cited source
[13]
cryptobriefing.com writes that if a wave of neobank failures hits emerging markets it could temporarily reduce stablecoin demand in those corridors, but judges the underlying demand driver durable given speed, cost savings of up to 5% and 24/7 settlement.
ReportedInsufficientView cited source
[14]
cryptobriefing.com attributes USDC's faster expansion partly to Circle's regulatory positioning and fintech partnerships, and says it could eventually challenge USDT's overall market cap lead.
ReportedInsufficientView cited source

Sources

Publishers with included, body-backed reporting in this cluster.

cryptobriefing.com
1 article · September 14, 2026
Circle and Tether emerge as key beneficiaries of the neobank boom

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Clarity analysis

How the coverage leans and what the record actually supports. Read the methodology

Perspective Coverage

How much of the coverage speaks to builders, operators and investors. It measures emphasis, not whether the story is right.

The usable part of this reporting is the roster: Rizon, Altitude, Fuse, Cleva, Plasma One and Kast built on stablecoin infrastructure, Nubank integrating it, Lipaworld settling payments into Kenya. The customer pitch is given in numbers you can hold against your own routes, with legacy forex fees taking up to 5% of a transaction and settlement on blockchain rails instead of correspondent banking. cryptobriefing.com does not say which chains, custodians, on-ramps or fee splits any of them use. The reporting names the platforms without describing how any of the integrations actually work.

Reality

Evidence, adoption, hype gap, incentives and confidence, each read independently from the current record on the scale shown beneath it. How these are measured.

Evidence30

0100

One outlet, unattributed figures

Every number here comes from a single story on cryptobriefing.com. The two numbers carrying the argument, USDC at about $75 billion with 73% growth and 76% of emerging-market neobanks unprofitable, arrive without a chain-data reference or a named survey. Circle's OCC trust charter and Tether's USAT plan are checkable in public records, and this reporting cites none.

Adoption55

0100

Seven platforms named, scale unclear

The adoption case is concrete at the level of names. Seven consumer platforms are listed as running on stablecoin rails, Nubank has shipped an integration, and Lipaworld is moving money into Kenya. Size is missing: no transaction volume, no customer counts, no share of USDC balances traceable to these users.

Hype gap

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