From fiat rails to stable-to-stable payments: B2C2 on liquidity, fees, and institutional stablecoin adoption in 2026

B2C2’s Americas CEO Cactus Raazi explores why a stablecoin strategy is now as essential for fintechs, and how B2C2 is positioning itself as a key liquidity provider in 2026. 

Representing B2C2, a digital asset liquidity provider that trades around USD 2 billion in stablecoins daily and over USD 2 trillion since inception, Raazi discusses the industry’s shift from fiat on/off-ramps to stable-to-stable interoperability. He highlights B2C2’s PENNY solution, which enables zero-fee, instant stablecoin swaps, addressing fragmentation, liquidity gaps, and treasury inefficiencies that continue to slow global payment innovation. 

Cactus, how does your background shape your role at B2C2? 

I started my career in finance in 1998 and have worked in OTC markets ever since, with around 15 years in direct revenue-generating sales roles. I later moved into designing OTC trading platforms at Tradeweb, and after that launched my own algorithmic market-making firm, using algorithms to provide liquidity in corporate bonds. 

I entered crypto in 2021, but my career has really been a continuous arc across OTC markets, with a strong focus on technology and how it can improve transactional processes. 

At B2C2, we have a very robust OTC business, but we’re also designing platforms and products as digital assets increasingly penetrate the real economy. At our core, we are a trading firm, but we trade digital assets. The technologies underpinning those assets are now being applied to payments, with the goal of making payment processes faster and cheaper than traditional systems. 

As that dynamic takes hold, B2C2 naturally has a role to play. We operate 24/7, which is critical, and the mechanisms for transferring value using digital assets are fundamentally different, and generally faster and cheaper,  than legacy rails. That combination creates an opportunity for us to support new payment use cases as they emerge. 

Stablecoins are transforming remittances, payouts, settlements, and treasury operations. What is the one foundational layer that cannot be missing from this narrative? 

Liquidity. 

If you think about traditional payment systems such as ACH, wires, interbank transfers, there was no need to actively generate liquidity to accelerate transactions. Money moved at whatever speed the system allowed. 

With stablecoins and digital assets, velocity matters. You want capital to move as quickly and efficiently as possible. That raises the question: whose role is it to enable that velocity? 

It won’t be exclusive to market makers, but firms like B2C2 clearly have a role. Banks also play a critical role; even though B2C2 isn’t a bank, we work closely with excellent banking partners. If banks can rapidly convert fiat to stablecoins, automate FX, and integrate these processes end to end, it improves the user experience and increases the likelihood of successful adoption. 

What are the main industry pain points you’re seeing today? 

The biggest friction point remains fiat-to-stablecoin conversion. 

Once you hold a dollar-denominated stablecoin, its utility and velocity are extremely high. But getting from money sitting in a traditional bank account to a stablecoin is still often slower and more expensive than it needs to be. 

Not every bank has native stablecoin capabilities. In many cases, funds must first be moved via traditional rails to a bank or institution that does, which introduces delays, operational complexity, and cost. 

Over the next couple of years, the real opportunity lies in designing front-to-back processes that fully leverage digital asset technology; not just focusing on how fast stablecoins move once they exist, but on how quickly and seamlessly customers can get into and out of them. Until that entire journey is optimised, friction will remain. 

Stablecoins are often described as ‘cheaper’, but that’s not always the case. What drives cost variation? 

There are a few factors. 

First, multiple intermediaries may be taking fees along the way: FX spreads, banking fees, minting or redemption costs, and operational overhead all add up. 

Second, the choice of stablecoin matters. Large, established stablecoins like USDT and USDC benefit from deep, global liquidity. Newer or less widely adopted stablecoins don’t, unless liquidity is actively provided. 

That’s where firms like B2C2 come in. We support new stablecoins as they launch, including through our participation in initiatives like the Global Dollar Network. We work with corporates that want their stablecoin to be perceived as just as liquid and usable as the dominant options. 

We do that by providing liquidity across trading pairs and enabling instant stablecoin-to-stablecoin swaps. Our PENNY solution allows stablecoin A to be converted into stablecoin B instantly and at zero cost, helping remove fragmentation and ensuring consistent pricing and usability. 

What are the most common questions you receive from partners and clients? 

They’re usually very specific. 

Clients typically come to us with a particular payment corridor and ask: 
How fast can this be done, and what will it cost? 

For example: 
‘I receive USD 50 million per day in Japanese yen. Today it takes four days and significant FX spreads to convert that into dollars before I can even think about stablecoins. Can you make that faster? Can you make it cheaper?’ 

That’s the real conversation. General statements about stablecoins are interesting, but what clients really want is a solution tailored to their exact flow; whether that’s JPY, BRL, NGN, TRY, IDR, or another currency entirely. 

Why is a stablecoin strategy becoming as crucial for financial institutions in 2026 as an AI strategy? 

Because it’s a new, useful, and structurally different technology - and history shows that ignoring new technologies rarely ends well for incumbents. 

A concrete example is Stripe. Stripe has built a massive global merchant network, and it’s now rethinking how value moves within that network. Rather than relying solely on slow, expensive banking rails, Stripe is moving value internally using stablecoin-like mechanisms (abstracted from banks) and only touching the banking system for fiat pay-ins or payouts. 

That means 24/7 value movement, lower costs, and full compliance with KYC and KYB requirements. 

This isn’t a small startup experimenting at the margins. This is one of the world’s largest payments companies effectively saying: we can move value more efficiently outside the traditional banking framework. 

For banks and financial institutions, that’s a signal they can’t afford to ignore. 

What’s next for B2C2 in 2026? 

We’re continuing to follow digital assets deeper into the payments space. 

We’re also seeing interesting overlaps between digital assets, prediction markets, and other network-driven models. What ties these together is network ownership. 

Whether it’s Stripe’s merchant network or Western Union’s 130,000 payment kiosks worldwide, network owners are increasingly focused on moving value within their ecosystems: quickly, efficiently, and with greater software-level control. 

Stablecoins are software. That makes them extremely powerful for networks that want to optimise internal value flows. 

B2C2’s role isn’t to specialise in every end use case, such as betting or prediction markets, but to provide the infrastructure that moves value across these networks as efficiently as possible. That’s what we’re good at - and where we see growing demand. 

About author 

Cactus Raazi is the Americas CEO at B2C2, a leading institutional digital asset market maker. He previously served as US CEO at Amber Group and held senior leadership roles at Goldman Sachs—where he built their credit and risk desk—Nomura, and Tradeweb. A fintech entrepreneur, Raazi founded the algorithmic platform Elefant Inc. and authored the widely acclaimed book Price. He holds degrees from UC Santa Barbara and an M.S. in Business Analytics from NYU. 

About B2C2 

B2C2 is a leading institutional digital asset liquidity provider, delivering deep, reliable pricing across spot, derivatives, and structured products. Founded in 2015, it serves banks, asset managers, hedge funds, exchanges, and payments firms globally. The firm trades over USD 1 billion in stablecoins per day. Through its stablecoin solution PENNY, B2C2 supports FX, cross-border payments, and treasury use cases. With several regulated entities and partnerships with leading custodians, it enables fast, efficient settlement.