Decta taps stablecoin treasury settlement to skip bank delays with USDC

When a payments company starts moving its own money in stablecoins, it usually signals something bigger than a single treasury upgrade. That’s the case with Decta, a London-founded payments platform, which is now using USDC to settle its own company funds across borders. The move brings stablecoin treasury settlement into a corner of the industry that has largely stuck to conventional banking rails, even as crypto infrastructure keeps creeping into the plumbing of traditional finance.

Key takeaways

• Decta will use USDC to settle its own company funds internationally, not customer payments.
• OpenPayd converts Decta’s fiat into USDC through over-the-counter capabilities before international settlement.
• The arrangement is strictly a proprietary treasury use case, according to OpenPayd’s chief commercial officer.
• Decta operates across 32 countries and serves hundreds of companies through payment processing, acquiring, card issuing and banking services.
• Decta and France’s Next Generation are exploring a euro-pegged stablecoin under the EU’s MiCA framework, first announced in August 2024.

Decta adopts USDC for internal treasury international settlements

Decta will use USDC to settle its own funds internationally, folding stablecoins into its back-end treasury operations rather than its customer-facing products. The company confirmed the shift in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, describing it as a way to move company money between its regulated entities and markets more efficiently.

Stablecoins used exclusively for proprietary treasury operations

This is not a stablecoin payment product for merchants or cardholders. “This is a proprietary treasury use case rather than a customer-facing payments flow,” Lux Thiagarajah, chief commercial officer at OpenPayd, told Cointelegraph. He added that Decta transfers its own funds into OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure, where they are converted into USDC via OpenPayd’s over-the-counter capabilities to support international operational settlements.

Benefits over traditional banking transfers

Decta UK CEO Scott Dawson explained that the company routinely shifts to allocate its own capital across various banking connections in order to support day-to-day activities and address cross-entity financial commitments spanning its supervised operations and geographic areas. Those transfers, he noted, normally run through banking rails bound by cut-off times, weekends and multi-day value dates. “Through OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure, Decta converts its own fiat into a digital settlement instrument, moves it across markets near-instantly,” Dawson said.

Why this matters: it’s a concrete example of a regulated payments firm treating a stablecoin as plumbing rather than a product. For an industry long skeptical of digital assets touching operational finance, USDC settlement offers a workaround for exactly the kind of friction — weekend closures, banking cut-offs — that has frustrated cross-border treasury teams for years.

OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure enables USDC conversion

OpenPayd is the mechanism that makes this possible, converting Decta’s fiat into USDC under a regulatory umbrella rather than through an unregulated crypto exchange. Founded in London in 2018, OpenPayd builds financial infrastructure that connects fiat and digital assets, and its role here is purely operational: receive Decta’s company funds, convert them, and hand back a settlement instrument that moves faster than a wire transfer.

Over-the-counter USDC conversion capabilities

The conversion runs through OpenPayd’s over-the-counter services. Decta transfers its own funds into OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure, where they are converted into USDC before being used for international operational settlements.

Regulatory authorization under EU MiCA

OpenPayd secured authorization under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation in June, allowing it to provide crypto services — including fiat-to-stablecoin on- and off-ramps — across the European Economic Area under a single license. OpenPayd’s client roster already includes Kraken, eToro, OKX and institutional liquidity provider B2C2, according to Decta’s announcement.

Why this matters: MiCA authorization is becoming the gateway that lets regulated infrastructure firms offer stablecoin conversion to other regulated businesses without each party needing its own crypto license. That’s precisely what allowed Decta’s treasury team to plug into USDC settlement without touching an unregulated exchange.

Exploration of euro-pegged stablecoin issuance under MiCA regulation

Decta’s USDC arrangement isn’t happening in isolation — it follows an earlier, still-unresolved push toward issuing its own euro-denominated token. During August 2024, Decta Limited alongside the France-headquartered Next Generation announced they were assessing the feasibility of launching a euro-denominated stablecoin that Decta would have the capability to issue under MiCA, subject to regulatory approval.

Partnership with France-based Next Generation

That earlier announcement positioned Decta not just as a stablecoin user but as a potential issuer, working alongside Next Generation on a pan-European euro-pegged token concept. The current USDC-for-treasury deal is a separate, narrower step — using an existing stablecoin for internal settlement rather than issuing a new one.

Subject to regulatory approval within EU MiCA framework

Any euro-pegged stablecoin issuance would still need to clear MiCA’s regulatory approval process, and nothing in Decta’s latest announcement updates that earlier plan’s status. What’s clear is that the company is now moving on two fronts at once: adopting a third-party stablecoin for its own back office while keeping the door open on issuing one of its own.

Founded in London in 2015, Decta provides payment processing, acquiring, card issuing, banking and other financial infrastructure to businesses, operating across 32 countries and serving hundreds of companies, according to its announcement. The USDC arrangement adds a blockchain-based settlement rail to that infrastructure without changing the products Decta offers its own merchant and business clients — a distinction both companies have been careful to draw as stablecoins edge closer to mainstream payments plumbing.

FAQ

How does Decta use stablecoins in its operations?

Decta uses USDC exclusively for its own internal treasury and international settlement operations, not for customer-facing payments.

What role does OpenPayd play in Decta’s USDC settlement process?

OpenPayd provides regulated infrastructure that converts Decta’s fiat funds into USDC via over-the-counter capabilities, enabling near-instant international operational settlements.

Is Decta planning to issue its own stablecoin?

Decta and France-based Next Generation have been exploring issuing a euro-pegged stablecoin under the EU’s MiCA regulation since August 2024, pending regulatory approval.

What advantages does stablecoin settlement offer over traditional banking?

Stablecoin settlement allows near-instant transfers across markets, avoiding the cut-off times, weekends and multi-day value dates associated with traditional banking rails.

Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.