Stablecoin infrastructure is the set of systems that issue and hold stablecoins, move them, convert them and screen them for compliance, so a business can use them like any other payment method. It runs from the issuer's reserves, across a blockchain, to the compliance checks and the local bank rail that pays the recipient.
A stablecoin on its own pays nobody: a supplier wants reais in a bank account. This post maps the layers, follows one payment across them, and says where to build and where to buy. If the stablecoin itself is new to you, start with what a stablecoin is.
What are the layers of a stablecoin infrastructure stack?
Eight layers sit between a sender's money and a recipient's bank account. Every payment touches all eight.
The eight layers of a stablecoin payments stack, with who holds the money and how each layer fails.
Layer | What it does | Who usually provides it | Who holds the money | How it fails |
1. Issuance and reserves | Mints the stablecoin against deposits, redeems it for cash, holds the reserves | Regulated issuers such as Circle (USDC) and Tether (USDT) | The issuer holds the reserves; holders own a redemption claim | Loss of the peg, redemption limits, frozen addresses |
2. Blockchain networks | Records and finalizes each transfer | Public networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Tron or Stellar | Nobody; the ledger records which address controls the balance | Congestion, fee spikes, a deposit sent on the wrong network |
Holds the keys that control a balance | The business, a custodian or the payments provider | Whoever holds the keys | Key loss, provider failure, unclear segregation of client funds | |
Turn local currency into stablecoin and back, and move local money over bank rails | Payment institutions and banking partners on ACH, SEPA, SWIFT and local systems | The bank or payment institution on each side | Cut-off times, name mismatch, returned payments | |
5. FX and liquidity | Prices the conversion and honors the quote | Market makers, exchanges, the provider's own treasury | The liquidity provider, for the seconds a trade runs | Quote expiry, thin pairs outside business hours |
6. Compliance | Identity checks on customers and companies, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring | The payments provider, specialist vendors or both | Funds wait in place until a check clears | A held transaction, an onboarding rejection, a wrong purpose code |
Quotes a payment, routes it, executes it and tracks it through one interface | Payments providers | Depends on the provider's model, so ask | A failure between two legs, a payout sent twice | |
8. Reporting | Status events, plus the references and receipts that feed the client's ledger | The provider's events and the client's own ledger | Nobody; it is the record | A missed event, no reference per leg, a mismatch with the bank statement |
The interface in layer 7 comes in several types, which the taxonomy of stablecoin APIs sorts.
How does money move through the stack?
Money crosses the stack in a fixed order: local currency in, stablecoin across, local currency out, with a check at each handoff. Take a Mexican company paying a Brazilian supplier.
First the company is verified, and nothing moves until that clears (layer 6). It registers the supplier's bank details, which the provider screens. The company asks for a quote and receives the rate, the fee, the amount the supplier will receive and a short expiry (layers 5 and 7). It sends pesos over SPEI (Mexico's interbank transfer system, run by Banxico) to an account in its own name, and the provider converts them to a dollar stablecoin (layers 4, 1 and 5). The stablecoin moves on a blockchain and is credited to a wallet (layers 2 and 3). It is sold for reais at the quoted rate, and the reais leave over Pix (Brazil's instant payment system, run by the Central Bank) to the supplier's account (layer 4). Every state change is reported back to the company's system (layer 8).
Correspondent banking hops through intermediary banks, each with its own cut-off times and fees, and settles in hours or days (why cross-border payments are slow covers that chain). Here the blockchain leg is usually the fastest one; the slow parts are the bank rail and the compliance review at each end. The full walk-through is in how stablecoin payments work.
The example is two Lumx transactions: an on-ramp (pesos in, stablecoin out) and then an off-ramp (stablecoin in, reais out). Lumx reports each state as its own status with its own webhook, so the client's ledger follows the payment layer by layer.
Lumx on-ramp statuses, the layer each one belongs to, and the webhook that announces it.
Status | Layer it belongs to | Webhook |
AWAITING_FUNDS | Ramps and local rails: waiting for the customer's local-currency transfer | onramp.awaiting_funds |
TRANSFERRING_FIAT | Ramps and local rails: the bank leg is in progress | onramp.transferring_fiat |
TRADING | FX and liquidity: the conversion is executing | onramp.trading |
TRANSFERRING_STABLECOIN | Networks and custody: stablecoin is on its way to the customer's wallet | onramp.transferring_stablecoin |
SUCCESS | Reporting: the payment is complete and reported | onramp.success |
The off-ramp has its own statuses, announced by offramp.transferring_stablecoin, offramp.trading, offramp.transferring_fiat and offramp.success, with offramp.failed if it stops. On the on-ramp, onramp.failed and onramp.expired cover a transaction that failed and one that expired before the payment was received.
Custody: who holds the money at each step
In a custodial model the provider holds the keys and the client sees balances. In a non-custodial model the client or its customer holds the keys and signs each transfer, which gives control and the key-management risk.
Draw the payment and mark the holder at every arrow. Whether you need a wallet of your own is covered in do you need a crypto wallet.
Lumx is custodial: the keys sit with BitGo, which carries insurance, and the client sees balances, which are stablecoin and not a deposit, because Lumx is not a bank. Each customer gets a wallet on every supported network when the customer is created, the wallet becomes usable once the customer is approved, and a payout has to debit a customer's own wallet. The custodial wallets product page describes the setup.
Where a stablecoin stack breaks
Each layer has an owner, and each owner fails in its own way. The issuer can lose its peg or freeze an address, the network can congest and the custodian can lose a key. The full list is in are stablecoin payments safe.
The failure that hurts most is the payout that stops between two layers. If the client's system only shows "pending", support has nothing to act on while the supplier waits. A status per layer is why layer 8 is on the diagram. Lumx sends an offramp.failed webhook when an off-ramp stops, so the client's system gets an event instead of a bare pending state.
Lumx runs KYC (know your customer, the verification of an individual) through Sumsub and KYB (know your business, the verification of a company and its owners; see what KYB is) on the same flow. Chainalysis monitors blockchain activity; fiat is watched by Lumx's own systems and its banking partners. When a compliance review needs a document, the status moves to RFI (request for information, a compliance hold that asks for a document before a transaction clears), and the client is told what is missing. Every on-ramp and off-ramp carries a purpose field, because a mismatch with the real use can hold a payment.
What to build and what to buy
There are three ways to assemble the stack: build on the chains directly, assemble several vendors, or use one payments provider. A company should build a layer only if that layer is the product.
Three ways to assemble a stablecoin stack, by what the business owns.
Option | What the business owns | Upside | Downside |
Build on the networks directly | Keys, liquidity, banking relationships, licenses in each country | Full control, no provider margin | A regulated institution to run; custody risk is yours |
Assemble several vendors | Each integration and the logic between them | A specialist for each layer | Several contracts and reconciliations, and gaps between compliance scopes |
One payments provider | The product and the customer experience | One integration, one contract, one source for reconciliation | Less control over routing, and dependence on the provider's corridors |
Building means fixed costs for licenses, bank relationships and liquidity before the first payment, several vendors means several price lists, and one provider means one price list: Lumx's pricing is "monthly platform fee plus usage-based per-transaction fees, transparent FX on locked quotes, no pre-funding; no published plans". No pre-funding means no capital parked in settlement accounts before a payment.
I recommend drawing the stack on one page before signing with any provider, and writing on every layer who holds the money at that point. If a provider cannot fill a box, that box is where your support queue will end up. I would also wire the provider's status events into your own ledger before the first live payment, because finance will read those events every day.
Rules that shape the stack
In the United States, the GENIUS Act (S. 1582), enacted on July 18, 2025, will require a permitted payment stablecoin issuer to keep identifiable reserves of at least 1 to 1 against outstanding stablecoins and to publish the monthly composition of those reserves. It takes effect on the earlier of 18 months after enactment (January 18, 2027) or 120 days after final implementing regulations. In the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of May 31, 2023 (MiCA) governs stablecoins as e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens. In Brazil, virtual asset service providers fall under Law 14.478 of December 21, 2022 and the Central Bank's Resolution BCB 520 and Resolution BCB 521, both of 2025. Each country with a local rail also regulates the paying institution; the supported countries shows where Lumx onboards customers.
On Lumx's side, the company is a FinCEN-registered MSB (money services business, the FinCEN registration category) and, in Brazil, has filed its authorization request and operates under the transition regime of Resolution 520/2025, Article 88. Lumx is not a bank.
When stablecoin infrastructure is the wrong tool
If both ends of a payment are in the same country and a fast local rail such as Pix or SPEI exists, a local payments integration is simpler. Stablecoins add steps to a Pix-to-Pix or SPEI-to-SPEI payment and remove nothing.
If the corridor has no good local payout, the last bank hop is slow whatever the blockchain does. Check a provider's payout coverage first.
If the volume is a few payments a month, integration costs more than it saves; a dashboard or an OTC desk starts cheaper.
Some institutions are barred by their regulator from holding stablecoins, and no provider changes that.
What the stack looks like with Lumx
Lumx is stablecoin payments infrastructure for businesses that move money between Latin America and the rest of the world: one API to collect, hold, convert, and pay out in BRL, MXN, COP, USD, EUR, and GBP or in USDC and USDT, over local rails such as PIX, SPEI, PSE, Bre-B, ACH, FEDWIRE, SEPA, and Faster Payments, with SWIFT and on-behalf-of payments and collections (POBO and COBO) in USD, EUR, and GBP, plus named virtual accounts, custodial wallets, and KYB/KYC built in.
Where Lumx sits in each layer of the stack (as of November 2026).
Layer | Lumx's role | What it looks like |
1. Issuance | Connects | Circle issues USDC and Tether issues USDT. Lumx supports both. It has its own mint account at Circle and also buys USDC through BTG Pactual |
2. Networks | Runs on | Ethereum, Polygon, Base and Tron, with USDC and USDT depending on the network; Stellar only for BRL to USDC on-ramps |
Runs | Custodial wallet per customer on each network, created with the customer and enabled when the customer is approved. BitGo custodies the keys, with full segregation per customer and no omnibus | |
4. Ramps and rails | Runs, with banking partners | Named virtual accounts in the customer's own name for BRL and MXN; BRL over Pix, MXN over SPEI, USD over ACH, FEDWIRE or SWIFT; COP collected by Bre-B (Colombia's instant payment system) and PSE (Colombia's online bank-transfer network), paid out by Bre-B or ACH Colombia |
5. FX and liquidity | Runs | Floating rate for display, locked rates for 30 seconds, one minute or five minutes; liquidity from Lumx and institutional counterparties only, among them BTG Pactual |
6. Compliance | Runs | KYC through Sumsub, blockchain monitoring through Chainalysis, KYB with a target of one business day (effective November 2026) |
7. API | Runs | One API for customers, accounts, wallets, destinations, exchange rates and transactions; the stablecoin API explained separately |
8. Reporting | Runs | UETR and MT103 confirmations on every SWIFT payout, per-rail reference on every transfer, webhooks, CSV transaction exports, account statements and fee statements, an audit trail |
A BRL named virtual account is a local account number in the customer's own name, so the recipient of a Pix payout sees the customer's name as the payer, not Lumx. The 30-second rate lock carries no fee, while the longer locks include one that covers volatility.
Customers use the Lumx dashboard alongside the API, and an API integration takes two to three weeks. The global payments product page lists what ships, the operator map the operators, and how to evaluate a provider turns the layer table into questions to put to each vendor. To start, create a sandbox key under Developers > API Keys in the dashboard and run one on-ramp and one off-ramp against api-sandbox.lumx.io, watching the statuses above arrive as webhooks.
Methodology and sources
Lumx product facts were read from docs.lumx.io on November 1, 2026 (Wallets, Accounts, Transactions, Exchange Rates, Webhooks, Identity Verification, Coverage). The GENIUS Act text was read at congress.gov on the same day, and Circle's reserve disclosures at circle.com/transparency. MiCA and the Brazilian norms are linked to the official pages, which did not return their text when checked.
Verified on November 1, 2026. Operational context, not legal, tax, or investment advice.
Cover photo: Nick Fewings on Unsplash.
What is stablecoin infrastructure?
Stablecoin infrastructure is everything that lets a business use a stablecoin as a normal payment method: the issuer and its reserves, the blockchain, custody, conversion, compliance checks, the software that ties them together and the local bank rails at each end. A business picks which layers to own. Lumx runs custody, local accounts, payouts over local rails, FX on locked quotes, KYB and KYC and the API on top, and connects to Circle and Tether for issuance.
Who provides stablecoin infrastructure?
A different company at each layer. Circle and Tether issue USDC and USDT, public blockchains such as Ethereum and Tron move them, custodians or the payments provider hold the keys, and banks and payment institutions connect the local rails. Payments providers bundle the layers into one contract. Lumx is one of them: it holds the wallets, provisions local accounts through banking partners and leaves issuance to Circle and Tether.
Who holds the keys in a stablecoin stack?
Whoever runs custody. With a custodial provider the business sends a bank transfer in and pays a bank account out, and the stablecoin sits in a wallet the provider holds. A business that wants the keys needs a non-custodial setup and signs every transfer. With Lumx, each customer gets a custodial wallet on each supported network when the customer is created, so the client calls the API and never signs a transaction.
Is stablecoin infrastructure just an API?
No. The API is the layer a company's software calls. Underneath sit the issuer, the blockchain, custody, banking partners, FX liquidity and compliance, each with its own risk even when the API hides it. Lumx exposes customers, accounts, wallets, destinations, exchange rates and transactions through one API and runs the layers under it.
Should a company build its own stablecoin infrastructure?
Only when moving money is the product and the company can carry the licenses and bank relationships itself. Buy the layers you do not differentiate on and build what customers see. With Lumx, an API integration takes two to three weeks.
