Remitly has officially announced the launch of its Global Card to its customers.
As part of this, holders of the new card will have a better way to regularly access and manage their international transfers with more favorable rates and settlement times.
Last August, Remitly held a product day called Remitly Reimagine, where it announced that the international debit card is available to select users in an early release (those who signed up for Remitly One membership).
Fast forward to today, the remittance provider is opening access to its broader customer base so that cross-border payments are improved for those individuals who truly need it on a daily basis.
Other perks such as adding it to mobile payment methods, receiving a mobile data package, as well as new lines of credit for short-term expenses.
USDC Card Balance
Remitly has confirmed that stablecoins will be utilized in its latest debit card product.
Specifically, card holders in certain geographical areas will now be able to choose to hold or spend their Dollar balances also in the USDC stablecoin inside their Remitly account.
This is particularly beneficial in regions where local currencies experience frequent inflation and lose their PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) more pronounced over time, in contrast to the U.S. Dollar.
Therefore, holding a balance in USDC may be the preferred way for some users in developing nations today, especially if they expect to send it elsewhere within 30 to 60 days (as seen in the stablecoin report published by BVNK in Q1).
Are Stablecoin Transfers the Future of Remittance?
Remitly currently allows direct wallet stablecoin transfers to occur from certain U.S. states to places like Argentina and Nigera, where both domestic currencies can be volatile and official FX rates vary.
There is still a fee for this service when funding the account in fiat, but not for recipients.
Here, the types of blockchain networks supported for USDC include Polygon, Base, Stellar, Arbitrum, Optimism, Ethereum, Avalanche, and Solana.
However, there is no mention of wether Remitly intends to utilize stablecoins for internal treasury and funding purposes. It is not clear to what extent stablecoins will actually settle all of the transfer volumes on the back end of the Global Card launch.
Earlier this year, Remitly had already partnered with Coins.ph to test this out for customers in the Philippines.
Additionally, the leadership may be feeling a certain pressure from recent announcements by competitor Western Union to get stablecoins going.
