Escalating geopolitical conflicts have prompted Western banks to tighten trade finance, making stablecoins an alternative tool for cross-border settlements.

CoinFeed reported on April 12 that, according to Coindesk, due to escalating geopolitical conflicts related to Iran, Western banks are accelerating their withdrawal from some commodity trade finance businesses due to compliance and sanctions risks. This has led to traders becoming "de-banked" and turning to stablecoins for cross-border settlements. Banks are concerned that seemingly compliant transactions may indirectly expose them to sanctioned entities, and are therefore choosing to directly shrink or even withdraw from trade finance exposure in relevant regions. This has resulted in a continued tightening of traditional financial payment and settlement channels, with stablecoins (especially USDT pegged to the US dollar) becoming alternative settlement tools. Their usage frequency is increasing in emerging market trade payments. Data shows that the market capitalization of stablecoins has exceeded $300 billion, and on-chain transaction volume has exceeded $4 trillion, accounting for approximately 30% of total on-chain activity.