As part of ChangeNOW's long-term ecosystem collaboration with Stellar and Polygon, Faraj Abutalibov and JT joined a ChangeNOW X Space discussion on how payment infrastructure, stablecoins and tokenized assets are being used in practice.
Crypto spent years promising a new financial system. In 2026, stablecoins, treasury products and cross-border flows already handle real money movement. Businesses move treasury funds on-chain, users seek dollar exposure and fintech teams look for payment rails that settle transactions outside banking hours.
Cross-Border Payments Are The First Real Test
Payments shaped the first part of the discussion. Faraj pointed to remittances as one of the clearest examples of blockchain solving a real financial problem.
“For us [at Stellar], the main payment use case is cross-border remittances. I think that was the killer use case for stablecoins overall.”
International transfers often pass through several banks, restricted operating hours and delayed settlement. Businesses and individuals need faster routes for moving funds across markets. Stellar’s payments page focuses on international transfers, remittances, payroll, supplier invoices and treasury balances.
JT described a similar trend from Polygon's side. He pointed to remittances, B2B transfers and global settlement flows as areas with growing activity.
“From Polygon's point of view, I think there are a lot of remittance and B2B flows happening today. There is also a significant portion for cross-border flows, and I would say that is slowly starting to ramp up.”
He also highlighted the cost structure behind traditional banking transfers.
“The whole T plus one, T plus two correspondent banking, and more importantly, opaque fees, mean you don't really know how much you're paying until the money gets to the other side, because of all the different banks in between.”
The discussion kept returning to treasury operations, remittances and business transfers because these areas already carry visible friction. Users care about settlement speed, cost visibility and successful delivery before they care about the rails behind the transaction.
Stablecoins And RWAs Meet In Treasury Flows
Stablecoins came up throughout the Space as payment tools, settlement assets and stores of value.
JT described a pattern in developing markets where users want dollar exposure but still need local currency for everyday payments.
“What they'd rather do is use it [their USD stablecoin balance] as collateral to borrow some local currency, then use that for a payment. When they get their salary later on, they'll pay back that loan and still hold on to that USD.”
Once capital reaches blockchain networks, users start looking for productive places to hold it. Faraj connected this trend to real-world yield.
“Overall, the narrative has shifted towards the yield from the real world. Everyone is looking at where this yield comes from, why blockchain is there in the first place and what problem it solves.”
He also pointed to institutional treasury demand.
“We are at Stellar in discussion with multiple organizations that would like to deploy their treasury in money market funds with daily liquidity.”
Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform gives investors blockchain-based access to tokenized investment products on Stellar. Stablecoins bring capital on-chain. Tokenized assets give institutions and investors additional places to hold that liquidity.
Readers comparing tokenized assets with traditional ownership models can also read Tokenized vs Traditional Real Estate in MENA.
From Payments To Treasury Infrastructure
Polygon's contribution focused on what happens after funds arrive on-chain. Payments, stablecoins and RWAs create value when users can move between those systems through one product flow.
One of Polygon's central themes was Polygon Open Money Stack. JT described it as infrastructure connecting off-chain money, on-chain settlement and off-ramping.
“The way RWA, stablecoins and DeFi intersect on Polygon is through Polygon Open Money Stack today. Think of it as a full end-to-end payment stack that allows anyone integrating it to move money from off-chain to on-chain and back off-chain again.”
Polygon Open Money Stack presents this model as a stack for stablecoin payments, off-chain systems and on-chain settlement. For fintech companies and wallets, the user expectation stays direct: competitive pricing, reliable execution and smooth settlement.
Builders Need Customers Before Grants
The strongest founder moment came when Faraj talked about customer demand.
“When you start a business, you start with a customer and a problem, and then you build a solution. In crypto and blockchain, we have a technology, and sometimes people build technology for the sake of technology.”
He followed with a blunt warning.
“Regardless of how good the projects you have built are, if you don't have customers, you will fail. The era of easy money has gone.”
JT pushed the same point from the product side.
“Do you understand why people are not activating? Do you know where they drop off in your onboarding journey? Is your onboarding journey even optimized?”
For ChangeNOW, the same question appears in daily user behavior. A person opens a swap, checks the rate, chooses a network, sends funds and waits for payout. If they leave before finishing, the issue usually sits inside the flow: unclear rate, wrong network, wallet mismatch, slow confirmation or lack of confidence.
Partnerships, grants and ecosystem announcements matter only when they improve the actual transfer flow. ChangeNOW has a long-running ecosystem partnership with Stellar and a separate partnership with Polygon. Both matter for the same reason: users do not care who built which layer in the background. They care whether the transfer goes through cleanly, on the right network and without a support chat in the middle.
Closing Insights
Across the discussion, Stellar and Polygon kept returning to financial utility: settlement, yield, dollar access and lower transfer friction.
As a trusted ecosystem partner working with Stellar and Polygon, ChangeNOW sees the same story at the transaction level. Users swap into stablecoins, switch networks and move funds across chains because one ecosystem rarely covers the full route.
For users, value shows up in clear rates, the right network, reliable payout and support when a transaction needs attention.
