Hyundai Card's stablecoin remittance pilot moves to Europe

Hyundai Card completed a stablecoin-based remittance proof of concept between Hyundai Motor subsidiaries in the US and Mexico, settling a $20,000 transfer in an average of seven minutes. The same transaction through traditional interbank wire systems takes three to four hours.

The company is now expanding testing to Hyundai Motor’s European offices by month’s end. The next phase will incorporate local currencies and bring in two additional partners: Circle and Visa.

On July 9, Hyundai Card officially announced the successful completion of its proof-of-concept program. At Hyundai Motor America, $20,000 was converted into Tether’s USDT stablecoin. That USDT was then transferred to Hyundai Motor Mexico over the Avalanche blockchain. Once received, the stablecoin was converted back into USD on the Mexican side.

Three partners made the pilot possible. Tether supplied the stablecoin. Avalanche provided the blockchain rails. Axiym, a blockchain payment infrastructure provider, handled the integration.

Moving USDT between two dollar-denominated subsidiaries is relatively straightforward. Moving value across European offices means dealing with euros, pounds, and potentially other local currencies, introducing foreign exchange conversion costs. That is precisely what Hyundai Card wants to evaluate.

Circle and Visa will participate as global collaborators in the European phase. The expansion will specifically test multi-currency remittances and measure whether stablecoin-based transfers deliver meaningful savings on foreign exchange costs compared to traditional banking channels.

Hyundai Card has indicated this phase will also address regulatory, accounting, tax, and internal control considerations.

This initiative marks the first effort by a card issuer to enable stablecoin remittances for a large corporation’s overseas subsidiaries. Hyundai Card operates within the Hyundai Motor Group, a conglomerate with global operations spanning dozens of countries.

The pilot’s real test lies in the European expansion. Dollar-to-dollar transfers avoid the hardest part of cross-border payments: currency conversion. If the European tests show stablecoins can cut FX costs and settlement times across multiple currencies, the case for wider adoption strengthens. If regulatory or tax hurdles emerge, the proof-of-concept may stay a proof-of-concept. The European tests are expected to run through the end of the year, Hyundai Card said.