PayFi, short for “payment finance,” is an umbrella term for combining blockchain-based payments—often using stablecoins—with financial services such as credit, payment financing and liquidity management. It is not one protocol, product or universally agreed technical standard. To understand how PayFi works, separate the payment itself (moving value) from any financing or other financial service built around that payment.
What does PayFi mean?
PayFi describes approaches that connect payment activity with financial services through blockchain networks and, in many cases, smart contracts. A blockchain can record and settle a transfer of a digital asset; a separate service may provide liquidity, credit or another financial product linked to that payment flow.
The term does not prescribe a single network, token or transaction sequence. IOST documentation describes an IOST-specific PayFi design, while Huma Finance and Solana materials describe different implementations and use cases. Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, offered one framing in a 2024 Huma Finance release: “PayFi is the creation of new financial markets around the time value of money.” That is Liu’s description, not a formal industry standard.
How does a blockchain-based payment work?
In a basic blockchain payment, a sender transfers a digital asset to a recipient’s address, and the network records the transaction. Stablecoins—tokens designed to track the value of a currency—are one commonly discussed asset for payment use. A payment provider or other service may handle the user-facing experience, while smart contracts can automate specified conditions or related financial products.
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That on-chain transfer is not automatically the same as depositing local fiat currency into the recipient’s bank account. A particular service may need a conversion and payout partner to turn stablecoins into local currency or deliver funds through another payment rail. The arrangements, supported currencies, timing and fees depend on the provider and corridor; there is no single PayFi workflow that applies to all services.
A simplified payment-financing flow
- A business initiates a payment. It may owe a supplier or need to send funds across a border.
- A financing provider supplies liquidity. If the business qualifies, the provider can advance funds so the payment need not wait for the business to collect an invoice or arrange its own cash.
- The payment is transferred or settled. A service may use a stablecoin and blockchain network for some or all of this stage.
- The recipient receives funds through the available payout method. That could mean receiving a stablecoin; conversion to fiat and a bank or other local payout are separate arrangements where offered.
- The business repays the financing. The repayment terms, fees and timing are features of the financing product, not inherent properties of blockchain settlement.
This is an illustrative family of approaches, not a universal PayFi transaction sequence. Some blockchain payment products do not include financing at all.
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Payment settlement and payment financing are different
Stablecoin settlement concerns how value is transferred or settled. Payment financing concerns how a business obtains liquidity or credit around a payment—for example, borrowing against receivables or using a short-term facility to pay a supplier sooner. A service can combine the two, but neither implies the other: a stablecoin payment does not by itself provide credit, and financing can be arranged separately from the payment rail.
This distinction matters when evaluating claims about speed or cost. A blockchain transfer may be one leg of a transaction, but conversion, compliance checks, provider processing and the recipient’s payout can add steps, fees or time. The available examples do not establish that PayFi always eliminates intermediaries, reduces total cost or completes every payment instantly end to end.
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Where PayFi is being used
Merchant acceptance
Solana describes Solana Pay and related stablecoin merchant-payment tools, including a Shopify app provided by Helio, as well as point-of-sale and wallet-related examples. These are particular tools in the Solana ecosystem, not evidence that merchants universally accept blockchain payments or that the total cost is lower than other payment methods.
Institutional and cross-border settlement
Solana’s institutional payments page identifies cross-border payments, card settlement, treasury movement and global payouts as potential use cases. The page says Visa moved millions of USDC between partners over Solana in live pilots to settle fiat-denominated payments authorized over VisaNet. That is a description of pilots, not a claim that all Visa transactions settle on Solana.
The same Solana page describes Worldpay settlement in USDG and Fiserv’s FIUSD. It also described Western Union’s USDPT launch as planned for 2026; the cited material does not establish whether that launch subsequently occurred.
Financing cross-border payments and supplier payouts
Visa’s 2025 report describes Huma Finance as a blockchain- and stablecoin-based payment-financing platform. In the report’s account, approved businesses use Huma largely to accelerate cross-border payments and supplier payouts, with recipients receiving stablecoins. The facilities described include revolving credit, receivable-backed credit and factoring. These products supply liquidity around payment flows; they are not simply stablecoin transfers.
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Visa’s report says Huma businesses typically pay a daily fee of 6–10 basis points on an open loan balance, with capital typically repaid within 1–5 days. Those are Huma-specific terms reported in 2025, not typical PayFi rates or timelines generally. A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point, but the cited report does not justify treating the stated daily range as a universal price or comparing it directly with other providers’ fees.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the reported PayFi figures do—and do not—show
Published figures refer to different networks, companies and measures. They should not be added together or compared as though they describe the same activity.
| Reported figure | Attribution and qualification |
|---|---|
| $10 billion stablecoin supply | Displayed by Solana alongside a “Payments Report 2025” label on its institutional payments page. The visible page does not state the exact measurement period or methodology. |
| $200 billion in monthly stablecoin transfers | Displayed by Solana alongside a “Payments Report 2025” label on its institutional payments page. The precise measurement window and methodology are not stated in the visible content. |
| $0.0013 median fee | Displayed by Solana alongside a “Payments Report 2025” label on its institutional payments page. The page does not make the exact measurement period or methodology clear. |
| Approximately $500 million monthly transaction volume; $140 million active liquidity; $98 million in PayFi assets in active loans | Figures attributed to Allium and Huma Finance data from September 2025, as reported by Visa. They are historical, source-attributed amounts, not current totals. |
These figures describe separate measures: a displayed stablecoin supply, transfer activity and fee on one hand, and Huma-specific transaction volume, liquidity and active loans on the other. The Solana page’s visible content does not provide enough methodological detail to independently interpret its metrics as a like-for-like comparison with Huma’s figures.
What to check before choosing a PayFi service
The label alone does not tell you what a provider actually does or what a transaction will cost. Compare the service’s specific terms and payment path, including:
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- Settlement and payout: Find out whether the recipient gets a stablecoin, fiat currency or another form of value, and who handles any conversion and local payout.
- Credit and liquidity terms: For financing, review eligibility, the fee basis, repayment schedule, collateral or receivables requirements, and what happens if payment or repayment is delayed.
- Integration and operations: Check what systems, wallets or provider integrations are needed and who handles support, reconciliation and failed transactions.
- Custody and compliance: Establish who controls the assets at each stage and what identity checks and other requirements apply to the service and jurisdictions involved.
Huma’s reported financing terms and Solana’s described payment tools illustrate different parts of this checklist; they do not constitute a neutral, apples-to-apples provider comparison. The cited materials also do not establish that any given service or stablecoin is legally compliant in every jurisdiction. Requirements depend on the specific service and where it operates, so check the provider’s current terms and local rules before relying on a product.
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