CZ says stablecoins could cut cross-border remittance fees to near zero

Filipino families receiving money from relatives working abroad are losing somewhere between $5 billion and $10 billion every year to remittance fees. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao thinks stablecoins can make that number vanish.

Speaking at the ASEAN Tech Summit in Manila on July 29, the Binance co-founder argued that stablecoin transactions processed on blockchains like BNB Chain could bring cross-border transfer costs to essentially zero. For context, the Philippines receives roughly $35 billion in annual remittances, making it the third-largest recipient country globally. Traditional channels currently skim 3% to 10% off the top of every transfer.

The math that matters

Zhao’s pitch is straightforward. Stablecoin rails can process these transfers at negligible cost because the underlying business model doesn’t depend on per-transaction fees. Instead, platforms can monetize through trading fees, lending, and other financial services built on top of the infrastructure.

“Most stablecoin transactions… is basically zero,” Zhao said during the panel.

The session, titled “One ASEAN, One Digital Economy: The Role of Stablecoins in Enabling Borderless Commerce,” featured a fireside chat between CZ and Lito Villanueva, the founding chairman of FinTech Alliance Philippines. The conversation went beyond theoretical cost savings and into the practical obstacles standing in the way of mass adoption.

Financial literacy emerged as a significant barrier. So did the patchwork of regulatory frameworks across ASEAN member states, which makes building a unified digital payments corridor considerably harder than it sounds.

The peso goes digital

Perhaps the most concrete development to surface during the summit was discussion around PHPX, a proposed peso-backed stablecoin being explored by a consortium of Philippine banks. The initiative is specifically targeting cross-border payroll services, which would directly benefit overseas workers.

A peso-denominated stablecoin solves a problem that dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDT and USDC don’t fully address. When a worker sends USDT to the Philippines, the recipient still needs to convert it to pesos, introducing another layer of friction and cost. A local-currency stablecoin could eliminate that final conversion step entirely.

Villanueva’s involvement in the conversation underscores the growing alignment between Philippine fintech leaders and crypto-native platforms. FinTech Alliance Philippines has been instrumental in shaping the country’s digital finance policy, and having its founding chairman share a stage with CZ to discuss stablecoin adoption carries weight.

Why ASEAN is the proving ground

The regulatory picture remains uneven. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the country’s central bank, has been relatively progressive on digital assets compared to peers in the region. But creating a functional stablecoin ecosystem requires coordination across multiple jurisdictions, especially when the goal is enabling seamless cross-border transfers within ASEAN.

Each country has its own anti-money laundering requirements, licensing regimes, and currency controls. Getting ten ASEAN member states to agree on a shared framework for stablecoin-based payments is an exercise in diplomatic patience as much as technical innovation.

CZ’s zero-fee vision is ambitious, and the actual cost won’t land precisely at zero once you account for on-ramps, off-ramps, and compliance overhead. But even cutting the average fee from 5% to 0.5% would redirect billions of dollars annually from intermediaries to Filipino families.

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