As payments, finance, and blockchain infrastructure continue to converge a new paradigm of value circulation is taking shape.
1. From DeFi to PayFi: The Inevitable Evolution of Blockchain Applications
In the early stages of blockchain development, industry focus was largely centered on asset transfers and financial derivatives.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance) proved that blockchain could build financial systems without intermediaries.
However, it did not solve a more fundamental problem: everyday payments and settlement.
No matter how advanced technology becomes, the real economy ultimately revolves around one core activity:
Payment.
PayFi (Payment Finance) emerged precisely in this context.
It is not a rejection of DeFi, but a natural extension toward the real economy.
2. What Is PayFi? It Solves Payment Problems, Not Speculative Finance
PayFi = Blockchain × Payments × Financial Infrastructure
Unlike DeFi, which focuses on how capital is lent, traded, or structured into derivatives, PayFi addresses far more fundamental and high-frequency use cases:
- Digital Currency Payment
- Crypto Payment
- USDT Payment / Stablecoin Payment
- Digital Currency Settlement
- Digital Currency Online Acquiring
- Cross-Border Payment
PayFi does not aim to create new speculative financial instruments.
Its purpose is to make digital currencies scalable tools for real-world payment and settlement.
3. The Real Foundation of PayFi in 2025: Data Is Driving the Shift
PayFi is widely discussed in 2025 not because of hype, but because of data.
Key Industry Indicators in 2025 (Aggregated Market Trends)
- Global annual stablecoin settlement volume has reached multiple trillions of USD, with more than half used for payments, remittances, and settlement, not speculation.
- Emerging markets — Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa —are experiencing the fastest growth in stablecoin payments, with annual growth rates commonly exceeding 40%–60%.
- The cross-border payment market continues to expand, while traditional systems still charge 3%–6% average fees, compared to sub-1% total costs for stablecoin-based settlement.
- In multiple countries, USDT has effectively become a cross-border unit of account, especially in tourism, freelancing, international trade, and e-commerce settlement.
These data points make one thing clear:
The question is no longer whether PayFi will happen —
but who will be able to absorb and scale this demand.
4. Why Stablecoins (USDT) Became the Core Carrier of PayFi
PayFi depends on one essential condition: stability.
Historically, cryptocurrencies struggled as payment tools due to price volatility.
The maturity of stablecoins fundamentally changed this assumption.
Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC offer:
- Stable value anchoring
- Near-instant on-chain transfers
- Global accessibility
- Deep liquidity and market depth
This allows USDT payments to gradually take on monetary characteristics in the real world,
forming the settlement foundation of the PayFi ecosystem.
5. PWC’s Role in the PayFi Framework:
The Real-World Payment Connectivity Layer within the PayFi ecosystem, not every participant directly faces users or merchants.
What truly determines real-world adoption is the intermediate layer connecting on-chain systems to real-world commerce.
PWC (PayWithCrypto) is one of the representative players in this layer.
What Is PWC?
Functionally, PWC is neither an exchange nor a simple wallet.
It is a payment network and settlement system connecting crypto payments with real-world merchants.
It solves a critical mismatch:
Users want to pay with digital currency while merchants want to receive local fiat currency.
How PWC Operates (PayFi in Practice)
- User side:
Users complete crypto payments using USDT and other stablecoins
- System layer:
On-chain settlement and clearing mechanisms handle digital currency settlement
- Merchant side:
Merchants receive local fiat currency, without bearing volatility risk. This structure allows Digital Currency Online Acquiring to scale in a manner similar to traditional online acquiring systems.
As of 2025, PWC has completed large-scale deployment across multiple Southeast Asian markets, covering tens of millions of merchants, making it one of the most tangible real-world PayFi implementations.
6. PayFi Is Changing More Than Just Payment Methods
From a long-term perspective, PayFi’s significance extends far beyond “faster and cheaper payments.”
As payments and settlement move fully on-chain, several structural shifts emerge:
- Payment equals settlement, dramatically improving capital efficiency
- Transparent, verifiable transaction data, enabling new credit systems
- Lower cross-border barriers, allowing SMEs to directly participate in global commerce
- Financial services built around real transactions, rather than speculative activity
PayFi is becoming a core infrastructure layer connecting the real economy with blockchain-based systems.
7. Conclusion: PayFi Changes the World Through Adoption, Not Disruption
PayFi will not replace banks or traditional payment systems overnight.
It resembles the early TCP/IP protocols of the internet — initially a supplement, eventually one of the default standards.
When people become accustomed to paying with USDT, merchants routinely accept digital currency payments, and businesses settle cross-border transactions using stablecoins, PayFi will have fulfilled its most important mission.
PayFi is not a slogan.
It is a payment infrastructure already being adopted by the real world.
