Analysis: The US-Iran conflict has led banks to withdraw from trade finance, and commodity traders are "de-banking" and turning to stablecoin settlements.

According to Odaily Odaily, escalating geopolitical conflicts related to Iran have led Western banks to accelerate their withdrawal from some commodity trade finance businesses due to compliance and sanctions risks. This has resulted in traders becoming "de-banked" and turning to stablecoins for cross-border settlements. Banks are concerned that seemingly compliant transactions may indirectly expose them to sanctioned entities, thus choosing to directly shrink or even withdraw from trade finance exposure in relevant regions. This has resulted in a continued tightening of traditional financial payment and settlement channels, with stablecoins (especially USDT pegged to the US dollar) becoming alternative settlement tools. Their usage is increasing in emerging market trade payments. Data shows that the market capitalization of stablecoins has exceeded $300 billion, with on-chain transaction volume exceeding $4 trillion, accounting for approximately 30% of total on-chain activity. (CoinDesk)