Tether invests in SQRIL: The payment revolution from exchanges to grocery markets

Tether announces investment in cross-border QR code payment service provider SQRIL. This is not just a capital partnership but also a strategic shift of USDT from exchange scenarios to global daily payment scenarios. The two parties plan to embed stablecoin settlement capabilities into mobile payment systems across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, covering high-frequency scenarios such as retail consumption and cross-border remittances. This move reflects Tether’s ambition to build a global stablecoin payment infrastructure while consolidating its market position.

Why choose SQRIL

What is SQRIL

SQRIL is a cross-border QR code payment service provider operating in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Its core advantage lies in its “connective” architecture: it can interface with traditional financial systems like Barclays and Bank of America, as well as integrate with mainstream fintech platforms such as Venmo, Revolut, and Cash App. This bidirectional connectivity makes it an ideal bridge between traditional finance and blockchain settlement.

The practical needs of emerging markets

Tether’s choice of these regions is deliberate. These markets share high mobile payment penetration but suffer from low efficiency and high costs in traditional financial infrastructure. SQRIL has accumulated a growing user base and significant cross-border fund flows in these areas, meaning the partnership can be implemented quickly rather than starting from scratch.

Technical solution: an invisible revolution for users

Front-end and back-end division

On the user side, everything remains the same—familiar QR code scanning, payments, or transfers. Behind the scenes, Tether plans to integrate its blockchain infrastructure with SQRIL’s API-driven platform, making USDT an instant settlement tool. The advantages of this design include:

• Users do not need to learn new operations, lowering adoption barriers
• USDT handles clearing on the backend, speeding up settlement
• Reduces reliance on traditional bank intermediaries, significantly lowering fees

Specific efficiency improvements

According to recent reports, this model is expected to achieve faster settlement speeds and lower transaction costs. While specific data has not yet been disclosed, compared to traditional cross-border payments taking 3-5 days and incurring 2-5% fees, the advantages of stablecoin settlement are already evident.

Imaginative application scenarios

The partnership focuses on three high-frequency scenarios:

• Retail consumption: Street vendors, supermarkets, convenience stores can all be integrated, allowing users to pay with USDT as conveniently as using local currency
• Cross-border remittances: Southeast Asian and African workers remitting money home, reducing costs from dozens of dollars to just a few, with instant arrival instead of days
• Daily transfers: Peer-to-peer transfers, bill splitting, and other everyday needs, with USDT becoming a true “mobile wallet”

These scenarios share characteristics of high frequency, small amounts, and sensitivity to cost and speed—precisely where stablecoins can maximize value.

Tether’s strategic upgrade

From exchange to payment scenarios

This investment reflects a long-term strategic shift for Tether. Historically, USDT was mainly used for settlement and arbitrage between exchanges. Now, Tether is actively promoting USDT’s extension into real-world payment scenarios. This shift is rooted in an understanding of the ultimate value of stablecoins: their true worth lies in daily use, not just trading.

Support from capital strength

According to the latest data, Tether currently holds 96,185 BTC, worth approximately $8.5 billion. This substantial asset reserve not only provides a safeguard for USDT’s value anchoring but also lays the foundation for ongoing investments in payment infrastructure. It demonstrates that Tether’s ambitions go far beyond issuing stablecoins; it aims to build a comprehensive payment ecosystem.

Key future points to watch

Timeline for technical implementation

The announcement did not specify the launch date or initial coverage areas, which is the first signal to monitor. Technical integration is often more complex than expected, and the real test of the partnership will be the user experience.

Changes in regulatory attitudes

Embedding USDT into real-world payment systems will inevitably attract scrutiny from financial regulators worldwide. Especially in regions like the EU and Singapore, where crypto asset regulation is strict, compliance costs could be much higher than anticipated.

Market adoption challenges

In my view, the greatest uncertainty lies in user adoption. While emerging markets have strong demand for low-cost payment solutions, convincing ordinary users to switch from local currency to USDT requires overcoming trust, education, and network effects. SQRIL’s existing user base and brand influence will determine the speed of this process.

Summary

The core significance of Tether’s investment in SQRIL lies in three points: First, it marks a key step for USDT from exchange settlement to daily payment scenarios, signifying the real-world application of stablecoins; second, through SQRIL’s “connective” architecture, Tether has found a way to maintain technological leadership while rapidly expanding into emerging markets; third, this partnership indicates an acceleration in the construction of stablecoin payment infrastructure by 2026, with USDT’s role in cross-border payments and financial services in emerging markets likely to be further strengthened.

In the short term, technical deployment and regulatory approval are critical; in the long term, user adoption will determine the ultimate success of this ecosystem. For investors in stablecoins and payment tracks, this is a signal worth continuous observation.