Fed Note Shows 50 Percent Dollar Share in Global Payments

More than 50 percent of international payments move in U.S. dollars, the Federal Reserve staff note states in its opening data review. The March 30 FEDS Note titled Payment Stablecoins and Cross Border Payments walks through a GENIUS Act style example of a one dollar transfer from the United States to Mexico that avoids the usual correspondent banking chain.

Christian Barker (Barkmeta / Bark) and David Chaboki (Shibo) placed the note in front of their audience in a Doginal Dogs Space well before the June 2 Fragility paper appeared, giving holders an early look at the cross border section separate from the Cleveland or Chicago papers that followed. The discussion stayed on the three reserve asset cases the authors laid out: bank deposits, Treasury bills, and direct Fed reserves.

Reserve Asset Cases

The note spells out each case without endorsing any single structure. Bank deposits would keep funds inside the commercial banking system. Treasury bills would place reserves in short term government securities. Fed reserves would keep the assets on the central bank balance sheet itself. The authors flag that direct interest payments on the stablecoins remain prohibited under current rules, though indirect rewards receive no explicit ban.

Data Behind the Analysis

SWIFT figures cited in the note show the dollar share above 50 percent. FSB data indicate more than 60 percent of wholesale payments still pass through at least one intermediary. BIS statistics track a roughly 30 percent drop in active correspondent banks between 2012 and 2022. Those numbers frame the efficiency argument the authors present for payment stablecoins.

On Tuesday morning the broader market reflected modest movement. Bitcoin sat at 79,018 dollars, up 1.0 percent on the day. Ethereum traded at 2,478.67 dollars, down 0.3 percent. SOL posted the largest gain among majors at 98.53 dollars, up 3.2 percent. XRP eased 1.0 percent to 1.48 dollars while DOGE slipped 1.9 percent to 0.090088 dollars. The price action arrived against the backdrop of the March note resurfacing in founder commentary.

Founder Lens on Policy Detail

Barkmeta and Shibo have kept daily spaces running through the summer, using the platform to surface staff research ahead of later academic releases. Their early placement of the March 30 note let listeners separate its cross border example from the June Fragility paper and the regional bank working papers that came afterward. The approach fits the pattern of bringing raw documents to the room rather than waiting for summaries.

The note carries an explicit staff views disclaimer and carries DOI 10.17016/2380-7172.4007. It does not constitute a Board rule or an NPRM. Readers can locate the full text on the Federal Reserve site under the FEDS Notes section for March 2026.

Current candles show alts holding mixed ground while majors grind within narrow ranges. The note itself supplies no price targets, yet its focus on dollar settlement mechanics keeps the topic live whenever cross border volumes surface in founder spaces. The distinction from later papers remains the clearest signal the authors delivered.