Embedded finance is already a proven, massive category in fiat payments. Bain & Company's research, published in 2022, projected US embedded finance transaction value would surge from $2.6 trillion in 2021 to over $7 trillion by 2026, with B2B embedded payments specifically tripling over that period. That forecast is now at its target year, and the direction has held even if the exact figures haven't been independently re-verified since. Either way, it's the Stripe, Shopify Payments, and Toast playbook most SaaS and ERP platforms already recognize, even if they've never used the term for it.
McKinsey and Artemis Analytics' February 2026 analysis found B2B stablecoin payment volume growing 733% year-over-year, the fastest-growing segment they tracked. Shopify's own native USDC checkout, live in 34 countries and built on Coinbase's Base network, is an already-real example of exactly this kind of embedding done for crypto specifically. But what does “embedded” actually mean for you and your products?
What "embedded" actually means
Embedded finance means a platform's own users never leave its interface, and often never know a third party is involved at all. When a Shopify merchant accepts a card payment, the customer doesn't experience "Stripe," they experience Shopify. The financial infrastructure sits behind the platform's own brand, doing the regulated, complicated work invisibly.
The same principle holds for crypto. Shopify's USDC checkout is a working example: a customer paying with USDC never leaves Shopify's own checkout flow or interacts with Coinbase or Stripe directly, even though both are doing the regulated work underneath. An ERP platform's customer paying an invoice in stablecoins should see the same thing, the ERP platform's own checkout, not a redirect to an unfamiliar third-party domain.
Why this model is extending from fiat into crypto rails
The reason embedded fiat payments took off wasn't that Stripe invented something conceptually new. Correspondent banking and card networks already existed. Stripe made the complexity of using them disappear behind a simple API, so a SaaS platform could add payment acceptance without becoming a payments company itself.
Crypto and stablecoin settlement carries the same complexity problem, arguably a larger one. McKinsey's own analysis of on-chain money infrastructure notes that global stablecoin circulation sits at a little over $300 billion as of early 2026, with the vast majority denominated in US dollars and issued by a small handful of regulated issuers, meaning the underlying asset layer is increasingly standardized even as the licensing, custody, and compliance requirements around moving it stay jurisdiction-specific and complex.
A platform that wants to offer its customers a pay-by-crypto option faces the same choice Shopify once faced with card payments, and has already answered for USDC specifically: build all of that regulated infrastructure internally, or embed a partner that already has it.
What a platform needs, and what it doesn't
A platform embedding crypto rails doesn't need its own money transmitter or CASP license, doesn't need to build custody infrastructure, and doesn't need an in-house compliance team monitoring sanctions exposure on every incoming transaction. That regulated work is the responsibility of the embedded partner.
What the platform does need is a clear answer to a few questions before choosing one: does settlement happen under the platform's own brand, or does the customer get redirected somewhere else mid-transaction? Does the platform ever touch or custody crypto directly, even briefly, or does everything settle straight to fiat? And is the partner actually licensed for the specific activities involved, custody, exchange, and transfer are separate regulated categories, not one blanket approval.
What this looks like in practice
For an ERP platform, this typically shows up as a native pay-by-crypto option sitting inside the existing invoicing flow, a customer pays a stablecoin invoice without leaving the ERP's own interface, and the platform's own dashboard shows the payment as settled in fiat, no different in appearance from any other payment method already supported.
For a SaaS platform handling payouts, the same idea applies in reverse: paying contractors, affiliates, or vendors in stablecoins through the platform's existing payout screen, without the platform's own team needing to touch a crypto wallet, hold a balance, or manage a key.
In both cases, the platform's own users may never realize crypto rails are involved at all. The regulated complexity is the embedded partner's job and the product experience stays the platform's own.
Related reading: Fintechs: Add Crypto Rails Under Your Brand · ERP & Embedded · Pay-by-Crypto for B2B