According to CoinMeta, a study released in July 2026 by the Bank of Italy (Banca of Italia) shows that stablecoin remittances are not always superior to traditional transfer services in terms of cost and speed. Researchers conducted 200 real transfers across ten channels connecting Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. The total costs recorded in the study ranged from 0.30% to nearly 9%, with the blockchain portion averaging only 0.4%. The study indicates that stablecoins do not exhibit a “systematic cost advantage” over traditional channels. The lowest transfer fee from Italy to Argentina was 0.30%, while the fee from Argentina to Italy was as high as 8.96%. The study warns that the lower fees in Argentina reflect the difference between the official exchange rate and the market exchange rate in that country, rather than blockchain efficiency.