Bruno, an importer in São Paulo, needs to pay a supplier in Mexico City. Both are using crypto. But their local currencies — Reals and Mexican Pesos — do not exist on-chain. So they both route through USD stablecoins, even though neither party actually wants dollars. They want BRL. They want MXN. The dollar is just an intermediary nobody asked for.

🇧🇷
Bruno São Paulo
→
🇲🇽
Miguel Mexico City
BRL
Bruno has reals Wants to pay in BRL
$
Converts to USDT BRL → USDT + fee
fee
$
Sends USDT Nobody wanted dollars
fee
MXN
Miguel converts back USDT → MXN + fee
fee
MXN
Miguel receives pesos Wanted this from the start