A quick look at the numbers reveals that the global digital payments industry is projected to exceed $145 billion by the year’s end, fueled largely by consumers’ growing preference for mobile wallets, instant transfers, and online commerce.
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Concurrently, the embedded finance arena too (in which non-financial platforms like marketplaces or apps incorporate banking services) has exploded sharply, with its 2025 cap alone standing at $148.4 billion.
This is because more and more consumers are beginning to use QR-code wallets and pay-by-bank schemes, while banks themselves are offering PSD3-driven tokenization to bolster security. The combination of these forces has translated into renewed investor confidence, painting a picture of a rapidly accelerating industry, with businesses today facing mounting pressure to provide real-time, data-driven payment rails and banking services.
A Future-Proof, 24/7 Liquidity Infrastructure
One fintech company navigating this landscape effectively is Hercle, a business offering institutional-grade liquidity services bridging fiat and crypto markets. To elaborate, Hercle’s platform enables clients (be it banks, brokers, exchanges, or fintechs) to convert their assets seamlessly between fiat currencies, stablecoins, and digital assets around the clock.
Since its founding in 2019, the project has grown to serve over 200 such clients globally, and its core value proposition hinges on two things, namely deep liquidity (across 25+ fiat currencies and major digital assets) and always-on settlement.
In its quest to allay its existing payment and integration issues, the team sought to partner with a market player that could, firstly, provide it with currency and rail coverage such that major assets (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.) and payment schemes (SEPA, SWIFT, Faster Payments, etc.) could be taken care of across multiple regions.
Secondly, the team sought out operational resilience so that it could facilitate robust API integrations alongside a streamlined onboarding process. Lastly, they wanted round-the-clock settlements (an aspect that most legacy banks and processors failed to meet).
Eventually, Hercle joined hands with OpenPayd, since the latter provides global multi-currency accounts with pooled account structures and named virtual IBANs in each of its supported currencies, features known to “simplify collections and reconciliation significantly” (thereby completely automating bookkeeping and eliminating manual payment routing).
As per a recent blog, the entire Integration process went smoothly off smoothly, with the team now accessing OpenPayd’s real-time settlement capabilities for its largest clients. For transactions routed within the latter’s network, settlement times fell from hours to seconds, with a spokesperson highlighting that for large transactions, settlement times were reduced from standard SEPA credit cut-off schedules to instant.
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OpenPayd’s Platform and Other Recent Developments
From the outside looking in, OpenPayd has positioned itself as a “universal financial infrastructure” provider for the digital economy, offering an API-driven platform where businesses can embed payments, accounts, and trading features into their own products.
Most recently, the platform won the ‘Best Early-Stage or Future Payments Initiative’ award for stablecoin infrastructure innovation. Moreover, earlier this year, the UK's first FCA-regulated digital asset exchange, brokerage, and custodian, Archax, partnered with OpenPayd to boost its institutional fiat settlements.
Similarly, in 2025, the firm announced a joint venture with Circle (issuer of the USDC stablecoin) to create a unified fiat–stablecoin layer, thus enabling clients to convert seamlessly between fiat currencies and USDC on its rails.
Thanks to its unique tech proposition, OpenPayd has reportedly already processed over €130 billion in annual volume. In fact, for fast-growing global companies (from neobanks to marketplaces), the platform can handle payments in virtually any market, replacing the old model of stitching together multiple banking providers.
In short, businesses can collect funds in local currencies, auto-reconcile via the API, and instantly convert to other currencies as needed. Importantly, this multi-currency upgrade follows OpenPayd’s stablecoin launch, reinforcing its broad vision, which supports all forms of money movement (whether fiat, crypto, or hybrid) under one roof.
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A holistic Union of the Old and New
Looking ahead, it is evident that the fintech and embedded finance landscape will continue to be defined by rapid growth in digital payments and on-demand financial services. In this regard, the Hercle x OpenPayd case study illustrates one concrete outcome, i.e., bridging legacy banking and digital asset markets is the most sustainable way of achieving true 24/7 settlement in the years to come.
