Stablecoin Settlement Simulator
Step through card settlement in fiat and in stablecoins, and a stablecoin cross-border payout — who moves what, on which rail, with which data — and compare when an acquirer gets its funds for a transaction on each day of the week.
How card settlement works today: authorization and clearing over ISO 8583 and clearing files, then net settlement in fiat through the network's settlement bank on business days — which is why a Friday-evening transaction is usually not settled until Monday.
Clearing file (presentments)
At end of day the acquirer sends the day's captured transactions to the network.
Each record carries the amount (DE 4), currency (DE 49), the authorization code (DE 38) and the RRN (DE 37) so the network and issuer can match it to the authorization. Files submitted after the network's cut-off roll into the next processing day.
Funds arrive 1 day earlier on-chain — that is the float an acquirer otherwise pre-funds to pay merchants on time.
| Transaction | Clears | Fiat funds | Stablecoin funds | Days saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 09-28 | 09-29 | Wed 09-30 · 2d | Wed 09-30 · 2d | 0 |
| Tuesday 09-29 | 09-30 | Thu 10-01 · 2d | Thu 10-01 · 2d | 0 |
| Wednesday 09-30 | 10-01 | Fri 10-02 · 2d | Fri 10-02 · 2d | 0 |
| Thursday 10-01 | 10-02 | Mon 10-05 · 4d | Sat 10-03 · 2d | 2 |
| Friday 10-02 | 10-03 | Mon 10-05 · 3d | Sun 10-04 · 2d | 1 |
| Saturday 10-03 | 10-04 | Mon 10-05 · 2d | Mon 10-05 · 2d | 0 |
| Sunday 10-04 | 10-05 | Tue 10-06 · 2d | Tue 10-06 · 2d | 0 |
Illustrative model: clearing runs every day; a transaction captured after the cut-off clears the next day. Fiat settles on the first business day after clearing (weekends and the holidays you enter are skipped); stablecoin settlement runs the next calendar day. Real cycles differ by network, region and member agreement.
Field by field: ISO 8583 ↔ On-Chain Settlement Mapper · coins, chains and contracts: Stablecoin Reference · decode a settlement transfer: Calldata Decoder · background: Stablecoin Payments 101, Settlement & Clearing and Tokenised Deposits.