Nium, the cross-border payments platform co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, has joined the Circle Payments Network as a global payout partner, connecting the stablecoin issuer's settlement rails to Nium's payout infrastructure. The partnership was announced on Wednesday with Circle Technology Services, a subsidiary of NYSE-listed Circle Internet Group.
Through the tie-up, institutions on the Circle Payments Network (CPN) will be able to access Nium's payout capabilities in more than 190 countries and 100 currencies via a single integration, extending USDC-based settlement into last-mile local delivery.
USDC MEETS LOCAL PAYOUT RAILS
The stated aim of the collaboration is to bridge USDC settlement with real-time last-mile delivery and to reduce prefunding requirements for institutions moving money across borders. In a traditional correspondent banking model, financial institutions typically pre-position funds in destination markets to guarantee timely payout, tying up working capital.
By using USDC as the settlement medium between CPN participants and Nium as the local payout partner, the arrangement is intended to allow value to be moved on-chain and then converted into local currency payouts at the point of need, compressing the settlement cycle. Nium's infrastructure supports payouts across banking, wallet and card rails in the covered markets.
For Circle, the addition of a major payout partner extends the utility of its stablecoin beyond on-chain use cases and into the workflows of banks and payment companies handling cross-border remittances and business payments. The tie-up with Nium is with Circle Technology Services, the subsidiary of NYSE-listed Circle Internet Group that operates the Circle Payments Network.
NETWORK SCALE AND COVERAGE
Circle Payments Network reported an annualised transaction volume of USD 8.3 billion based on its trailing 30-day activity as of 31 March 2026, according to Circle. That figure captures activity flowing through CPN participants and gives a sense of the pipeline of transactions that could now be routed through Nium's payout network.
For Nium, joining CPN as a global payout partner adds another distribution channel for its payout stack, which is already used by banks, fintechs and marketplaces to move funds internationally. The single-integration model is intended to shorten the technical work required for CPN institutions to reach new destination markets. Coverage of 190 or more countries and 100 currencies through a single interface positions Nium as a broad reach partner within CPN, complementing the network's stablecoin-based settlement layer.
Nium has built its business around plugging into local clearing systems and providing regulated infrastructure that institutional clients can use without needing to negotiate country-by-country relationships. The addition of stablecoin settlement on the funding side is a natural extension of that model, allowing digital asset flows to interface with the same downstream rails.
Both companies said the partnership was live and available to CPN institutions on the announcement date. Neither disclosed financial terms of the arrangement, which is structured as a network partnership rather than a bilateral commercial contract with a fixed value. Circle's decision to onboard Nium as a global payout partner reflects the strategic importance of last-mile coverage to any stablecoin-based cross-border proposition, since USDC settlement is only useful to institutions if they can convert value into local currency in the destination market on demand.