Stablecoin Payment Terms, Explained (B2B Glossary)

Short, citable definitions of the vocabulary that shows up in stablecoin payment contracts, onboarding forms and provider conversations — written for business operators, not protocol engineers. Terms are grouped by where you will meet them. Maintained by Copay, the stablecoin payment infrastructure team behind copay888.com, and kept current as the vocabulary evolves.

Moving money

On-ramp / Off-ramp

An on-ramp turns bank money into stablecoins; an off-ramp turns stablecoins into bank money. For businesses, the off-ramp is the harder half: it inherits every rule of correspondent banking — screening, beneficiary restrictions, wire fees — plus the crypto layer on top.

Pay-in / Payout

Provider-speak for money arriving (customer pays you in USDT) and money leaving (you pay a supplier, or withdraw). Priced separately: pay-in usually as a percentage, same-chain payout as a flat fee, cross-chain payout as a rate with a floor and cap.

Cross-chain payout

Receiving on one network and paying out on another (e.g. in on TRON, out on Ethereum). The provider absorbs the bridging; you pay a contracted rate. Same currency on both legs — a USDT-in/USDC-out swap is a different product (conversion), not a cross-chain payout.

Settlement finality

The point after which a payment cannot be reversed. Stablecoin transfers are final within minutes — there is no chargeback mechanism. Powerful for sellers; the reason refund policy must be handled contractually rather than assumed.

Bank-leg vocabulary

Remitter (sender name)

The name the receiving bank displays as the payment's sender — populated from the actual account the funds left, never freely typed. Determines how the beneficiary's bank treats the inbound payment. The single most under-asked question in off-ramp due diligence.

Same-name settlement

Two distinct meanings. Beneficiary-side: the provider only pays accounts held in your own company's name (a compliance restriction). Remitter-side ("true same-name"): the sender shown is also your company, achievable only when an upstream account is titled in your name — see VA.

Virtual account (VA)

A bank account (or sub-account) opened in your company's name inside a provider's banking stack. Payments leaving it carry your name as remitter; payments into it are attributable to you by construction. The building block of remitter-side same-name.

Wire fee / bank transfer fee

The per-transfer charge on the fiat leg — fixed (e.g. tens of dollars) or "as charged by the bank". Dominates all-in cost on small transfers; the reason batching payouts is usually the cheapest optimisation available.

Netted fees

Fees deducted from the transferred amount rather than charged on top: the beneficiary receives face value minus fees. Neither wrong nor hidden if disclosed — but your reconciliation must expect the short arrival.

Onboarding vocabulary

KYB (Know Your Business)

Corporate identity verification: incorporation documents, ownership chart, directors' and owners' IDs, bank proof, business-model review. The gate between a demo account and production money movement. See our KYB document checklist.

UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner)

The natural person who ultimately owns or controls a company — commonly anyone holding 25% or more, directly or through layers. AML rules require identifying humans, so ownership charts must pierce every holding company down to people.

Payment-purpose evidence

Documents proving why a specific payout destination gets paid: your own bank statements for accounts in your name (A→A), contracts or invoices for third parties (A→B). Requested per destination, typically at first registration.

Merchant of Record (MoR)

The entity legally selling to the end customer and owning the compliance obligations of the transaction. In infrastructure partnerships, "operating under an MoR model" means the platform — not its upstream vendor — faces the customer and carries the responsibility.

Crypto-layer vocabulary

TRC-20 / ERC-20

Token standards on TRON and Ethereum respectively — the two networks where B2B USDT actually moves. The same USDT on different networks is not interchangeable in transit: sending TRC-20 USDT to an Ethereum address loses it. Chain selection at withdrawal is the highest-stakes dropdown in the industry.

KYT / address screening

Know Your Transaction: checking counterparty addresses and transaction history against sanctioned entities, stolen funds, mixers and other risk categories before accepting or sending. The crypto-side twin of bank screening.

Travel rule

The requirement (FATF Recommendation 16) that virtual-asset service providers exchange originator and beneficiary information for transfers above thresholds — the crypto version of wire-transfer information rules. Increasingly enforced between licensed providers.

Transaction hash (txid)

The unique on-chain identifier of a transfer — the receipt. Any provider that cannot show you the hash for a crypto leg of your payment is asking you to take its ledger on faith.

Risk vocabulary

Prefunding

Money placed with a provider before it performs — "we take your USDT first, then wire". Sequencing, not credit. The inverse (provider pays before receiving) is credit exposure someone is silently carrying.

Fee station / gas

The pool from which network and processing fees are drawn, funded separately from principal on some platforms. An empty fee pool is a classic reason an otherwise-valid payout fails.

Beneficiary-name screening

Banking partners screening the receiving party's name on outbound wires. Names resembling financial businesses (containing "pay", "exchange", "coin") may be refused even when the underlying business is legitimate. Surfaces as a returned payment days later; ask providers about restrictions up front.