Stablecoin Stack · Early Access Programme

Be part of the first wave.

A limited programme for payment processors and fintechs who want to deploy stablecoin payment infrastructure before the window closes. Full delivery support, open specification, no vendor lock-in.

12 spots — first cohort Q3 2026 target Applications reviewed individually Open-source · Apache 2.0
Apply now → Read the documentation
What the programme is

Structured access to the full stack — with us alongside you.

The Stablecoin Stack is an open-source payment infrastructure published by the Fabric Payment Standards Foundation. It is production-ready, fully specified, and free to deploy. The Early Access Programme is not about the software — it is about removing every other obstacle between an organisation and a live stablecoin payment product.

Accepted organisations receive direct engagement from our delivery team: deployment, configuration, wallet SDK integration, go-live support, and ongoing technical partnership. We work with you through the first real transactions, not just to the point of handing over documentation.

In exchange, we ask that your organisation shares performance data with the Foundation to improve the open specification. The first cohort participants help shape what the Stablecoin Stack becomes. That matters, and early participants are recognised for it.

Programme at a glance
12
Spots available in the first cohort
Q3 2026
Target go-live for first cohort members
5 days
Application review time — we read every one
6–8 wks
Typical time from accepted application to first live transaction
Apache 2.0
Licence — you own your deployment, no lock-in
What accepted organisations receive

Everything needed to go live.

Every item below is included for all first-cohort members. Nothing is sold separately within the programme.

🚀
Full stack deployment
We deploy the complete Stablecoin Stack on your infrastructure — Settlement Contract, Checkout Engine, Broadcast Layer, wallet-gateway, all services. On-premise, cloud, or managed.
📱
Branded wallet application
A production-ready payer wallet built on the @stablecoin-stack/wallet-sdk, branded to your organisation. Your payers use your product — the underlying infrastructure is invisible to them.
⚙️
Checkout integration
The Checkout Engine integrated with your merchant-facing systems. Merchants get a standard payment API — they do not need to understand anything about the underlying payment rails.
🔐
Relayer setup & security review
Configuration of the Relayer account, HSM recommendations, key management practices, and review of your deployment against the security checklist in the specification.
📊
Merchant dashboard & reconciliation
A configured merchant dashboard with real-time order monitoring, fee reporting, and webhook delivery to your merchants' systems. Your merchants have the visibility they need from day one.
🎓
Team onboarding & runbooks
Full technical and operational onboarding for your engineering, product, and compliance teams. Production runbooks, incident response procedures, and direct access to our engineers through go-live.
🌐
Multi-network readiness
The stack is EVM-compatible and can be deployed on multiple networks. We prepare your deployment for expansion to additional chains as your merchant and user base grows.
🤝
Ongoing technical partnership
Post-launch support, version updates as the Foundation publishes new specification versions, and dedicated engineering access for critical issues throughout the programme period.
📋
Compliance & audit support
Regulatory documentation assistance and support for any third-party security audit your institution requires. The Settlement Contract is open-source and publicly auditable.
Selection criteria

Who we are looking for — and who should wait.

We review every application individually. The programme is not first-come-first-served. We are selecting for fit, readiness, and diversity of geography and use case within the cohort.

Strong fit
  • ✓You operate or are actively building a payment processing service with an existing or target merchant base
  • ✓You have a genuine commercial intention to deploy stablecoin payment acceptance within 12 months
  • ✓You have engineering capacity to integrate, or you are explicitly seeking a delivery partner to handle this
  • ✓You serve merchants with cross-border payment needs, or your user base operates in high-remittance corridors
  • ✓You are willing to share transaction performance data with the Foundation under a data-sharing agreement
  • ✓You are a fintech, neobank, PSP, acquiring bank, wallet provider, or marketplace with an embedded finance ambition
Not the right fit right now
  • ✗Organisations with no clear merchant or payer base to serve — the programme is not a research or exploration engagement
  • ✗Projects primarily focused on speculative token issuance or trading infrastructure
  • ✗Organisations without the regulatory authorisations needed to operate a payment service in their jurisdiction, and with no plan to obtain them
  • ✗Teams looking for a free evaluation of the technology with no commercial commitment on the other side
  • ✗Organisations whose primary interest is reselling or repackaging the specification itself rather than operating a payment service
How it works

From application to first live transaction.

1
Application
Submit your application
Complete the application form. It takes approximately 4 minutes. We ask about your organisation, your current operation, and your specific commercial intentions. The free-text field at the end — describing your use case — is the most important part. Be specific.
2
Review — within 5 business days
Individual review by our team
Every application is read by a person, not filtered by a form score. We evaluate fit, readiness, and how your use case contributes to the diversity of the cohort. You will receive a direct response either way.
3
Introduction call
Technical and commercial alignment
If accepted, we schedule a call with your technical and product leads. We map your infrastructure, confirm the integration approach, agree the engagement model, and set a realistic go-live target. This call takes 60–90 minutes.
4
Weeks 1–4
Deployment and integration
We deploy the full stack on your infrastructure. Settlement Contract goes on-chain, services are configured, the Relayer is funded and tested. Your engineering team is onboarded with full documentation and runbooks.
5
Weeks 4–6
Wallet and merchant integration
The branded wallet application is delivered. Your first merchants are onboarded to the Checkout Engine. End-to-end payment flows are tested with real transactions on the target network.
6
Week 6–8 onwards
Live — with us still alongside you
Your first real payers transact. We remain available through the initial live period, monitor for any issues, and run a retrospective once initial volume is established. The ongoing partnership continues from there.
Engagement models

Choose the structure that fits.

The right engagement depends on your technical capacity, timeline, and commercial priorities. We discuss and agree the model during the introduction call — there is no single template.

Fixed delivery
Project-based
Full stack deployment delivered under a fixed scope, timeline, and cost. Clear deliverables, defined handover point. Your team runs it independently after go-live, with access to documentation and community support.
Preferred · Most common
Technical partnership
We remain embedded as your stablecoin payments engineering partner beyond go-live. We handle version upgrades, new features as the specification evolves, compliance changes, and network expansion — alongside your team, indefinitely.
Lower commitment
Pilot programme
A time-bounded, reduced-scope deployment with a defined cohort of your merchants. Designed to generate real transaction data and validate the commercial opportunity before a full commitment. Typically 60 days.
Questions

What people ask before applying.

The specification and reference implementation are published under the Apache 2.0 licence — you can deploy, modify, and build on them without licence cost. What you pay for in the Early Access Programme is the delivery, integration work, wallet application, and ongoing engineering partnership. The infrastructure itself has no per-seat or per-transaction royalty.
Not necessarily. In the non-custodial model, funds move directly from the payer's wallet to the merchant's wallet through the Settlement Contract — your organisation acts as a relay, not a custodian. You never hold the stablecoin. In the custodial model, you receive stablecoin and convert it to fiat before disbursing to merchants — that does require stablecoin handling. We help you choose the right model for your regulatory context during the introduction call.
Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to a stable reference asset — typically USD or EUR. A USDC payment for $100 is worth $100. There is no exposure to cryptocurrency price volatility. The Stablecoin Stack supports any ERC-2612-compliant stablecoin, including USDC, EURC, and similar regulated, fiat-backed instruments.
This depends on your jurisdiction and the custody model you choose. In the non-custodial model, the regulatory footprint is significantly smaller than traditional payment processing — you are not holding client funds. In the custodial model, the obligations are closer to those of a traditional PSP or EMI. We do not provide legal advice, but we support you in preparing documentation for your legal and compliance team, and we are experienced in what regulators in the EU, UK, UAE, and other jurisdictions typically ask about. Having an existing payment licence is an advantage but not always a prerequisite — we evaluate this case by case.
The Settlement Contract collects a processing fee on every transaction, automatically, on-chain. You configure the fee amount. You can also charge merchants a subscription fee independently of the on-chain mechanism. The built-in acquirer model lets you earn additional commission on transactions referred through your wallet or distribution partners — again, automatically, with no invoicing. The full business model document is available in the specification at docs.stablecoinstack.org.
Yes. The application form has a "technical readiness" question specifically for this. If you are looking for a delivery partner to handle all engineering work, that is one of our engagement models. You focus on the commercial and merchant relationships; we build and operate the technical infrastructure alongside you.
Every applicant receives a direct response within 5 business days. If your organisation is not selected for the first cohort — because of capacity, timing, or fit — we will tell you clearly. We maintain a waitlist for the second cohort and will reach out proactively when additional spots open. The specification and reference implementation remain freely available in the meantime.
No. A crypto payment gateway is a third-party product you integrate into. The Stablecoin Stack is infrastructure you own and operate. You set the fees, you hold the merchant relationships, you control the brand, and you earn the revenue. The open specification means you are not dependent on any single vendor. Think of it as the difference between reselling payment services and running your own payment processor.

Twelve spots.
Applications are open now.

The first cohort will be selected and confirmed in Q3 2026. The application takes approximately 4 minutes.

Apply for early access → Read the documentation

Questions before applying? Contact the Foundation

The Stablecoin Stack is a specification published by the Fabric Payment Standards Foundation — an independent standards body for open payment infrastructure. Apache 2.0 licence. SS-001 v1.0.0.

stablecoinstack.org Documentation Fabric Foundation