Cutting Cross-Border Payroll Costs by 20–25% with Airtm
Author
Gabriella Pellagatti
Publishing date
The hidden cost of global payroll
For years, companies have treated international payroll as a fixed expense: delays, fees, confusing exchange rates, and intermediaries between sender and recipient. The assumption has been that this is just how it works.
In a recent conversation on block by block with Stellar Development Foundation’s CEO and Executive Director Denelle Dixon, AirTM CEO Ruben Galindo questions that assumption directly. AirTM has built a payments network that turns a multi-day process into minutes and claims to save companies 20-25% on cross-border payouts.
AirTM has processed more than $1 billion in stablecoin payments, paying 250,000 workers in over 150 countries. These are not projections. They are operating numbers from more than a decade of work across complicated markets.
Where payments break
The gap between sending and spending is where most systems fall apart. Digital transfers are fast; the slow part is conversion. Workers need money in their own currency to pay rent, buy food, and manage their daily lives. That conversion traditionally involves banks, processors, and multiple layers of fees and timing risk.
“We need to be able to deliver money to its destination quicker and cheaper than anyone else. People need to use their money, and they need to use it now.”
AirTM’s approach is to reduce that conversion process from days to minutes. According to Ruben, the company converts stablecoins to local currency in about six minutes, using 488 payment methods and keeping transfer fees below 2.5%. Ruben describes this shift as replacing “a multi-day process” with an immediate one, and the company focuses on improving what he calls the “last mile” - the moment digital value becomes usable money.
Reaching markets others avoid
One of the clearest differences in AirTM’s approach is where it operates. Instead of limited coverage in a few established corridors, AirTM supports markets with the most difficult financial conditions.
Ruben lists Honduras, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, Angola, Egypt, and Turkey as examples of where traditional providers struggle. These are countries where remote work is growing, but payment infrastructure has not kept up.
Delivering reliable payouts to these regions matters for workers, but it also changes hiring decisions. Companies can access talent where others cannot because the payout problem has already been solved.
Understanding enterprise motivation
In the block by block episode, Ruben does not frame the shift in terms of ideology or technology adoption. He reduces it to a practical incentive for business owners.
“The CFO is probably just into making more money.”
The advantage comes from reaching workers in markets that have been expensive or inaccessible, while keeping value that would otherwise go to intermediaries. AirTM manages millions of payouts under ten dollars and still maintains cost efficiency. That category has historically been too small for traditional systems to handle without absorbing disproportionate costs.
Small payments add up, especially in high-volume industries like freelance networks, AI data labeling, BPO services, and remote marketplaces.
Stablecoins used as infrastructure
Stablecoins appear in this conversation not as a topic, but as a mechanism. AirTM uses stablecoins as the underlying rail to move money. The company then focuses on making those digital balances spendable.
“Your balance is your money. If you don’t like your wallet, take it someplace else.”
AirTM works with Bridge, a Stripe company, to move USDC on Stellar. The goal is to keep funds open and portable, rather than enclosed in one system. Stablecoins remove currency controls, eliminate unpredictable withdrawal windows, and reduce exposure to shifting official exchange rates.
The important part is not that payments are digital. It’s that digital payments actually reach users in a form they can spend.
Direct is the end state
Denelle asked Ruben to describe the future of global payroll in one word, he chose “direct.” He envisions direct payouts from businesses to workers, direct conversion to local currency, and direct settlement onchain with no hidden steps in between.
Direct eliminates delays. Direct reduces fees. Direct improves transparency, especially for workers in markets where traditional financial infrastructure has been unreliable.
Why this matters
When payout infrastructure works, companies hire more widely, freelancers access earnings without delay, and remote workers participate in new markets. AirTM’s approach shows that reducing costs by 20-25% is not only about lowering fees, but also about removing the structural friction that has defined international payroll for decades.
The episode makes a compelling case that the future of cross-border payments will be defined by open systems and true interoperability, not by layers of intermediaries or closed networks built on legacy assumptions.
Watch and listen to the full block by block conversation here!