RFQ is a pricing model where a taker asks approved liquidity providers for executable quotes and takes the best. How it works in stablecoin FX and payouts.
RFQ (request for quote) is a pricing model where a taker asks a set of approved liquidity providers for executable quotes on one specific trade, and the best quote is selected. In stablecoin FX, Circle's StableFX uses offchain RFQ with onchain settlement on Arc. An RFQ trade swaps one stablecoin for another; paying a local bank account is a separate step.
That separation matters when you design a treasury or payout flow. RFQ answers "what is the best price for this stablecoin pair, right now, at this size?" It does not answer "how do reais land in a supplier's account in São Paulo?"
Key takeaways
RFQ is on-demand pricing. Instead of trading against a rate that is already on a screen, the taker describes the trade and asks for prices.
Three roles make it work:
The key word is executable. An RFQ answer is not an estimate. If the taker accepts inside the quote's life, the maker trades at that price. The FX Global Code, the conduct code for wholesale FX, asks market participants to make clear whether the prices they provide are firm or merely indicative.
RFQ is common in over-the-counter markets, which is most of FX. The BIS measured global FX trading at $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025, most of it priced bilaterally between dealers and clients. The market maker explainer covers who sits on the other side.
Six steps, from question to settlement.
Step 6 is where FX has historically lost money. The BIS estimated that $2.2 trillion of daily FX turnover was still exposed to settlement risk in April 2022, meaning one side could be paid while the other was not. Herstatt risk explained covers why.
StableFX is a public Circle product. The facts below come from Circle's StableFX overview and its technical guide, both accessed October 2026.
| Topic | What Circle's docs say |
|---|---|
| What it is | An institutional-grade stablecoin FX engine built on Arc that combines RFQ execution with onchain settlement |
| Who it is for | A permissioned platform for financial institutions, including payment service providers, fintechs, crypto OTC desks, and prime brokers |
| Pairs | USDC and EURC, alongside partner stablecoins in other currencies |
| Quote request | The taker sets the sell amount or the buy amount, plus a settlement tenor |
| Quote speed | Less than 500 ms from RFQ submission to quote response; the engine takes the best priced maker quote |
| Tenors | Instant (settlement window of 30 minutes from trade creation), hourly (1 hour), daily (1 day) |
| Minimum | Requests below 10 USDC fail |
| Acceptance | Creating a trade needs the quote ID and an idempotency key; the rate is then locked until the trade expires, settles, or is breached |
| Signatures | Maker and taker have a 10-minute window to submit signatures, or the trade expires |
| Settlement | An escrow contract on Arc pulls both legs and delivers them, so both sides settle or neither does |
Two details are worth noticing. The quote is fast, but settlement has a window measured in minutes to a day, chosen by the tenor. And the escrow model attacks exactly the step-6 risk above.
Each model forms a price differently and leaks your size to different people.
| Model | How the price forms | Who sees your size | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RFQ | Makers price your exact request | The makers you ask | Large or unusual trades | Quote expiry, last look |
| Streaming price | A dealer publishes a continuous executable rate | No one until you trade | Small, frequent tickets | Size tiers, last look |
| Order book | Resting orders are matched | Everyone, through the book | Liquid pairs | Price impact across levels |
| Onchain pool (AMM) | A formula over pool reserves | Everyone, onchain | Liquid onchain pairs | Price impact grows with size |
Last look deserves a sentence. The FX Global Code defines it in Principle 17 as a final opportunity for the quoting party to accept or reject a trade request against its quoted price, and requires disclosure. Whatever the model, ask whether a quote you accept can still be rejected.
Pools and off-ramp inventory are different kinds of depth. Onchain liquidity vs off-ramp liquidity explains why a deep pool says little about a BRL payout.
No. They price different conversions and end in different places.
| Question | BlindPay local payouts | StableFX-style stablecoin FX |
|---|---|---|
| What is converted | A stablecoin into local currency | One stablecoin into another, such as USDC into EURC |
| Where the money ends up | A recipient's bank account over Pix, SPEI, ACH, SEPA, or SWIFT (POBO/COBO) | A wallet on Arc |
| How the price forms | One binding quote per payout, showing commercial_quotation and blindpay_quotation | Competing maker quotes, best price selected |
| Quote lifetime | 5 minutes by default, read from expires_at | Quote expiry, then a 30-minute to 1-day settlement tenor |
| Settlement | Stablecoins pulled at execution, fiat delivered on the local rail | Escrowed onchain delivery of both stablecoins |
| Who can use it | Businesses on published plans | Permissioned financial institutions |
A BlindPay payout quote locks the rate, fees, and receiver_amount for one bank payout. Pix and SPEI deliver in minutes, ACH and SEPA in about one to two business days, and SWIFT in up to five.
Use the job, not the technology, to decide.
Direct vs indirect stablecoin exchange covers the related question of whether to route a currency pair through the dollar.
Illustrative example. A treasury needs two things done today.
Job 1, rebalance: convert 100,000 USDC into EURC. Three makers respond with 0.8598, 0.8601, and 0.8605 EURC per USDC. The best quote gives 100,000 x 0.8605 = 86,050 EURC before fees. The worst would have given 85,980. Competition at that size was worth 70 EURC.
Job 2, pay a supplier in Brazil: the supplier is owed R$53,700. A BlindPay payout quote with a blindpay_quotation of 5.37 BRL per USDC needs 53,700 / 5.37 = 10,000 USDC, before any flat fee. The reais arrive over Pix in minutes.
Neither job can stand in for the other. All rates above are illustrative.
Ask the same five questions of an FX venue and a payout provider.
For payout quotes, the quote-ladder depth test shows whether the rate holds at size, and OTC vs standard quotes covers the large-ticket on-ramp case. Terms are defined in the on/off-ramp liquidity glossary. If your payouts start from stablecoins on several chains, which network to off-ramp from covers fees and finality by chain.
How we know: StableFX facts come from Circle's developer documentation, linked above and accessed October 2026. BlindPay facts come from the payout quotes and supported chains documentation.
If your job is paying bank accounts, request one payout quote from the payout quotes docs for your main corridor and compare its receiver_amount with what you pay today.
This article is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice.
The five risks of a stablecoin card: peg, program failure, custody, smart contracts, and fraud, with the August 2026 incident and a safety checklist.
Stablecoin payments are as safe as the issuer, the network, the provider, and your own controls. The seven risks to check, with real incidents and fixes.
Five stablecoin APIs compared for cross-border payments: primary use case, pre-funding requirement, payout regions, and developer experience, plus how to choose by buyer scenario.