While finance chiefs may be increasingly interested in tapping stablecoins as part of their treasury strategy or as a way to ease some of the struggles with cross-border payments, “the accounting of this is a really important part of the problem,” when it comes to adoption of such assets, Taxbit CEO Lindsey Argalas said.

Many traditional accounting tools simply aren’t equipped for the volatility of cryptocurrency assets, Argalas said in an interview — and the lack of confidence CFOs have in their ability to accurately account for these assets and remain in financial compliance is a significant barrier to adoption.

In a recent survey by Big Four firm Deloitte, price volatility, tax considerations, and “complexities around accounting and controls” were all cited as top barriers to crypto adoptions by CFOs — even as 39% of CFOs at companies with more than $10 million in revenue anticipate using crypto within the next two years.

Opening the gate

Attention on cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins — digital assets with their valuation tied to that of another asset, typically a fiat currency —  has sharpened this year as the Trump administration has taken numerous steps to cultivate a friendlier relationship with the crypto industry. That includes the ratification of the GENIUS Act, a regulation that creates guidelines for issuers of stablecoins and that many experts have hailed for clarifying regulation of the cryptocurrency industry, CFO Dive previously reported.

That clarity is a critical part of the continued adoption of stablecoins and other crypto assets, Argalas said. Such assets have remained on the fringe in the past because public companies or other highly regulated institutions “don't operate in a state of ambiguity,” Argalas said. “The risks were too high.”

Argalas has served as the CEO for the tax and accounting service since 2022. Before joining San Francisco-based Taxbit, she served as a senior advisor for data networking company Plaid, with previous roles including a four-year span as chief digital and innovation officer, senior EVP for Banco Santander, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her experience also includes a near-decade at software firm Intuit, in roles including SVP, chief of staff to its chairman and CEO.  

The passing of legislation such as the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts has reduced the risk of crypto assets, opening the door for more companies to start experimentation, she said.

“Once you start having institutional adoption — very trusted institutions, whether it be large banks, large payment companies, what have you — as they start leaning in, then obviously that gets the flywheel going,” she said.

Accounting and tax questions still linger, with regulations and reporting standards surrounding cryptocurrencies still taking shape.

In July, the Financial Accounting Standards Board identified stablecoins as a topic of interest for future projects, CFO Dive previously reported. Meanwhile, the next set of rules developed by regulators will likely focus on accounting guidance determining “what is legal tender, what is not, what is treated as cash and cash equivalent, what is not,” Nassim Eddequiouaq, CEO and co-founder of stablecoin issuance platform Bastion previously told CFO Dive. 

Looking ahead to future industry oversight, “I do see the regulators also trying to take lessons learned from the traditional financial services framework,” Argalas said.

For example, looking to tax information reporting, the global standard for digital assets — the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — is similar to, and taking lessons from, the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) which is its fiat equivalent, she said.

Green shoots appear  

Argalas expects CFOs will approach crypto adoption methodically — as will the financial institutions that will help facilitate cross-border payments via crypto.

“So many of these financial institutions are very complicated, multifaceted” and have multiple lines of business, she said. “So I think [adoption] will not be wholesale; it will be very, very calculated moves.”

As more top executives begin to examine the potential uses of cryptocurrencies, “we’re starting to see the green shoots” of an expected convergence between traditional finance and the cryptocurrency space, Argalas said.  

“There's growing enterprise adoption on crypto as an alternative investment strategy,” she said.

Also, the promise of stablecoins for uses such as cross-border payments is now beginning to line up with the maturity of the industry, with more established infrastructure — creating more opportunities for adoption, Argalas said.

The historic inefficiencies of cross-border payments mean stablecoins are “gaining good traction” as a new method among finance leaders, she said, many of which are looking to modernize the whole of the finance function itself.