On/Off-Ramps Still the Bottleneck for Real-World Stablecoin Use?

Been following the discussions here on stablecoin settlement and bridges for fintechs. While the tech for interchain transfers is getting pretty robust, and we're seeing some interesting moves with USDC and USDT across various L1s/L2s, I'm still not convinced the on/off-ramp issue has been sufficiently solved for widespread merchant or general consumer adoption. It feels like the biggest hurdle isn't the stablecoin tech itself, but the fiat conversion layer – KYC overheads, settlement times for larger volumes, and the sheer number of localized banking integrations needed globally. Even for fintechs, integrating a truly seamless, low-cost, high-volume on/off-ramp solution for stablecoins that competes with traditional rails seems incredibly complex and capital-intensive.

Take something like $BRN, which just dipped to $0.9956 today – if a merchant wanted to accept stablecoin payments and then immediately convert to fiat to cover their operational costs, the slippage and fees on that conversion, plus the time lag, would need to be minimal. It’s a different beast than an investor holding $USLV, which just saw a healthy +7.59% day, happy to sit on a stablecoin or convert within the crypto ecosystem. For real-world utility, that fiat gateway has to be frictionless. Am I overstating the challenge here, or is this still the actual bottleneck we should be focused on?