# Thunes: a direct payouts network bypassing correspondent chains > How Thunes replaces correspondent chains: over 140 countries, 90 currencies and a stablecoin bridge for 11,500 Swift banks. For clients and builders. Author: Maria Plotnikova — Lawyer, Family Office (https://wiki.private.law/en/authors/plotnikova) Last modified: 2026-08-14T13:15:00.000Z Canonical: https://wiki.private.law/en/thunes Topics: banking Jurisdictions: singapore, global Functional tags: marketplace-payouts Product tags: banking Semantic tags: marketplace-payouts, banking --- For context, read this profile alongside the [financial-licensing map](https://wiki.private.law/en/fintech-license-map) and the [global bank map](https://wiki.private.law/en/banks). It is a case study in direct cross-border payout infrastructure, not a product recommendation. Primary source: [Thunes](https://www.thunes.com/). A classic cross-border payment still crawls through a chain of correspondent banks: each link adds a day, its own fee and a chance of a compliance pause. Dollar correspondent lines in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America keep being cut, while money still has to move every day — so the market is predictably rebuilding itself around direct payout networks. Singapore's Thunes is the most visible builder of such a network. Its Direct Global Network covers [over 140 countries and 90 currencies](https://www.thunes.com/), and on 17 March 2026 the company opened stablecoin payouts to the 11,500 banks connected to Swift: a familiar banking message became the door onto crypto rails. ## Background The story starts with TransferTo, a Singapore company founded in 2005 that made its money on mobile top-ups in emerging markets. A cross-border payouts network was launched inside it in 2016, and in 2019 the business was split into two companies: DT One took the mobile top-ups, Thunes took the payments network. As early as 2018 the network processed over $2bn in transactions. Capital then came in series: a $60m Series B from Helios Investment Partners \(2020\), a $60m growth round led by Insight Partners \(2021\), a $72m Series C from Marshall Wace, Visa and EDBI \(2023, reportedly at a valuation of around $900m\) and a $150m Series D from Apis Partners and Vitruvian Partners on 28 April 2025. In total over $300m has been raised; the company came to its Series D with a $150m revenue run-rate and positive EBITDA — figures cited by Thunes itself. The order of magnitude is visible from a Forbes interview of August 2023: over $50bn has passed through the network since 2016, the plan for the next 12 months was $20–25bn, most transactions settled within 30 minutes, and savings against the correspondent route reached up to 90% of cost. The comparison of scale is honest, though: Swift moves trillions a day, Thunes tens of billions a year; the direct network's turf is the difficult corridors where correspondent accounts are expensive or closed. The leadership line has come full circle. Co-founder Peter De Caluwe ran the company from 2019, handed the wheel in January 2024 to Worldpay alumnus Floris de Kort, and returned to the CEO's chair in October 2025 after de Kort's departure. US expansion and the crypto agenda are publicly led by deputy CEO Chloé Mayenobe; the course is unchanged: the US, digital assets, profitable growth. ## Products and pricing The line-up splits into two families. Pay covers payouts: Pay-to-Banks, Pay-to-Mobile-Wallets, Pay-to-Cards and Pay-to-Stablecoin-Wallets, launched on 17 March 2026. Accept covers collections: mobile wallets, banking methods, digital vouchers and BNPL. For corporate transfers, a Business Payments track was added on 22 April 2025: local ACH in over 50 countries, dollar wire transfers into over 170 countries, support for over 30 currencies. On top sit two infrastructure layers. The SmartX Treasury System manages liquidity and FX in 90 currencies in real time; the Fortress Compliance Platform covers screening, sanctions lists and dynamic risk scoring — its engine came from the regtech Tookitaki and, according to the company, cuts false positives by up to 50%. Network scale as of August 2026, per the company: - over 140 countries, 90 currencies, 220 payment methods, ≈720 network participants; - on the receiving side, ≈4bn mobile and stablecoin wallets, ≈8bn bank accounts, ≈15bn cards; - 85% of transactions settle instantly. Publicly confirmed participants include PayPal, Revolut, Western Union, Remitly, WorldRemit and Commercial Bank of Dubai; in a release dated 30 March 2026 the company explicitly lists Uber, Deliveroo, Grab and WeChat. On the payout side there are direct integrations with M-Pesa, Alipay, GCash and around 145 more wallet brands. The pricing picture as of August 2026: there is no public price list, and prices are agreed per corridor according to volume, currency pair and payout method. Monetisation is a transaction fee plus FX margin; a participant sees final quotes in the Business Hub dashboard only after onboarding. ## Competitive landscape The closest neighbour by model is Singapore's Nium: over 190 payout markets and over 100 real-time corridors, with USDC settlement in partnership with Circle since May 2026. London's TerraPay covers over 150 countries and on 24 November 2025 launched Xend — an interoperability layer stitching wallets to the same 11,500 Swift banks: a head-on attack on the Thunes stablecoin bridge. A public benchmark for the economics of the genre comes from Uruguay's dLocal: TPV of $40.8bn and revenue of $1.09bn for 2025 with volume up 60% — emerging corridors remain the fastest-growing slice of the payments market. Wise Platform comes in from another flank: over 60 partner banks and acceptance of Swift messages directly into its own network since September 2023. Against this background, the Thunes trump cards are the depth of its emerging-market wallet infrastructure, a complete in-house licensing stack and the first working fiat-to-stablecoin bridge on top of Swift. ## What it means for the client For a high-net-worth client and their trading structures, Thunes is a channel for paying counterparties in markets with cut correspondent lines: Africa, South-East Asia, Latin America. The payment goes straight into the local payment system, to the recipient's wallet or card, without a three-storey chain of intermediaries and their timelines and fees. The network is growing in both directions: real-time payouts in Saudi riyals have been available since 15 September 2025, and [since 3 June 2026](https://www.thunes.com/news/thunes-unlocks-real-time-payments-to-the-us-from-the-rest-of-the-world) there have been fast dollar payments into the US from 140 countries via ACH and Same-Day ACH. The network sells directly to banks, PSPs and platforms, so the client's way in runs through a provider. A practical due diligence rule: ask your bank or EMI exactly how it delivers money to Nairobi or São Paulo, and insist on routing through direct networks — the difference shows up in timelines and in the final cost of the corridor. ## Under the hood The licensing frame: a Major Payment Institution licence from MAS in Singapore, Authorised Payment Institution status from the UK's FCA, a payments licence from ACPR in France, an MSO in Hong Kong, MSB registration with FinCEN and MTL coverage of all 50 US states. The American footprint was assembled by acquisition: the agreement to [acquire Tilia LLC](https://www.thunes.com/news/thunes-announces-agreement-to-acquire-tilia-llc/) — the payments subsidiary of Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, with licences in roughly 48 states — was announced in April 2024 and closed in June 2025, after which coverage was extended to the full set. A hub on New York's Union Square opened on 9 June 2026 in addition to the San Francisco and Atlanta offices; the company has 14 offices in total. Participant onboarding is set up as membership. A bank, PSP or platform signs a network agreement, passes KYB and compliance checks through Fortress, then receives a single API instead of a stack of local integrations; quotes, routing and reporting live in the Business Hub. The compliance layer was also acquired: in April 2022 Thunes took a controlling stake in the Singapore regtech Tookitaki for roughly $20m, and its engine became the basis of Fortress. The stablecoin bridge works on top of the existing stack: the bank sends an ordinary Swift message, SmartX converts fiat into USDC or USDT, and the recipient sees the coin in one of over 500m reachable stablecoin wallets. On 8 April 2026 Thunes joined Circle Payments Network Managed Payments: USDC settlement runs around the clock and removes the requirement to pre-fund nostro accounts. The lesson for a captive builder is twofold. Licences are bought together with companies — the Tilia route saved Thunes years of state-by-state applications. And novelties sell through a familiar interface — stablecoin payouts are packaged into a Swift message, and bank compliance committees wave them through markedly more willingly. ## Regulation and status Status as of August 2026: a private, profitable company headquartered in Singapore, with licences in some fifty markets and a working network in more than 140 countries. Milestones of the last eighteen months: the $150m Series D \(28.04.2025\), the full set of US MTLs and the closing of Tilia \(June 2025\), real time into Saudi Arabia \(15.09.2025\), De Caluwe's return \(October 2025\), stablecoin payouts for 11,500 Swift banks \(17.03.2026\), joining Circle Payments Network \(08.04.2026\), real-time payments into the US \(03.06.2026\), the New York hub \(09.06.2026\). > ⚠️ **Risks.** Thunes acts as an intermediary, and contractual liability to the end client stays with the bank or PSP through which the connection runs. The stablecoin leg adds dependence on the USDC and USDT issuers and on the legal status of such settlement in the recipient's country. The speed and limits of any given corridor rest on the network's local partners, and the absence of a public price list forces you to check quotes against your own volumes. Pressure from Nium, TerraPay and Wise Platform can reshape corridor terms every year. > 🍓 Thunes compresses cross-border payouts into a single integration: over 140 countries, 90 currencies, ≈720 participants, and since 17.03.2026 a stablecoin bridge for 11,500 Swift banks. For the client it is a payment channel into markets with cut correspondent lines, accessible through their own bank or PSP. For the builder it is a reference model of the network-of-networks approach plus two techniques: licences through M&A, and selling crypto rails through a familiar banking interface. The cost of entry at this scale is visible in the rounds: over $300m of capital raised. ## FAQ ### Can you connect to Thunes directly? The network operates as B2B infrastructure for banks, PSPs and platforms: connection is arranged as membership, with a network agreement signed and KYB onboarding through Fortress. A private client and their structures reach it through a provider that is already integrated. The practical move is to ask your own bank or EMI whether it routes payouts through Thunes. ### How much does a payout through Thunes cost? There is no public price list — verified in August 2026: the price consists of a transaction fee plus FX margin and is agreed per corridor against the participant's volume. The currency pair, the payout method and the depth of local liquidity all affect the cost; final quotes are visible in the Business Hub after onboarding. For an estimate, it is worth requesting quotes on your own two or three key corridors. ### What did the stablecoin payouts launch of 17.03.2026 change? Banks connected to Swift gained access to payouts in USDC and USDT without a new integration: the message goes out through the familiar channel and the SmartX treasury layer handles the conversion. Reach is 11,500 banks on the sending side and over 500m stablecoin wallets on the receiving side. After joining Circle Payments Network on 08.04.2026, USDC settlement runs around the clock and without pre-funding nostro accounts. ### Why is a direct network better than a correspondent chain? In the correspondent model a payment hops through several banks, each with its own timelines, fees and compliance. In the Direct Global Network a participant integrates once and the payment then travels a direct route, with 85% of transactions settling instantly according to the company. On the estimate from the 2023 Forbes interview, savings against the correspondent route in difficult corridors reach up to 90% of cost. ### How does Thunes differ from Nium and TerraPay? All three build direct networks that bypass correspondent accounts; the differences are in emphasis. Nium is broader in the number of payout markets and strong in cards, while TerraPay, since launching Xend in November 2025, is fighting for the same combination of wallets plus Swift banks. Thunes stands out for the depth of its emerging-market wallet infrastructure, a complete in-house licensing stack including 50 US MTLs, and a working fiat-to-stablecoin bridge on top of Swift. --- ## FAQ ### Can you connect to Thunes directly? The network operates as B2B infrastructure for banks, PSPs and platforms: connection is arranged as membership, with a network agreement signed and KYB onboarding through Fortress. A private client and their structures reach it through a provider that is already integrated. The practical move is to ask your own bank or EMI whether it routes payouts through Thunes. ### How much does a payout through Thunes cost? There is no public price list — verified in August 2026: the price consists of a transaction fee plus FX margin and is agreed per corridor against the participant's volume. The currency pair, the payout method and the depth of local liquidity all affect the cost; final quotes are visible in the Business Hub after onboarding. For an estimate, it is worth requesting quotes on your own two or three key corridors. ### What did the stablecoin payouts launch of 17.03.2026 change? Banks connected to Swift gained access to payouts in USDC and USDT without a new integration: the message goes out through the familiar channel and the SmartX treasury layer handles the conversion. Reach is 11,500 banks on the sending side and over 500m stablecoin wallets on the receiving side. After joining Circle Payments Network on 08.04.2026, USDC settlement runs around the clock and without pre-funding nostro accounts. ### Why is a direct network better than a correspondent chain? In the correspondent model a payment hops through several banks, each with its own timelines, fees and compliance. In the Direct Global Network a participant integrates once and the payment then travels a direct route, with 85% of transactions settling instantly according to the company. On the estimate from the 2023 Forbes interview, savings against the correspondent route in difficult corridors reach up to 90% of cost. ### How does Thunes differ from Nium and TerraPay? All three build direct networks that bypass correspondent accounts; the differences are in emphasis. Nium is broader in the number of payout markets and strong in cards, while TerraPay, since launching Xend in November 2025, is fighting for the same combination of wallets plus Swift banks. Thunes stands out for the depth of its emerging-market wallet infrastructure, a complete in-house licensing stack including 50 US MTLs, and a working fiat-to-stablecoin bridge on top of Swift. --- ## Factual claims - The story starts with TransferTo, a Singapore company founded in 2005 that made its money on mobile top-ups in emerging markets. - Network scale as of August 2026, per the company: - Publicly confirmed participants include PayPal, Revolut, Western Union, Remitly, WorldRemit and Commercial Bank of Dubai; in a release dated 30 March 2026 the company explicitly lists Uber, Deliveroo, Grab and WeChat. - The pricing picture as of August 2026: there is no public price list, and prices are agreed per corridor according to volume, currency pair and payout method. - The closest neighbour by model is Singapore's Nium: over 190 payout markets and over 100 real-time corridors, with USDC settlement in partnership with Circle since May 2026. - A public benchmark for the economics of the genre comes from Uruguay's dLocal: TPV of $40.8bn and revenue of $1.09bn for 2025 with volume up 60% — emerging corridors remain the fastest-growing slice of the payments market. - The stablecoin bridge works on top of the existing stack: the bank sends an ordinary Swift message, SmartX converts fiat into USDC or USDT, and the recipient sees the coin in one of over 500m reachable stablecoin wallets. - Status as of August 2026: a private, profitable company headquartered in Singapore, with licences in some fifty markets and a working network in more than 140 countries.