Utila: How institutions can control stablecoin operations

Stablecoins have made moving value across borders faster, but the operating work behind that movement remains demanding. Institutions still need to secure keys, coordinate approvals, manage balances across networks, fund gas, source liquidity and connect blockchain transactions to established financial processes. Each task becomes more consequential as volumes rise.

In Episode 3 of Range Stablecoin Fireside, Paula Pettit, VP of Strategy and Growth at Range, spoke with Ron Hasgall, Head of BD at Utila, about the infrastructure institutions need to operate stablecoins at scale. Hasgall's argument was consistent throughout the conversation: teams need to understand the value they are pursuing, then build the controls, connectivity and liquidity processes that make it repeatable.

The wallet is becoming operating infrastructure

Utila describes itself as a non-custodial platform for digital asset operations. Hasgall traced the category from retail wallets, where one person or one cloud environment might hold a private key, toward an institutional model designed for larger transactions, multiple users and multiple chains. In that setting, the wallet becomes the point from which a company accesses and manages its digital assets. As Hasgall put it, "crypto is complex."

That complexity shows up first in key management. Hasgall said Utila uses MPC to split a private key into shares so that compromising one share does not expose the entire key. He contrasted this structure with keeping a single private key on one machine or in a cloud environment. The institutional requirement is broader than custody alone: the same operating surface also needs to support permissions, transaction activity and access across chains. For a platform serving more than 250 clients, those controls have to work across different teams and operating models.

The second requirement is scale. According to Hasgall, institutions need to generate wallets, connect to different blockchain networks, query infrastructure providers and manage gas without creating a new process for every network. Utila addresses those tasks through APIs, chain support and gas management, alongside staking, swapping and liquidity functions inside its platform. Hasgall grouped Utila's work around three developing problems: security, scalability and liquidity. His assessment of the middle problem was direct: operating across crypto infrastructure remains difficult.

Range's view is that wallet infrastructure sits inside a wider financial control model. Range starts with the regulatory and reporting requirements a company must meet, translates them into operational controls, orchestrates the risk and compliance providers the company already uses, then runs monitoring, reconciliation and reporting from the same record. For teams building stablecoin treasury management, this sequence connects technical wallet operations to the obligations finance, compliance and risk teams already own.

Multichain scale turns liquidity into an operating problem

Supporting several networks creates more than a connectivity task. A company may hold USDC on one chain while a client needs USDC on another. Moving between them can require a swap, an exchange or another settlement path, each with its own time, gas and execution considerations. Newer networks such as Tempo, Plasma and Arc add more destinations for teams to assess and support. Hasgall identified the central constraint directly: "the liquidity part is the most difficult one."

The unit of management is also more specific than a dollar balance. USDC and USDT are different assets, and each asset can exist across networks such as Ethereum, Tron or Solana. Hasgall noted that many Utila clients concentrate activity on one chain and a small set of assets, while the number of chains continues to grow. Range reads this as an operating requirement: a multichain strategy needs an explicit view of which assets sit where, which destinations clients require and how balances will be maintained.

Utila's role, as Hasgall described it, is to provide chain-agnostic infrastructure and the security and scalability tools clients use to manage those balances. The client remains in control of liquidity and access. Utila also offers gas management and UtilaLink, which Hasgall presented as a way to share and automate liquidity among partners. The platform supports EVM networks as well as Tron and Aptos, reflecting the range of environments its clients need to operate. His framing was straightforward: "crypto is global. You can move stablecoins from one point to another."

For teams using Range, this is where cross-chain treasury control becomes essential. Range's view is that balances, transactions and counterparties across wallets, custodians, exchanges and bank accounts need one continuous record. That record gives finance teams the context to reconcile movement across stablecoin and fiat rails, while pre-execution transaction controls let risk and compliance requirements apply before an onchain transaction is broadcast. Wallet execution, liquidity management and financial control remain distinct responsibilities, but they need to operate from consistent information.

Payments are driving stablecoin operations back to practical value

Hasgall placed current stablecoin adoption in a longer cycle. Crypto began with payments as a prominent use case, expanded into trading, lending, NFTs, staking and other applications, then returned to moving value between parties. In the activity Utila sees, cross-border payments now produce the strongest traction, particularly among PSPs in emerging markets. Trading remains part of the picture, but Hasgall said Utila currently fits the cross-border payment use case more closely.

The underlying demand is for real-time payment capability. Hasgall argued that fintechs are arriving at that need whether or not they begin with a commitment to stablecoins. Stablecoins have become relevant because they can support global value movement. Hasgall said the infrastructure needs to continue developing and becoming more risk-aware as traditional players enter the market. He also described growing client interest in tokenized stocks, Canton and privacy, while noting that some of this activity is not yet fully live. The adoption decision begins with a business requirement, not with the asset in isolation.

Treasury activity is developing alongside payments. Companies with offices and bank accounts across geographies can use stablecoins to move money and support functions such as payroll. Hasgall also pointed to emerging work around credit and prefunding, where providers are exploring how financial services can sit around stablecoin payment activity. His expectation was clear: "I think treasury operations would be massive this year."

Range's view is that operators should evaluate stablecoins as part of a full settlement system. A payment starts with funding and liquidity, moves through wallet and blockchain infrastructure, then reaches reconciliation, compliance and reporting. Range's analysis is that a stablecoin operating layer should preserve this full transaction context across rails. The goal is a usable operating record for finance and compliance teams, rather than a separate view of blockchain activity that must be interpreted after settlement.

Automation should begin with policy

Automation can make high-volume stablecoin operations practical, but it also removes time for manual intervention. Hasgall emphasized the difference from traditional payment processes: "crypto doesn't have chargebacks." Once a blockchain transaction is sent, the organization needs its approval logic, destination controls and transaction limits to have already done their work.

Hasgall described policy as the first layer. Teams can allocate roles across the organization and define limits by day, transaction, person or blockchain. Whitelisting adds a destination control, blocking transfers to addresses outside the approved set. These controls create a bounded environment in which automated transactions can run without giving one person unrestricted authority over the movement of funds.

Once those boundaries exist, APIs, webhooks and triggers can automate actions such as top-ups and rebalancing. Hasgall said the next challenge is connecting that automation to on-ramps, off-ramps and banks, where processes vary across jurisdictions. Liquidity also needs coordination across vendors and partners. Compliance is another layer, but he warned against treating AML as the entire risk model. Smart contract behavior, fraud and control of a recipient wallet can still matter even when an address has been whitelisted.

Hasgall closed with a practical test for institutions considering stablecoins: understand the value first. A request from leadership or a competitor's move is not enough to define a scalable program. In his words, "you need to understand why" before deciding how stablecoins fit the existing stack. Range recommends turning that purpose into an operating policy before increasing transaction velocity: identify who can initiate and approve a payment, which counterparties and destinations are allowed, what limits apply and which risk signals should stop or escalate execution. Range applies policy through pre-execution enforcement, meaning a control can screen and block an onchain transaction before broadcast, with the resulting activity feeding the same monitoring, reconciliation and reporting record used by finance and compliance teams.

Build stablecoin operations around control

Utila's perspective is that institutional scale comes from secure key management, multichain infrastructure, available liquidity and policy-led automation. Range extends that operating thesis across stablecoins and fiat, giving companies one record for requirements, controls, provider orchestration, monitoring, reconciliation and reporting. See how Range supports stablecoin operations.

About Utila

Utila provides stablecoin and digital asset infrastructure for institutions. Its platform combines multichain MPC wallets, transaction governance, treasury operations, APIs and integrations for payments, trading and tokenization. Learn more at utila.io.

Want to appear on Range Stablecoin Fireside? If you are building with stablecoins and want a seat on the show, get in touch by email or on X.