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A cross-border payment on Musubi follows the same pattern as an RFQ on a trading venue, followed by CLS-style PvP settlement. The entire process completes in approximately 15 seconds.

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The Trade in Six Steps

1

Initiate Payment Intent

Your treasury or payments team submits a payment intent: “Deliver 100,000 USDCx to Receiver Institution via their custodian.”The intent optionally specifies a maximum source amount the sender will pay (cost guard — your cap on the FX cost).TradFi parallel: Initiating a cross-border wire with your correspondent bank, except you’re specifying the exact terms upfront.
2

Market Makers Compete

Musubi broadcasts an anonymized Request for Quote (RFQ) to registered market makers. They see only the currency pair, amount, and deadline — not who you are or who you’re paying.Multiple market makers submit competing quotes with their offered FX rate, the USDCx amount they’ll deliver, and how long their quote is valid (typically 30 seconds).TradFi parallel: An electronic RFQ on a multi-dealer platform (like Tradeweb or Bloomberg RFQ), except the dealers never see your identity.
3

Best Execution Selection

You review the competing quotes and select the best one. Musubi validates that the selected quote meets your cost guard (if set).TradFi parallel: Best execution obligation — you’re selecting from competitive bids, with a documented audit trail of all quotes received.
4

Custodian Authorization

Your custodian co-signs the trade. This is a dual-authorization gate: you selected the quote, but your custodian must confirm before any assets move. Neither party can act alone.TradFi parallel: Treasury initiates the payment, operations confirms it. Same dual-control principle, enforced cryptographically rather than by procedure.
5

Atomic Settlement

Musubi executes a Delivery-vs-Payment (DvP) swap in a single transaction:All four legs succeed atomically, or all four roll back. There is never a state where one side has delivered and the other hasn’t.TradFi parallel: CLS Bank’s Payment-vs-Payment (PvP) mechanism, where both currency legs settle simultaneously. The critical difference: CLS takes hours within its settlement window; this takes ~4 seconds.
6

Confirmation & Reconciliation

All parties receive a settlement confirmation with a single cryptographic transaction hash covering all four legs. This hash is your settlement proof for reconciliation.The receiver institution sees the settlement for the first time at this point — no pre-approval was needed, just like receiving a traditional wire.TradFi parallel: SWIFT MT103/MT202 confirmation, except the proof is cryptographic and covers the complete atomic transaction, not just your leg.

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Correspondent Banking vs. Musubi

Time: 1-3 business days | FX: Bank’s internal rate (opaque) | Risk: Herstatt risk | Proof: SWIFT messages at each hop

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Timing

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What Happens on Failure

If any leg of the atomic settlement fails, the entire transaction rolls back. No partial settlement is possible. Your assets remain with your custodian in every failure scenario. There is no “stuck in transit” state.