Businesses now send each other about $226 billion a year in stablecoins, according to McKinsey and Artemis. Yet most companies still lose track of one boring bill: software. Vertice, which tracks company software spending, says the average business spends about $9,450 a year per employee on SaaS, and that number has been climbing since spring. Slack, Notion, Zoom, a CRM, a design tool… somehow the list only ever gets longer.

Here’s the question I find more unexpected: what happens to the company’s money in the ten days between a client paying the company and the company paying its contractors? In most companies, nothing at all. It just exists, because ten days sounds too short to bother with. I thought so too, right up until I tried counting those ten days in subscriptions instead of percentages.

Where the Ten Days Come From and What They’re Worth

If your business works with stablecoins, you almost certainly have this blind spot. A client pays you in USDT on the 1st, your contractors get paid on the 13th, and in between, the money waits. It usually happens twice a month.

Let’s consider the basic interest formula: amount × annual rate × days ÷ 365. I’ll take 6% a year as an example rate and turn the result into things a company pays for anyway:

🟢 $10,000 → about $16, which is three or four takeaway coffees
🟢 $25,000 → about $41, which is Slack Pro for four people for a month
🟢 $50,000 → about $82, which is Slack Pro for eight people for a month, or pizza for the team on Friday

I’m counting Slack Pro at €8.25 per person on monthly billing. One gap on its own isn’t impressive. But the best part starts when you remember the gap comes back 24 times a year. At $25,000 that’s about $990 a year, and at $50,000 it’s about $1,970, which pays for Slack Pro on annual billing (€6.75 per person) for a team of around 20 for the whole year.

How to Make Sure the Money Is Back on Payday

There’s one rule I wouldn’t break: the plan ends before the payout, with a couple of days to spare. If contractors get paid on the 13th, a ten-day plan opened on the 1st brings the money back on the 11th. Those two days cost a few dollars and save you an awkward call with a contractor. If a client pays late one month, I’d skip that cycle rather than squeeze the plan in. If your dates move around a lot, a flexible account fits better than a fixed term.

Who Offers Short Placements, and for Whom

The options differ mostly by size. Ledn has savings accounts for USDC and USDT at 6.5% a year, or 8.5% on the part above 100,000 (the rate can change and depends on the country). Money can be moved between savings and a regular account and the rate can change, so it suits smaller gaps with floating dates. Galaxy Crypto Lending sits at the opposite end, with a lending desk where large institutions agree terms one by one. In between is WhiteBIT Crypto Lending for Businesses, with terms from 10 days, so the end date can be set right before payday. Plans start from 600,000 USDT, the rate is agreed individually, and so are the conditions for closing early. At that size, one ten-day gap at 6% brings about $990, roughly what $25,000 earns in a whole year.

My Take

Ten days won’t make any company rich, but over a year they can quietly cover a bill the whole team relies on. Which of the three providers I mentioned fits you comes down to two things in your payment calendar: how big the gap is and how sure you are about the payout date.

Disclaimer: This is not financial or investment advice. Do your own research before making any decisions. Use at your own risk.

How Much Can a Business Earn in Ten Days? was originally published in Predict on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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How Much Can a Business Earn in Ten Days?