Banks like to talk about exchange rates, so we decided to measure them.

For 50 consecutive days, we tracked AUDM's AUDM→USDT conversion rate against the published AUD→USD rates from two of Australia's Big 4 banks. We checked every hour, across two transaction sizes.

The result was roo-ly simple: AUDM came out ahead on every day sampled, at every transaction size we tested, without any exceptions.

The numbers

Converting AUDM 100 to USDT, over the 50 days to 27 July 2026:

• vs. Big 4 Bank A: 251.0 bps advantage (2.510%)
• vs. Big 4 Bank B: 317.3 bps advantage (3.173%)

Converting AUDM 1,000 to USDT tells a similar story:

• vs. Big 4 Bank A: 250.7 bps advantage (2.507%)
• vs. Big 4 Bank B: 317.1 bps advantage (3.171%)

In plain English, that’s roughly 2.5–3.1 cents in every dollar that stays with the customer instead of disappearing into a bank FX spread.

The average advantage is impressive, but the consistency is what really stands out. Across the entire 50-day sample, AUDM beat both banks every single day, at both transaction sizes.

The gap moved around a little. On the tightest days it narrowed to around 165–170 basis points, but it never disappeared. There wasn’t a single day in our sample where either bank offered a better rate than AUDM… it wasn’t just one good day, it was every day.

For anyone deciding where to send their money, that consistency is arguably the most useful data point. A single favourable quote can happen anywhere. A 50-day streak is a pattern, not just a lucky hop.

Traditional bank FX pricing is built around the correspondent banking world: branches, relationship managers, settlement chains, and margins that are rarely shown explicitly to the customer. The rate you see in online banking is usually the wholesale market rate plus the bank's spread.

Our pricing comes from on-chain liquidity pools (AUDM/USDC and AUDM/USDT on Uniswap), where prices are set continuously by market supply and demand. There's no branch network or correspondent banking chain built into the quote, which is why the spread tends to be tighter and more consistent.

If you regularly send money overseas, pay USD invoices, support family abroad, or move funds while travelling, even a 250 basis point advantage adds up very quickly.

On AUD $10,000 sent over a year, the difference between AUDM and the wider bank spread is roughly AUD $300+ that stays in your pocket rather than the bank's.

And unlike a traditional international transfer, AUDM settles near-instantly, without waiting on standard SWIFT or correspondent banking timeframes.

The reason we tested AUD $100 and AUD $1,000 is because that's where many personal transfers sit today. As AUDM liquidity continues to deepen, we'll publish the same analysis for AUD $50,000+ transactions, where the savings may become even more meaningful for supplier payments, payroll, and trade settlement.

Macropod’s Methodology

• AUDM rates: Average of the AUDM/USDC and AUDM/USDT liquidity pools on Uniswap, sampled hourly between 7 June and 27 July 2026.
• Bank rates: Published AUD→USD conversion rates from two Big 4 Australian banks for the same dates and transaction amounts.
• Chart: 2-day rolling average to smooth hourly noise.
• Tables: Average advantage across the full 50-day sample.

AUDM settles into a US dollar stablecoin (USDT) rather than US dollars held in a traditional bank account. That distinction matters for businesses evaluating settlement risk, custody, and how funds are used once they arrive.

We think money should move at macropod speed. Don’t you?

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