I don't know, whenever I have to send money to friends, it's free and transferred instantly (Tikkie).

Whener I tried to send Crypto, there were fees over fees, from wallets, transfer fees, etc., probably I was doing something wrong, but that was the most frictionless path

I don't know the details of Tikkie, but likely the money is moving slowly through the clearing house networks and each party is assuming a small amount of risk on each hop to make it appear instant.

On the other hand, sending USDC actually moves the money for real, albeit, not totally free.