Understanding the Growth of Stablecoins

Ten years ago, stablecoins barely existed. Today, they rival traditional payments infrastructure. To understand why, we need to take one step back. Stablecoins are addressing one major problem: we live in a digital world where everything happens in real time — except money. It remains slow, fragmented, and full of friction. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁. They make money native to the internet — borderless, always on, and programmable (money that can move automatically when certain conditions are met). Value can now move as freely as information: instantly, globally, and without the intermediaries that slow everything down. That’s why adoption has accelerated — according to recent research from a16z crypto: • Stablecoin transaction volume grew by 106% over the past year, reaching $46 trillion. • $46 trillion is a big number — for comparison, Visa processed around $16 trillion, while the ACH network (the U.S. bank transfer network) handled about $87 trillion. • Not all that activity reflects real payments. A significant portion comes from automated transactions — bots, exchanges, or internal transfers that inflate totals. • On an adjusted basis, which filters out non-organic activity, stablecoin volume is closer to $9 trillion — still over five times PayPal’s payment volume and more than half of Visa’s. • Adoption keeps climbing: monthly adjusted volume reached $1.25 trillion in September 2025, signaling real, non-speculative use. 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀? Not quite — at least, not yet. What we’re seeing isn’t replacement, but early-stage evolution. Stablecoins are forming a parallel layer, filling gaps traditional rails weren’t designed for: • Cross-border transfers that settle in seconds instead of days • 24/7 settlement, unconstrained by banking hours • Open access, letting anyone with an internet connection hold and move value globally But it’s still early. The ecosystem has plenty to prove. Stablecoins still need to: • Gain regulatory clarity — even with progress like the U.S. Genius Act, global rules remain uncertain • Build trust and usability — the experience is still too technical for most users • Ensure transparency and reserves — tokens must be fully backed and audited • Improve interoperability — seamless transfers across blockchains So while stablecoins aren’t replacing traditional rails, they’re testing the boundaries of what global payments could look like and are potentially creating an infrastructure layer designed for the modern economy. Opinions: my own, Graphic source and numbers: a16z crypto 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: https://lnkd.in/dkqhnxdg

Stablecoin Payments: From Fringe to Financial Infrastructure The latest report from Castle Island Ventures, Dragonfly and Artemis reveals the growing role of stablecoins in real-world payments across sectors and regions. Here are 5 key insights: 1. $94.2B in Payments – And Counting - $94.2 billion in stablecoin payments were settled between Jan 2023 and Feb 2025. - As of Feb 2025, payments are annualizing at a $72.3B run rate. - B2B leads with $36B/year, followed by P2P ($18B), card payments ($13.2B), B2C ($3.3B), and prefunding ($2.5B). 2. B2B Is the Breakout Use Case - B2B transactions grew from <$100M/month in early 2023 to $3B/month in early 2025. - High-value transfers dominate: average transaction size exceeds $219K on both Tron and Ethereum. - USDT commands most volume, but USDC holds ~30% share in B2B flows. 3. USDT & Tron Reign Supreme - USDT has ~90% market share among surveyed firms; USDC is a distant second. - Tron is the most-used blockchain for stablecoin settlement, followed by Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. - In every region (Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America), USDT + Tron is the dominant combo. 4. Cards, Payroll & Micro-Transfers Go Crypto - Stablecoin-linked card payments surged from $250M/month in early 2023 to $1B/month by end of 2024. - B2C payments (payrolls, disbursements) topped $300M/month by early 2025. - Peer-to-peer transfers average <$50 per transaction, beating traditional fees (e.g., Zelle ®: $277 avg.). 5. Stablecoins Are the New Cross-Border Rail - US, Singapore, and Hong Kong lead in stablecoin sending volume. - The Singapore–China corridor is the most active globally. - Platforms like Yellow Card and Bitso are replacing Swift for B2B and remittances in Africa and LatAm. So What? - Stablecoins are no longer just for trading — they’re becoming the internet’s native money for business, payroll, remittances, and everyday payments. - With $2T+ in supply expected by 2028, regulators and enterprises alike must reckon with a new era of programmable, dollar-denominated value transfer — 24/7, instant, and borderless. Great work Anthony Yim, Andrew Van Aken, Nic Carter, Wyatt Khosrowshahi, Rob Hadick and Omar Kanji, CFA

Stablecoins are being regulated less like crypto and more like national payment infrastructure. 1:1 backing is the minimum. Resilience above 100% is the real requirement. That single design shift quietly rewrites the economics of digital money. Source: Global Stablecoin Regulatory Playbook (Jan 2026), Global Digital Finance. This isn’t a crypto manifesto. It’s a regulatory blueprint that treats stablecoins as payment infrastructure, not speculative assets. ↳ Stats that demand attention • 1:1 reserve backing is now non-negotiable across major regimes (US GENIUS Act, EU MiCA, UK proposals, SG, UAE) • 0% yield tolerance for payment stablecoins → any yield feature risks reclassification as a security • Monthly reserve attestations mandated in the US and Singapore vs quarterly or annual elsewhere • ≤ 5 business days is the global norm for guaranteed par redemption, not T+0 • Short-dated government debt (≤ 6��12 months) preferred over bank deposits for systemic issuers • Systemic designation thresholds hinge on transaction volume, not market cap or user count Counterintuitive takeaway: Faster redemption ≠ safer stablecoin. Asset quality beats redemption speed. ↳ Three insights reshaping the industry 1) Market structure is consolidating by design • Compliance costs scale non-linearly → favors large, multi-jurisdiction issuers • Smaller issuers survive only via niche corridors or local use cases • Stablecoins are drifting closer to regulated payment rails, not open crypto markets 2) The real blind spot is cross-border equivalence • Most jurisdictions still lack clear reciprocity rules • Local-issuance mandates fracture fungibility, raising costs for global payments • Regulatory trust, not technology, is the binding constraint 3) Stablecoins are becoming macro-economic instruments • Reserves channel demand into sovereign debt and central bank deposits • Regulation is now monetary policy by another name • Payment stablecoins are explicitly designed to not compete with savings products ↳ My perspective • Trust scales before innovation: payments only grow when regulators are confident in failure modes • Uniform outcomes matter more than uniform rules: functional equivalence beats legal symmetry • The business model is shifting: stablecoins are utilities, not growth hacks The open question isn’t whether stablecoins will be regulated. It’s who absorbs the cost of safety: issuers, users, or the broader financial system. Which future do you think wins? A) A few global stablecoin utilities embedded into payment stacks B) Region-specific stablecoins aligned to local monetary policy C) Bank-issued tokenised deposits overtaking stablecoins

When stablecoins grow, Treasuries rally and stocks react Stablecoins were supposed to sit quietly in the plumbing of crypto. This new IMF Working Paper suggests they may now be doing much more than that. They are starting to move mainstream asset prices too. In Stablecoin Shocks, Eugenio M. Cerutti, Melih Firat, Martina Hengge, and Takaaki Sagawa show that positive stablecoin demand shocks lead to persistent declines in short-term US Treasury yields, a depreciation of the US dollar, and gradual spillovers into both crypto and equity markets. That is a big result, because it means stablecoins are no longer just a digital payments story; they are becoming part of the broader transmission mechanism of financial markets. The Treasury angle is especially important. If more money flows into stablecoins, and issuers invest reserves in short-term government paper, demand for those assets rises and yields fall. In plain English: when stablecoins expand, they can push up demand for safe short-term Treasuries and help move that part of the yield curve. That is not a side issue anymore. It is a direct link between crypto growth and the pricing of public debt. The stock-market angle is just as interesting. The paper finds spillovers into equities, but not evenly across firms. Payment providers appear to benefit from greater stablecoin adoption, while banks, including community and small banks, show no clear evidence of priced disintermediation risk. So the market seems to be saying: stablecoins may support some parts of the payments ecosystem without yet triggering a broad repricing of banks. And this matters because the scale is no longer trivial. Recent IMF work notes that stablecoin issuance has risen to around $300 billion, roughly double its level two years earlier. Even if that is still small relative to the full size of US capital markets, it is already large enough to create measurable effects at the margin — especially in short-term funding markets and in listed firms exposed to payments. My takeaway: the stablecoin debate is shifting. It is no longer only about crypto regulation. It is increasingly about Treasury market transmission, equity-market winners and losers, and whether policymakers are ready for a new money-like instrument that is already affecting financial prices. Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/e8FBEbBQ #Stablecoins #TreasuryMarkets #StockMarket #DigitalFinance #FinancialStability #Fintech #IMFResearch

🚀 #Stablecoins aren’t money anymore — they’re becoming an entire financial ecosystem. Most people still see #stablecoins as “#crypto #dollars,” but the new Gate Research 2025 Stability Report shows something much bigger happening. We’re entering a new phase: From tokens → to infrastructure → to global value networks. Here are the insights that stood out 👇 💡 1. Explosive growth is reshaping the market • Stablecoins have surpassed $280B in market cap • On-chain settlements now exceed $30 trillion annually → That’s on par with #SWIFT and Visa volumes This is no longer a crypto sidetrack. It’s global financial plumbing. 🏦 2. Compliance is now the dominant theme GENIUS Act, Stablecoin Ordinance, #MiCA — together they mark the start of the Age of Compliance. Stablecoins are moving from “permissionless experiments” to regulated financial instruments 🌍 3. Traditional finance is fully entering the arena PayPal, Visa, Mastercard → all building multi-asset, stablecoin-compatible networks. The bridge between TradFi and #Web3 is being built from both sides. ⚙️ 4. A new three-in-one model is emerging Stablecoins now = Peg + Yield + Application They’re evolving into tools for: • cross-border payments • treasury liquidity • supply chain finance • payroll • collateral in capital markets • RWA settlement Yield-bearing stablecoins (like USDe) are rising fast 🔗 5. Infrastructure competition becomes the new battleground The report makes this clear: We’ve moved from token competition → to infrastructure competition. #Tether, Circle, Stripe, Alchemy Pay, Converge — even building proprietary blockchains to control the settlement highways. 🔮 6. The next 3–5 years will define the winners Stablecoins are heading toward: • cross-chain settlement • multi-chain compatibility • integration with capital markets • coexistence with CBDCs • regional multipolarity, not USD dominance Those who build a closed compliance + infrastructure + application loop will define the next global value system. My takeaway: Stablecoins aren’t just growing — they’re transforming. From payments to yield to enterprise adoption, they’re becoming the backbone of the digital economy. The question now is simple: 👉 Who controls the next generation of settlement infrastructure? Follow 👉 George Petrovic & comment or share ♻️ if you found this useful. #stablecoins #crypto #blockchain #fintech #RWA #payments #MiCA #GENIUSAct #digitalassets #web3 #tokenization #finance #GateResearch #bitcoin

Stablecoins are becoming one of the largest incremental buyers of short-term US Treasuries. The common assumption is that stablecoins are a niche payment layer within crypto, largely disconnected from traditional funding markets. That view overlooks how their balance sheets are constructed. Stablecoin issuers back liabilities with short-duration assets, primarily Treasury bills and cash equivalents. As issuance grows, so does demand for these instruments. The buyer is not always visible in traditional flow data, but the impact accumulates. A clearer breakdown shows how this affects bank balance sheets. 1. Liability Substitution: When deposits move into stablecoins, banks lose a low-cost funding source. Stablecoin issuers, in turn, deploy those funds into Treasury bills. The system shifts from deposit-funded intermediation to market-funded intermediation. 2. Treasury Demand Concentration: Stablecoin reserves are typically short duration. This concentrates demand at the front end of the yield curve, reinforcing downward pressure on short-term yields relative to long-term rates. 3. Balance Sheet Reconfiguration: Banks holding Treasuries as liquidity buffers now compete indirectly with stablecoin issuers for the same assets. The marginal buyer of T-bills is increasingly non-bank and price-insensitive to traditional spread dynamics. 4. Liquidity Dynamics: Stablecoins offer near-instant redemption. This compresses the liquidity cycle. In stress scenarios, reserve managers must maintain high-quality liquid assets, reinforcing demand for short-term government securities. The practical implication is structural. Stablecoins are not just a payments innovation. They are reshaping how liquidity is sourced and deployed across the financial system. For treasury desks and balance sheet managers, the question is not whether stablecoins will grow. It is how their reserve behavior will influence deposit stability, funding costs, and the shape of the short end of the yield curve as issuance scales.

Stablecoins are often framed as either a breakthrough or a threat, but truth is more nuanced. They deliver real gains in payment efficiency and global access, as well as some familiar risks. In a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Rashad A., James Clouse, Fabio Natalucci, Alessandro Rebucci, and Geyue Sun explain that stablecoins can function as a low cost settlement layer, provide continuous payment access, and reduce frictions in cross border transfers. They also show the growing international role of USD stablecoins, noting that most wallets using them are outside the United States. “Stablecoins hold the promise of revolutionizing the domestic and international USD payment system by lowering transaction costs, shortening settlement times, providing continuous 24 or 7 payment system access, and possibly improving financial inclusion.” Of course, some new structural vulnerabilities emerge. Because issuers promise par redemption without access to a public liquidity backstop, runs remain a possibility even under the new GENIUS Act. The comparison to uninsured deposits and money market funds is particularly useful. The authors also identify pressure points that could affect the broader financial system as stablecoins scale, such as liquidity strains from rapid redemptions or competitive pressure on smaller banks if deposits migrate. What I found most instructive is the emphasis on market structure. A multi trillion dollar stablecoin sector would deepen links between crypto and traditional finance, influence Treasury demand, and reshape how institutions manage collateral and settlement. Good read! #Stablecoins #Fintech #DigitalPayments #FinancialStability #Economics

Stablecoins Are No Longer Just Crypto Tools — They’re Reshaping Global Finance As of Q1 2025, global stablecoin circulation exceeds $215B, with on-chain transaction volume hitting $5.6T in 2024 — that’s 40% of Visa’s annual payment volume. What was once confined to crypto trading desks is now powering real-economy use cases at scale: remittances, global payroll, B2B settlements, and institutional treasury. *Real-World Impact: Remittances: Sending $200 across Africa via stablecoins is ~60% cheaper than traditional rails. Nigeria alone saw $59B in crypto inflows, largely stablecoin-driven. *Global Payroll: Platforms like Remote.com + Stripe are enabling stablecoin salary payments in 69 countries, slashing fees and delays. Latin America: Bitso facilitated ~10% of US-to-Mexico remittances via USDC, saving families millions. Brazil: Large (> $1M) stablecoin transfers rose 29% YoY in 2023, as banks adopted them for FX efficiency. *Institutional Momentum: Circle filed for IPO (2024), aiming to be the first listed stablecoin issuer. Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1B, betting big on blockchain-powered payments. Visa launched VTAP, enabling banks to issue fiat-backed stablecoins at scale. *Adoption Metrics: 32M unique addresses transacted with stablecoins by early 2025 — 2x growth in 2 years. *VC funding into stablecoin startups hit $2.5B (2022–2024), targeting cross-border payments and yield-bearing models. *Cost & Efficiency: Traditional remittances: 3–5 days, 6–12% fees Stablecoins: instant, <3% fees, especially on low-cost chains like Tron or Solana *Business Models Are Evolving: Tether earned $13B in 2024, mostly from interest on reserves. USDC yield-sharing is now a competitive edge, as tokenized T-bill funds (e.g., BlackRock’s BUIDL) compress stablecoin margins. *Financial Inclusion & Dollarization: Argentina and Turkey lead in grassroots stablecoin use amid 50–100% inflation. In Nigeria, 33% of the population used stablecoins in 2024 for savings or payments. *Regulation Is Catching Up: MiCA in EU now governs issuance and reserves. US legislation is in motion, with bipartisan bills pushing for 100% reserve backing and Fed oversight. Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore) is racing to be global stablecoin hubs. *Looking Ahead (2025–2030): With potential market cap forecasts ranging from $300B to $3T, stablecoins are set to become core infrastructure for global payments, capital markets, and financial inclusion. Stablecoins are no longer “just crypto.” They are programmable, composable dollars — the working capital of the internet economy. #Stablecoins #Fintech #DigitalAssets #DeFi #Blockchain #CrossBorderPayments #FinancialInclusion #USDC #USDT #CryptoFinance #Remittances #GlobalPayroll Hyperglade Avalanche Source: insights4vc

We've analyzed BVNK's payment volume data 2022-2026 and it tells an interesting story about stablecoin adoption. It starts with users funding brokerage accounts and ends with enterprise platforms embedding wallets. We've observed 3 distinct phases: 1: Brokerage platforms proved the mechanic Retail users depositing stablecoins to fund accounts at 2am on a Sunday, so they could trade stock and other assets, 24/7 from anywhere. Instant cross-border settlement when banks were closed. Nearly 50% of volume in the early days. 2: Payment companies scaled it PSPs started integrating stablecoin rails – dLocal, Worldpay, others – and realized the same infrastructure solved B2B payments, payables, treasury. This becomes our largest category at 44% of volume. 3: Enterprises adopt Global platforms want embedded stablecoin wallets for their users. Owning the wallet means owning the customer relationship and value flow. Embedded wallet volumes grow from near-zero to $3.34bn in one year. Still, we're still early. By making payments faster, cheaper, and globally accessible, stablecoins will unlock new markets we can't yet size. Uber didn't optimize taxis, it unlocked mobility demand that didn't exist before. This is similar. Full analysis below.

Leaving Stanford wasn’t the risky choice. Ignoring what stablecoins are about to unlock felt riskier. For decades, global payments have relied on slow, expensive legacy rails. A single SWIFT transfer can pass through multiple intermediary banks, each adding time, cost, and reconciliation risk before funds reach the recipient. Recent U.S. regulation with the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act makes this shift unmistakable. With major financial institutions expected to tokenize deposits in 2026, mainstream stablecoin adoption is closer. Globally, stablecoin usage is projected to grow 45% across LATAM and Southeast Asia, alongside MiCA frameworks that clarify reserve requirements so institutions can adopt these rails responsibly. While at Money20/20, I met Rodney E. Hood, former Acting Comptroller of the Currency and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Chairman. He’s helped shape how financial innovation scales in the U.S. within strong regulatory guardrails across 1,000+ federally regulated banking institutions. Speaking with him reinforced that stablecoins only scale in the U.S. when they meet bank-grade standards. Clear reserves, strong governance, BSA/AML, KYC, and OFAC controls are non-negotiable. It also requires end-to-end traceability, so you can monitor fund flows and retain the underlying correspondent and beneficiary information. At Crebit Pay, the thesis is simple: use stablecoin rails where they help. We abstract the crypto complexity behind the scenes, so users don’t need to learn wallets or gas fees to get faster, cheaper cross-border payments. Since launching in September, we’ve processed nearly half a million dollars in tuition, housing, and factory invoice payments for customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, and next we’re scaling these corridors across LATAM and into Africa. We’re living through a financial revolution, and stablecoins are at the center of it.