Stay connected with BizTech Community—follow us on Instagram and Facebook for the latest news and reviews delivered straight to you.
On December 12, 2025, the stablecoin market reached a historic high, with a total capitalization of more than $310 billion.
This was a 70% increase from the previous year. This isn’t just a passing number in the unstable world of cryptocurrencies; it shows a major change in how digital assets work in the global economy.
Stablecoins are tied to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar. They provide the stability that volatile tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum don’t have. They are also important for trading, sending money, and decentralized apps. With Tether’s USDT at about $172 billion and Circle’s USDC at $145 billion, this duopoly shows how network effects and trust drive activity.
Together, they account for 80% of all activity. BlackRock’s 2026 view calls stablecoins “infrastructure underpinning payments and settlement.” This means that the sector’s quiet revolution is about to speed up, and it may grow to $1–2 trillion by the end of the decade if regulations become clearer and institutions start using them.
Stablecoins tackle a big problem with cryptocurrencies: they may be quite volatile. People who send $100 want to be sure that it gets there safely and isn’t cut in half or doubled by changes in the market. They allow value to move freely by keeping 1:1 pegs through reserves or algorithms. This utility pushed annualized transaction volumes to multitrillion-dollar levels in 2025, putting it on par with older networks like Visa when adjusted for inflation. But the $310 billion supply shows that expansion is planned and focused on real-world flows instead of speculative hoarding.
USDT and USDC are the clear leaders, with USDT commanding 55–60% of the market and USDC having 25–30%. This is an example of network effects in action. Their combined dominance, which accounts for more than 80% of volumes, comes from liquidity on key exchanges and wide interconnections. USDT does well in markets with a lot of trade and new markets, whereas USDC is more appealing to institutions who have clear reserves and follow the rules. According to exchange data, they make up the “cash leg” of 80% of crypto trades.
This concentration isn’t an accident; network effects help established businesses. Users gravitate to places where there is a lot of liquidity, which creates a virtuous cycle. New players like yield-bearing USDe or tokenized funds have a hard time breaking through this moat, although niche players can get into areas like DeFi collateral.
The Quiet Revolution in Cross-Border Payments
Stablecoins can change the way people send money and settle debts. SWIFT wires take days and cost 2% to 6%, while middlemen make billions of dollars a year by taking a cut. Stablecoins settle in minutes at less than 1% of the total amount. specific remittance providers say that this saves them 95% in specific corridors.
In countries with high inflation, like Argentina (200%+ rates) or Venezuela, stablecoins are like dollars that keep their value without needing a bank account. Stablecoins are used for everyday necessities in more than 40% of Latin American crypto activity. They manage parts of $150 trillion in cross-border transfers around the world, with Asia’s $7.5 trillion on-chain volumes being the biggest.
Institutional pilots make this further clearer: Stripe’s purchase of Bridge and Circle’s objective of Arc chain both aim to make businesses more efficient. According to FIS studies, 75% of people would use bank-issued stablecoins, but only 3.6% would trust unregulated ones. This suggests a hybrid future.
Adoption by institutions: From Pilots to Operations: 2025 was the year that stablecoins really took off in businesses. According to Fireblocks’ report, 50% of institutions use them in their operations, and 41% are testing them out, mostly for cross-border transactions (62% of suppliers were paid, and 53% of suppliers accepted). The data from EY shows the same thing: Treasurers use 24/7 settlement to lower float expenses and foreign exchange risks.
BlackRock said that stablecoins are “the bridge between traditional finance and digital liquidity,” and they are no longer just for a small group of people. Their tokenized funds use stablecoins to make money, and JPMorgan’s JPM Coin pilots put deposit tokens on Base. This change, from speculation to workflows, is what generates demand: Stablecoins are generally the first blockchain exposure for organizations, which fits with their treasury demands.
The Stablecoin Backbone of DeFi
Stablecoins are very important in DeFi ($150B TVL): More than half of the locked value is the main collateral for loan (Aave, Curve). Yield-bearing versions, such as Ethena’s USDe, automatically make money, making cash that isn’t being used useful. On-chain volumes reached trillions each year, and stablecoins made it possible to use low-volatility techniques.
This foundation backs RWAs, which are tokenized Treasuries that pay out more over 5% on-chain. The GENIUS Act makes U.S. standards clearer, and the combination of DeFi and stablecoins might lead to $1 trillion in TVL by 2030.
Scaling Problems: Going from Billions to Trillions
Stablecoins are powerful, but they are only worth $310 billion compared to the $18 trillion M2 money supply. To grow to $1–2 trillion by 2028 (according to Standard Chartered and Coinbase forecasts), we need infrastructure: Ramps that meet standards, tools for merchants, and smooth UIs.
The MiCA and GENIUS Acts set up systems like 1:1 reserves and audits that build trust. But problems like fragmentation (multi-chain liquidity) and off-ramps still exist. To be successful, you need to be able to think abstractly: People want dollars that “just work,” not complicated blockchain.
Predictions for 2026
The rules for 2025—GENIUS for the U.S. and MiCA for the EU—encourage legitimacy by limiting growth for those who don’t follow them, while allowing it to happen on a larger scale. BlackRock sees stablecoins as plumbing that competes with deposits and money market funds. Banks like JPMorgan come in with deposit tokens that mix safety and speed.
Stripe, PayPal (PYUSD $1B+), and Tether-backed chains are all in the running. But repercussions keep the duopoly going.
Analysts expect that by 2028, there will be $500 billion to $1.2 trillion in supply, thanks to payments (the remittance sector is worth $800 billion), treasury (corporate cash is worth $5 trillion), and DeFi/RWAs. Velocity, or transactions per supply, will show how healthy things are: High signals usefulness.
BlackRock’s pro-risk approach links stablecoins to huge factors like AI and fragmentation, which helps close the gap between traditional finance and digital finance.
