Stablecoins processed roughly $33 trillion in on-chain settlement volume during 2025, up about 72% from a year earlier, according to Artemis Analytics. The figure surpassed the combined payment volume reported for Visa and Mastercard, placing dollar-pegged crypto tokens at a scale that increasingly overlaps with the global payments business rather than remaining confined to trading markets.
The raw number includes activity such as arbitrage and automated transfers, which can inflate blockchain transaction totals. Yet Chainalysis estimated that stablecoins still handled about $28 trillion in “real economic activity” after excluding those categories. That adjusted figure points to sustained use for transfers, treasury movements and payments between businesses and individuals.
Stablecoin market value also continued rising into 2026. Artemis Terminal data showed the sector’s aggregate value first reached $310 billion on Dec. 12, 2025, after gaining nearly $100 billion over the year. Supply exceeded $323 billion in May 2026 and was about 2.6 times higher than it had been in September 2021.
Dollar tokens dominate the payment shift
U.S. dollar-linked assets account for more than 99% of stablecoin supply, according to Artemis Terminal. That concentration gives the market a distinctly dollar-centric character even as usage expands across regions with different local currencies and banking systems.
As of June 9, 2026, USDT represented about 59% of the market, with a value near $186 billion, Artemis Terminal data showed. USDC ranked second with around 24% of supply and a market value of approximately $77.4 billion. Together, the two tokens accounted for more than 83% of all stablecoin value.
The scale of stablecoin settlement does not mean that every payment previously made through cards or banks has migrated to blockchains. Much of the volume reflects activity among crypto-native businesses, exchanges, market makers and decentralized finance applications. But the growth has created a payment rail capable of moving large sums continuously, including outside conventional banking hours.
That capability addresses friction that remains common in cross-border transfers. World Bank data for the third quarter of 2025 put the average global remittance cost at about 6.36% of the amount sent. Conventional international bank transfers can also take three to five business days to settle through correspondent banking networks and SWIFT messaging arrangements.
The World Bank estimates that roughly 1.3 billion adults remain unbanked. A stablecoin wallet does not remove the practical obstacles faced by every unbanked person, including internet access, identity requirements and cash conversion. It can, though, provide a way to receive and hold digital dollars without first opening a traditional bank account, provided users can access regulated on- and off-ramps.
Merchant costs create an opening
Merchant payment economics offer another reason stablecoin payments are drawing attention. Card acceptance commonly carries blended costs of 1.5% to 3.5% per sale, including interchange, network assessment charges and payment-processor markups. A cited average cost of 2.24% would leave a merchant paying about $2.24 on a $100 purchase.
At $1 million in monthly card sales, that rate amounts to about $22,400 in monthly processing fees. The pressure is particularly acute for businesses with narrow margins, digital-goods sellers and companies processing large volumes of smaller transactions.
Card payments also do not always deliver funds to merchants immediately. Average settlement time was cited at 1.9 business days in early 2026, close to three calendar days once weekends are included. For a company generating $10 million in monthly sales, a three-day delay was associated with roughly $25,000 in annual financing costs.
Stablecoin transfers can settle on a blockchain within minutes or seconds depending on the network, though merchants must still manage token conversion, fraud controls, compliance checks and price exposure where they accept assets other than fully dollar-backed tokens. The payment model also changes the dispute process. Card chargebacks can cost merchants $20 to $100 per case regardless of the outcome, while blockchain transfers are generally irreversible once confirmed, shifting greater responsibility toward merchants and payment providers to handle refunds and consumer protection.
Regulation moves from policy debate to implementation
U.S. rules are beginning to shape how issuers and payment companies approach the market. President Donald Trump’s executive order on digital financial technology was issued on Jan. 23, 2025, followed by the signing of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act on July 18, 2025.
The law is scheduled to take full effect on Jan. 18, 2027, or 120 days after regulators publish final rules, whichever comes first. Its implementation timetable gives issuers, banks and payment firms a clearer date for adapting reserve practices, redemption systems and compliance operations.
Reserve income remains central to the stablecoin business model. Issuers generally hold cash, bank deposits, repurchase agreements, money market funds and short-dated government securities against tokens redeemable one-for-one for dollars. Tether reported more than $10 billion in net profit for 2025 and disclosed $141 billion in total U.S. Treasury exposure, including $122 billion held directly.
Stablecoin issuers have also become visible buyers of U.S. government debt. A Bank for International Settlements working paper found that dollar-stablecoin issuers purchased nearly $40 billion of Treasury bills in 2024, a pace comparable with large government money market funds. The BIS found stablecoin inflows had a measurable downward effect on three-month Treasury bill yields, connecting token demand to one of the world’s most important short-term funding markets.
Payment companies test operational use
Financial institutions are increasingly treating stablecoins as settlement infrastructure rather than a purely speculative asset class. In a 2025 survey by blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks, 90% of respondents said they had taken some action related to stablecoins. Forty-nine percent reported using stablecoins in payments, while 41% said they were piloting or planning deployments.
Among respondents, 48% cited faster settlement as the leading benefit. Transparency was selected by 36%, while integrated payment flows and improved liquidity management were each cited by 33%. Lower costs ranked behind those factors at 30%, suggesting that operational control and quicker movement of funds may be as important to institutions as fee savings.
Visa said its stablecoin settlement run rate reached $7 billion on an annualized basis, up 50% from the prior quarter. On April 29, 2026, the company also said it would add five blockchains to its global stablecoin pilot programs. PayPal said its PYUSD stablecoin had expanded to more than 70 markets by March 2026 and processed about $8.2 billion in cross-border stablecoin transactions during the first quarter.
New networks are being designed around this use case. Stable, a Layer 1 blockchain using USDT as its native asset, launched its mainnet in December 2025. Its model uses USDT for transaction fees, prioritizes payment transfers, incorporates foreign-exchange liquidity and includes compliance modules aimed at institutional users.
The next test for stablecoin payments will be whether these systems can turn large settlement totals into routine merchant and consumer usage while meeting the regulatory, redemption and user-protection standards expected of financial infrastructure.
Explore how stablecoins reshape money flows in Asia in this in-depth overview of regional adoption trends.
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