Main Points:
- Record-Breaking Growth: Total stablecoin payments exceeded $94.2 billion from January 2023 to February 2025.
- B2B Transactions Lead: Business-to-business (B2B) transfers accounted for an annualized run-rate of approximately $36 billion.
- Card-Linked Payments Rising: Stablecoin transactions via card rails surpassed $13.2 billion in annual volume.
- Dominant Players: Tether’s USDT commands over 80 % of volume, with Circle’s USDC trailing in a distant second.
- Preferred Networks: Tron and Ethereum process the bulk of settlements, with average B2B transaction sizes above $219,000.
- Regulatory Momentum: US lawmakers propose comprehensive stablecoin legislation; UAE and EU already maintain licensing frameworks.
- Institutional Adoption: Major banks consider issuing their own coins; Stripe rolls out stablecoin accounts in 101 countries.
- Emerging Trends: Non-dollar stablecoins and USD-backed tokens on Solana are gaining traction—paving the way for diversified blockchain applications.
Surge in Stablecoin Payments: A New Paradigm in Digital Transactions
Between January 2023 and February 2025, stablecoins transcended niche markets to settle a staggering $94.2 billion in payments, according to Artemis Analytics – a collaboration with Castle Island Ventures and Dragonfly Capital. This meteoric rise underscores stablecoins’ evolution from mere trading tools to essential pillars of global payment infrastructure, offering near-instant settlement and rail-agnostic interoperability.
Analysts attribute this growth to a confluence of factors: traditional cross-border frictions, emerging market currency volatility, and a rapid shift toward programmable finance. As businesses and consumers alike seek lower costs and faster finality, stablecoins have proven uniquely positioned to bridge legacy finance and blockchain rails in one seamless layer.
B2B Transactions Leading the Charge
The most eye-opening trend in Artemis’s report is the dominance of B2B transfers, which alone fueled an annualized run-rate of $36 billion in stablecoin payments. Historically, peer-to-peer (P2P) remittances and retail use cases garnered the lion’s share of attention, but enterprises are fast recognizing stablecoins’ potential to:
- Streamline supplier payments without costly FX conversions or multi-day settlement delays.
- Automate corporate treasury operations, with smart contracts executing payments upon confirmed deliveries.
- Enable micropayment models in B2B contexts, such as pay-per-use APIs or real-time data licensing.
Moreover, the average B2B transaction size on both Tron and Ethereum networks exceeded $219,000, dwarfing transactions on alternative blockchains. This underlines that large-ticket corporate transfers are increasingly settling on decentralized rails, driven by both liquidity depth and robust ecosystem tooling.
Card-Linked Stablecoin Payments Gain Traction
Beyond corporate corridors, card-linked stablecoin rails have emerged as a fast-growing vertical. Annualized volumes topped $13.2 billion, reflecting integration efforts by crypto-friendly card networks and fintech providers. By tokenizing stablecoins onto existing networks like Visa and Mastercard, users can:
- Spend digital dollars at any merchant accepting cards, seamlessly converting on the back end.
- Reduce volatility risk by settling in a dollar-pegged token.
- Unlock new revenue streams for card issuers via crypto-rail interchange.
This development signals a future where stablecoins may power both on-chain and off-chain commerce, dissolving boundaries between decentralized finance (DeFi) and everyday spending.
Tether and Tron: Market Leaders
In the realm of token choice, Tether’s USDT reigns supreme, responsible for over 86 % of all stablecoin transaction volume as of February 2025. Circle’s USDC holds a solid second place, but its market share trails considerably. Key drivers of USDT’s dominance include:
- High liquidity across centralized and decentralized platforms.
- Robust market-making activity, ensuring tight price spreads.
- Broad adoption in emerging markets where fiat on-ramps are limited.
On the settlement front, Tron now commands over 60 % of transaction volume, outpacing Ethereum due to lower fees and faster throughput. Binance Smart Chain and Polygon follow, but their combined share remains well below the two frontrunners. The preference for Tron and Ethereum underscores the critical interplay of cost, speed, and ecosystem maturity in shaping stablecoin rails.
Blockchain Networks Powering Stablecoin Payments
Deep diving into network performance:
- Tron: Low-fee, high-speed blocks have attracted both retail and institutional issuers, making it the leading settlement layer for USDT.
- Ethereum: Despite higher gas fees, Ethereum’s unparalleled smart contract ecosystem continues to host significant USDC and USDT activity. Layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism are further alleviating congestion and costs.
- Binance Smart Chain (BSC): Offers a middle ground of moderate fees and robust DeFi integrations, though it trails in raw volume.
- Emerging Chains: Solana has seen over $6 billion in new stablecoin supply in 2025—driven partly by the launch of the $TRUMP token—and hosts growing USDC.tron and USDB deployment.
As multi-chain strategies gain favor, organizations can dynamically route payments across rails based on cost, speed, and counterparty requirements, opening the door to dynamic liquidity management and cross-chain settlement protocols.
Regulatory Developments and Institutional Adoption
Stablecoins’ unstoppable growth has caught the eye of regulators and institutional players worldwide:
- United States: Bipartisan bills like the STABLE Act and GENIUS proposal aim to establish clear frameworks for reserve transparency, issuer licensing, and consumer protections. Congress seeks to secure the dollar’s primacy in the digital era by codifying stablecoins within federal banking law.
- European Union: Under the MiCA regulation effective December 30 2024, stablecoin issuers must maintain 1:1 reserves, conduct regular audits, and adhere to investor-protection mandates. A phased implementation across member states is underway.
- United Arab Emirates: The CBUAE Payment Token Services Regulation prescribes licensing for issuance, custody, transfer, and redemption of stablecoins—both dirham-pegged and foreign tokens. Entities must secure CBUAE approval by July 2025 or cease non-Dirham token services.
- United Kingdom and Asia: Singapore and Hong Kong continue refining their digital asset regimes, while emerging markets like Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana accelerate stablecoin adoption to circumvent FX volatility and banking infrastructure gaps.
Simultaneously, major banks in the US have initiated exploratory talks to jointly issue regulated coins, aiming to leverage stablecoins for interbank settlements and real-time treasury management. This convergence of regulatory clarity and institutional appetite signals that stablecoins are graduating from crypto-native niches into mainstream finance.
Industry Initiatives and Partnerships
Beyond regulatory tailwinds, several corporate initiatives are accelerating stablecoin utility:
- Stripe Stablecoin Financial Accounts: In May 2025, Stripe unveiled Stablecoin Financial Accounts for businesses in 101 countries, enabling holding, sending, and receiving USDC and USDB alongside fiat rails like ACH and SEPA. This integration lowers on-ramp friction for SMEs in emerging markets and creates a gateway to blockchain liquidity.
- Bridge Acquisition: Stripe’s $1.1 billion purchase of Bridge in February 2025 provided the infrastructure backbone for custodied USDB issuance and on-chain conversion APIs.
- Collaborative Consortia: Entities like Conduit have raised tens of millions to build interoperable networks for cross-chain stablecoin transfers—reducing fragmentation and custodial risks.
- Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs): Though distinct from stablecoins, CBDC pilots in the UAE, China, and the EU are catalyzing broader digital payments innovation, with potential interoperability layers between CBDCs and commercial stablecoins on the horizon.
Collectively, these efforts demonstrate a progressive shift toward programmable, multi-rail treasury and payment solutions, blending the best of fintech and blockchain.
Innovations Beyond the Dollar: The Rise of Alternative Stablecoins
While US dollar-pegged tokens dominate today, non-dollar stablecoins are gaining prominence:
- Dirham-Pegged Tokens: Tether announced plans to launch an AED-pegged stablecoin in partnership with Phoenix Group and Green Acorn Investment, pending CBUAE approval.
- Euro, Pound, and Yen Tokens: Circle and other issuers are exploring multi-currency reserves to service enterprises trading in global commodity markets.
- Commodity and Crypto-Backed Models: Hybrid tokens blending fiat reserves with tokenized gold or Ethereum collateral are in pilot phases.
- Algorithmic and Over-Collateralized Models: Though riskier, these designs offer capital-efficient issuance, with real-time rebalancing protocols under development.
This diversification supports cross-border merchant acceptance, hedging strategies, and smart contract-driven derivatives—extending stablecoins’ utility beyond mere settlements into active treasury management and decentralized applications.
Looking Ahead: Opportunities and Challenges
As stablecoin payments scale into the hundreds of billions, the space faces both exciting prospects and critical challenges:
- Interoperability: Seamless liquidity across chains and regulatory domains will define winners. Projects like Cross-Chain Liquidity Bridges and IBC protocols are essential to prevent siloed markets.
- Reserve Transparency: Real-time audit frameworks and on-chain proof-of-reserve tools will be pivotal in building trust and mitigating systemic risks .
- Regulatory Harmonization: Disparate global regimes risk fragmenting stablecoin markets; multilateral coordination could streamline licensing and oversight.
- Network Congestion and Fees: As volumes grow, layer-2 scaling and gas-fee optimization are imperative, especially on Ethereum.
- Security and Fraud Prevention: Institutional adoption demands enterprise-grade security, vendor certification, and standardized dispute resolution mechanisms.
Despite these hurdles, the trajectory is clear: Stablecoins are entrenched as a cornerstone of digital finance, unlocking new business models and revenue channels. From corporate payables to consumer checkout, these programmable dollars—and soon, dirhams, euros, and beyond—are reshaping the blockchain-based economy.
Conclusion
The remarkable ascent of stablecoin payments—$94.2 billion in just 26 months—signals a tipping point for blockchain technology. Led by B2B transfers, fueled by market-leading tokens like USDT on Tron and Ethereum, and accelerated by regulatory progress and corporate innovation, stablecoins have transcended their initial remit to emerge as vital components of global payment rails. As institutional players enter, alternative reserve models proliferate, and interoperability improves, stablecoins are poised to power the next generation of DeFi, corporate treasury, and cross-border commerce. For enterprises and developers seeking new crypto assets, revenue sources, and practical blockchain applications, the stablecoin ecosystem offers unprecedented opportunities—provided its participants navigate the technical and regulatory complexities ahead.
