Stablecoins Are Outgrowing Crypto’s Trading-First Era

The crypto market has lost $2 trillion since last October. However, over the same period, the combined number of USDT and USDC holders grew by more than 14% to 240 million. 

So what essentially happened is that prices collapsed, political pressure intensified, and war shook the market, yet the user base around crypto’s most practical assets kept expanding.

And despite that, we still talk about adoption as though it rises and falls with Bitcoin, which is an argument that somewhat made sense when crypto was only used as a speculative asset. But now, when stablecoin ownership continues to grow even as the broader market loses trillions in value, that argument is no longer viable. 

Crypto Is Still Using the Wrong Measure of Adoption

The problem is that crypto still measures adoption through the same numbers it uses to measure a market. We look at prices, market capitalisation, transaction volume and wallet growth, then treat every increase as proof that the industry is moving forward.

Those figures are useful, but they mostly tell us how much capital entered the system and where it moved. A bot moving liquidity between protocols can look almost identical to a real payment on a block explorer.

That’s why the next stage of adoption needs to be measured through repetition, not just through raw volume. Regular invoices, payroll, and merchant payments show that stablecoins are becoming part of how people and businesses operate. That is a much stronger sign of adoption than money moving onchain once and never returning.

Adoption Should No Longer Depend on the Next Rally

Once we stop treating price as the main measure of adoption, the next question is what can keep people using crypto when there is no rally to chase. 

In my view, everyday payments are the strongest use case.

A falling market may reduce the appetite to trade, but it does not reduce the need to move money. Companies still have obligations, people still need to get paid, and cross-border transfers still have to arrive.

That more durable form of demand is already showing up in cross-border activity. Gross stablecoin transfers increased from an estimated $12 billion in the first quarter of 2020 to $316 billion in the first quarter of 2025. 

Stablecoins still account for a small share of global payments, but that growth shows how quickly people adopt new payment rails when existing systems are slow, expensive, or difficult to access.

The World Bank estimates that sending a remittance still costs 6.36% of the amount transferred on average. For someone who sends money home every month, those fees eat into every payment and add up significantly over time.

So, the opportunity now is to build regulated infrastructure that can move stable value across borders, connect it with local payment rails and settle transactions outside banking hours.

If the industry gets that layer right, people will use stablecoins because they solve a recurring financial need, not because they expect the market to rise. That would give crypto a form of adoption that can continue through every market cycle.

Adoption Starts Where TradFi Fails

Stablecoin adoption comes easy to those who have the most reason to look for an alternative. Someone with instant bank transfers, affordable cards, and a stable local currency has little reason to change how they move money. 

The incentive becomes much stronger when receiving an international payment takes days, converting it costs too much, or access to dollars depends on an unreliable banking system.

You can already see that pattern in the data. The IMF found that gross flows reached double-digit shares of annual GDP in Ukraine, Vietnam and Belarus. 

Countries with weaker political and financial institutions, or limited access to dollar-based assets, generally received more stablecoin inflows. The data also tied much of that activity to trade and remittances.

This is why adoption tends to begin where the need is strongest, since people usually change financial habits only when a new option gives them a clear practical advantage.

But emerging markets should not be treated as a separate stablecoin niche. The same infrastructure can help exporters, remote workers, and companies that regularly move money between countries. 

There will be no single moment when stablecoins become global. Adoption will spread as each market finds a practical reason to use them.

The Best Stablecoin Payment Will Barely Feel Like Crypto

The industry will slow this shift down if it expects every new user to become comfortable with wallets, networks, gas fees, and token conversions. 

Most people do not want to understand the infrastructure behind a payment. All they want to do is enter an amount, choose a recipient, and know that the right currency will arrive.

Major payment companies are already building around that reality. Stripe’s Shopify (SHOP ) integration allows merchants in 34 countries to accept USDC, while Stripe converts it and deposits local currency into their bank accounts by default. 

Visa (V ) also now supports USDC settlement for US institutions, with annualized volume above $3.5 billion, even though consumers still pay exactly as they would with any other card.

Both models keep the useful parts of stablecoin infrastructure underneath products that people already understand. The customer does not need to know how the payment settles, and the merchant does not have to hold crypto or rebuild its accounting around it.

Moving Money Is Only Half the Job

A stablecoin transfer can settle in seconds, but that does not automatically make it a good payment option for companies and the general public.

Businesses still need the funds to arrive in local currency, with clear records, predictable fees, and a process that fits local compliance rules. Individuals need to receive and spend the money without going through an exchange or figuring out which network handled the transfer.

Most of the remaining work happens around the blockchain. Banks, card networks, wallets, and payment providers still need to connect onchain settlement with the accounts and payment methods people already use. 

Stablecoins will become a widely used payment option once those extra steps disappear into the background and the experience starts to resemble that of the financial products people already know.