Stablecoins are gaining traction as a way to move money globally, and businesses in certain industries are now using them for faster cross-border payments and liquidity markets.

Below, we’ll explain where stablecoin growth comes from, what’s powering it, and what it means for your business.

What’s in this article?

• What drives stablecoin growth?
  
• What infrastructure has expanded stablecoin adoption?
  
• How does stablecoin growth affect liquidity patterns?
  
• What barriers restrict stablecoin growth?
  
• How can businesses respond to stablecoin growth?
  
• How Stripe can help
  

What drives stablecoin growth?

Stablecoin growth is driven by an appetite for faster, cheaper, and more reliable ways to move money. There are no “business hours,” no cutoff windows, and no waiting for clearing cycles. And when you remove multiple intermediaries (e.g., correspondent banks, remittance operators, card networks), transaction costs can drop considerably.

Companies using payments providers such as Stripe have begun adopting stablecoin payments to reach customers they couldn’t serve with cards or banking networks. Anyone with a phone and internet access can use stablecoins, which improves accessibility in places where the local currency is unstable or where banking systems are slow, unreliable, or inaccessible. In 2025, global stablecoin market capitalization was estimated at roughly $300 billion.

Traders also rely on stablecoins as a steady settlement asset. An estimated 30% of all onchain cryptocurrency transactions involve stablecoins. They function as the cash layer of the crypto economy, so the amount of stablecoin liquidity circulating through the crypto market tends to rise during periods of market growth.

What infrastructure has expanded stablecoin adoption?

As infrastructure for stablecoins improves, it enables faster transaction networks and broader payment support, and clearer regulatory frameworks. This makes stablecoin usage feel more like traditional finance.

Here are some infrastructure elements that support the expanding stablecoin market:

Easy on-ramps and off-ramps

A few years ago, using stablecoins required navigating crypto exchanges and moving money through slow banking channels. Today, financial technology (fintech) platforms, exchanges, and some banks offer simple conversion tools. For example, buying or redeeming stablecoins with a bank transfer or card can now occur within minutes, reducing early friction points for new users.

Widespread wallet and platform support

Stablecoins are now accepted across a wide range of wallets, apps, and networks. Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) circulate on multiple blockchains (e.g., Ethereum, Tron, Solana) and Layer-2 networks, which gives users flexibility based on cost and speed. Stripe, for example, supports payments from more than 400 crypto wallets, enabling any customer with a standard crypto wallet to pay in stablecoins.

Fast, low-cost blockchains

Stablecoins originally relied heavily on Ethereum, which could get congested and expensive. Now they also run on faster, cheaper networks—Tron, Ethereum Layer-2s, Solana, and others—which regularly process stablecoin transfers for pennies. This allows stablecoins to function as payment tools rather than trading instruments. It’s also why daily stablecoin transfer volumes now frequently exceed $20 billion to $30 billion.

Integration into mainstream payment flows

Some payments providers support stablecoin acceptance at checkout and for recurring subscription billing, automatically handling conversions and reconciliation for businesses. Major card networks have piloted stablecoin settlement and tokenized deposits for business payouts. This reduces multiday, cross-border clearing cycles and makes it possible to use stablecoins in real-world payment and treasury workflows.

Growing regulatory frameworks

The US passed a federal stablecoin law, the GENIUS Act, which will take effect by January 2027. It outlines reserve, audit, and redemption requirements. Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework creates similar rules for euro-denominated coins. Hong Kong also passed the Stablecoin Ordinance in 2025. These regulations reduce uncertainty and make institutions more comfortable engaging with stablecoins.

How does stablecoin growth affect liquidity patterns?

Because stablecoins have become a key source of liquidity in crypto trading, their supply directly influences market size. When supply grows, exchanges and traders have more “cash” to deploy. When it contracts, markets shrink.

For example, in late 2025, a roughly $840 million decline in overall stablecoin supply coincided with lower trading volumes and thinner order books across exchanges. But since stablecoins circulate globally, they also extend the reach of the US dollar in regions where access to US banking is limited.

Growth in stablecoin circulation translates indirectly into demand for US government debt, since many issuers hold large reserves of Treasury bills and similar assets. With over $180 billion in reserve assets, including US Treasuries and other short-term securities held by major issuers, stablecoins now hold Treasury exposure comparable in size to sovereign investors. If stablecoin usage continues to climb, reserve accumulation could shape short-term funding markets. Analysis suggests that sustained inflows tied to a projected $1.2 trillion stablecoin market by 2028 might generate an additional $5.3 billion in weekly Treasury demand, enough to nudge yields by a few basis points at certain maturities.

What barriers restrict stablecoin growth?

Stablecoin adoption is rising fast, but there are barriers to how quickly and safely the market can grow.

Here are some of the restrictions limiting stablecoin growth:

Uneven regulation

Some countries actively encourage stablecoins, while others treat them like unlicensed banks or ban them outright. The International Monetary Fund has warned that inconsistent rules make it harder for stablecoins to grow responsibly. While the US, EU, and Hong Kong have made regulatory progress, many jurisdictions are still undecided, especially where governments worry about capital flight, financial instability, or dollarization (i.e., the adoption of the US dollar as currency in other countries).

Concerns about reserves and redemption

Stablecoins only work if people believe the reserves truly exist and can be redeemed on demand. Users are often skeptical because of past controversies over reserve composition, temporary depeggings, and uneven disclosure standards. While there are ways to prevent these risks, such as new laws requiring audited, high-quality reserves and well-defined redemption rights, not all issuers or jurisdictions meet that bar yet.

Systemic risk if confidence breaks

Regulators also worry about “run risk.” If a major stablecoin faced sudden mass redemptions, issuers would need to liquidate huge amounts of Treasuries quickly, which could disrupt funding markets and transmit stress into the financial system. Even though TerraUSD was algorithmic and unbacked, its 2022 collapse prompted regulators to view stablecoins as a possible channel for systemic contagion.

Illicit finance and security fears

Stablecoins have been implicated in some illicit transactions and sanctions cases, which might keep banks cautious. When combined with typical crypto concerns, such as wallet hacks, phishing, and smart contract vulnerabilities, strong security is important.

National currency and policy concerns

In some high-inflation countries, people are beginning to use stablecoins as a de facto store of value or a medium of exchange. It’s logical for users, but it might be destabilizing for governments that manage monetary policy. As a result, some nations have responded by restricting or heavily regulating stablecoin access.

Competition from central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and bank-led projects

Central banks are exploring their own CBDCs, and large banks are experimenting with tokenized deposits and settlement networks. Neither is ready to replace stablecoins, but both could shape the competition over time and create uncertainty about how digital payment methods will evolve.

How can businesses respond to stablecoin growth?

Stablecoins are already reshaping how money moves across borders. Companies that learn how to use them pragmatically (e.g., unlocking speed, reach, or efficiency) will benefit as adoption continues to accelerate.

Here are some of the best practices for using stablecoins in your business:

Offer stablecoin payment options where it makes sense

Accepting stablecoins through a payments provider such as Stripe gives companies the benefits without the administrative overhead. Companies offering stablecoin payments have already seen advantages. For example, Shadeform, a US-based AI company, saw nearly 20% of its payment volume shift to stablecoins and a 10% revenue increase after adding the option.

Use stablecoins for global payouts and treasury needs

Stablecoins can make cross-border payouts easier for contractors, creators, or vendors in countries where traditional payment methods are expensive or unreliable. Some businesses also use stablecoins in treasury operations. They hold short-term working capital in digital dollars to reduce foreign exchange (FX) exposure in volatile markets or access yield-bearing products backed by reserve assets.

Track regulations and prepare for compliance

Create systems for tracking stablecoin regulations as they evolve. Make sure you build internal guidance on which stablecoins you accept, understand Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules, and know how to treat stablecoin balances in accounting to help prevent surprises.

Choose reliable stablecoins and trusted partners

Businesses should prioritize tokens with reserve disclosures, high liquidity, and strong regulatory designs, such as those used by USDC, one of the dominant settlement assets in global crypto commerce. If you use intermediaries, vet them for security, licensing, and operational resiliency. Look for stability and transparency over novelty.

Stay flexible as the landscape changes

Central banks are experimenting with digital currencies, banks are issuing tokenized deposits, and new stablecoin designs continue to develop. Whether or not you need stablecoins today, build your literacy now. Then, when customer expectations, market conditions, or regulatory incentives shift, you’ll be able to react quickly.

How Stripe can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world. Businesses can accept stablecoin payments from almost anywhere in the world that settle as fiat in their Stripe balance.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to 125+ payment methods, including stablecoins and crypto.

• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.

• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.

• Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.

• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.