Stablecoins: The New Gold Rush or Just Another Crypto Fad? 💸

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  • B2B stablecoin payments have exploded 30x in the past two years. Yes, you read that right! 🎉
  • Real-world stablecoin payments through crypto cards have outpaced remittances. Who knew? 🤔

So, global companies have decided to embrace stablecoin payments and flip the P2P consumer usage on its head. Talk about a plot twist! 📈

According to a report by crypto analytics firm Artemis and some fancy VCs (Dragonfly and Castle Island Ventures, if you must know), B2B stablecoin payments surged from a mere $100 million in 2023 to a whopping $3 billion by February 2025. That’s a growth spurt worthy of a teenage boy! 🚀

Rob Hadick, a partner at Dragonfly, claims businesses are now using stablecoins for payouts like it’s the hottest new trend.

“With this small subset of partners, annualizing over $36bn as of Feb – overtaking the consumer P2P use cases. Companies are demonstrably using stables for supplier payments, treasury management, and payouts.”

Stablecoin: Remittance Lags Card Payments (Shocking, I Know!)

P2P consumer payments or cross-border stablecoin volumes were about $1.5B, which is half of B2B usage as of February. Crypto card-linked volumes came in third at $1.1 billion. Who knew cards could be so popular? 💳

But from a growth perspective, P2P volumes are lagging behind crypto card-related transactions. It’s like watching a tortoise race a hare! 🐢💨

This suggests that more users are embracing digital dollars for real-world payments for goods and services, and not just for remittances. Thanks for the insight, Hadick! 🙄

In fact, P2P volumes have fluctuated around $1B for the past two years, while crypto cards’ traction jumped from below $300M to $1.1 billion. Talk about a glow-up! ✨

That said, Tether’s USDT remains the reigning champion (86%) in the space, followed by Circle’s USDC (13.9%). Not surprising, given USDT’s dominance. The data only covers up to February 2025, so who knows what’s next? 🤷‍♀️

In April, Circle unveiled a stablecoin-powered cross-border payments system, an aggressive move that could challenge USDT’s moat. Watch out, USDT! 🏰

According to Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, stablecoin growth will explode if related bills (GENIUS Act) are passed into law. Fingers crossed! 🤞

The U.S. Treasury projected the sector could grow from the current $240B to $2 trillion by 2028. That’s a lot of zeros! 💰

However, despite being the fastest-growing sector with massive use cases, it’s been challenging for retail to get investment exposure.

Stablecoins are pegged 1:1 to traditional currencies like the U.S. dollar. So, they don’t appreciate in value like BTC or SOL. Bummer! 😩

Circle’s IPO might offer one of the best shots for retail investors to buy its shares. But beware of potential dumping by insiders. Yikes! 😱

Another option may be through Plasma’s upcoming XPL tokens. Plasma is a blockchain built specifically to power stablecoins and backed by Tether’s Paolo Ardoino, Bitfinex, and PayPal’s Peter Thiel, among others. Sounds fancy, right? 💼

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2025-05-31 11:06