Stablecoins settled $30T last year, surpassing Mastercard’s annual volume. Unlike past cycles where institutions speculated and retreated, this time they are building production infrastructure. From Google’s GCUL to JPMorgan’s Onyx to BlackRock’s on-chain fund, institutional adoption is no longer a pilot but a commitment.
Africa and LATAM processed more than $250B in remittances last year, sparking calls to mint local stablecoins. But creating tokens tied to volatile currencies does not solve the real challenge of FX liquidity. The bigger opportunity is in building better rails and intelligence layers around existing stablecoins like USDC and USDT.
The GENIUS Act delivers regulatory clarity for stablecoins in the U.S., but at a cost. By eliminating yield on reserves, it destroyed the business model that sustained issuers like Circle. The float has not disappeared, it has shifted offshore, to banks, and into new fee structures. This change may crown Tether king of emerging markets and force U.S. issuers to reinvent themselves.
The global remittance market moves over $2 trillion each year, yet it runs more on WhatsApp groups than Web3 dashboards. Stablecoins already flow through corridors like Lagos, La Paz, and Buenos Aires, but users need intelligence about which tokens actually clear, not more blockchains. The next frontier is corridor intelligence, not another Layer 1.
• Stablecoin, Blockchain, FinTech
Fantom, Avalanche, and Near saw billions in TVL vanish in months. Their failures show why chains collapse and why stablecoin issuers risk repeating the same mistakes. Stablecoin L1s face an even greater challenge: the moment USDC or PYUSD becomes tied to a single chain, they stop being money and start being loyalty tokens. The real opportunity is not in owning rails but in building the intelligence layer that guides how money moves across them.
Banks are unlikely to issue stablecoins directly. Patents, regulations, and compliance costs make it unattractive. Instead, banks will position themselves as infrastructure providers, capturing stablecoin economics through custody, settlement, and creative fee structures while leaving issuance to players like Circle.
• Stablecoin, Blockchain, FinTech
The race is on to build stablecoin-native blockchains, but most will fail. Private networks promise regulatory comfort at the cost of adoption, while public blockchains require true openness. Winning networks will not be owned by issuers but by infrastructure players who understand that in crypto, selling shovels beats digging for gold.
