a16z: 9 Charts That Explain the Future Evolution of Stablecoins
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a16z: 9 Charts That Explain the Future Evolution of Stablecoins
It was widely believed that the core value of stablecoins lies in cross-border remittances. In reality, the opposite is true: stablecoins are undergoing deep localization.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Robert Hackett and Jeremy Zhang, a16z crypto
Translated by Chopper, Foresight News
For years, stablecoins have been searching for their core identity.
Initially, they served merely as trading instruments—facilitating the movement of dollar-denominated assets across major exchanges. Then, stablecoins evolved into savings vehicles, held long-term rather than used for everyday spending. Today, data points to an entirely new direction: stablecoins are becoming foundational global financial infrastructure.
The nine charts below illustrate the underlying trends driving this transformation.
Regulatory Clarity Accelerates Market Growth
For much of their development, regulatory uncertainty has long constrained institutional capital inflows into stablecoins. With the passage of the GENIUS Act, the regulatory framework has become significantly clearer. While the Act did not create the trend, it accelerated its momentum.
Stablecoin trading volume before and after the GENIUS Act
The U.S. established its first federal-level regulatory framework for stablecoin issuance with the GENIUS Act. The data clearly reflects the policy’s impact: stablecoin adjusted trading volume had already been rising steadily for several quarters prior to the Act’s enactment; after implementation, growth accelerated further, reaching approximately $4.5 trillion in Q1 2026.
MiCA boosted non-USD stablecoin markets
Europe’s regulatory framework for crypto assets—the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA)—presents a more complex picture. Following MiCA’s full implementation at the end of 2024, several major exchanges delisted USDT for compliance reasons, triggering a short-term surge in non-USD stablecoin trading volumes that peaked above $40 billion.
Thereafter, trading volumes stabilized at a significantly higher baseline than pre-MiCA levels, settling at a consistent monthly range of $15–25 billion. The new regulatory regime catalyzed a previously near-vacant market for non-USD stablecoins driven by genuine demand.
Commercial Stablecoin Payment Use Cases Continue Expanding
Perhaps the most important structural shift lies in how people actually use stablecoins.
Stablecoin commercial payments are concentrated in C2C use cases
In terms of transaction count, person-to-person (C2C) transactions lead by a wide margin, totaling 789.5 million in 2025. Meanwhile, person-to-business (C2B) transactions grew the fastest, surging from 124.9 million in 2024 to 284.6 million in 2025—a 128% year-on-year increase.
Growth trend in stablecoin payment card infrastructure
Data on stablecoin payment cards further confirms this trend.
Stablecoin payment card initiatives built on Rain’s technology—including Etherfi Cash, Kast, and Wallbit—saw monthly collateral deposits rise from nearly zero in November 2024 to over $300 million per month by early 2026. Although this collateral is not direct stablecoin spending but rather security deposits backing payment consumption, its growth curve is highly representative: stablecoin commercial payment use cases are rapidly scaling up.
Stablecoin Velocity Significantly Increases
The circulation frequency of each dollar-denominated stablecoin continues to accelerate.
Stablecoin velocity trend
Since early 2024, stablecoin velocity—defined as adjusted monthly transfer volume divided by circulating market cap—has nearly doubled, climbing from 2.6x to 6x. This acceleration indicates that demand for stablecoin transactions is growing faster than new issuance, significantly improving the utilization efficiency of existing capital.
This is also a hallmark of mature payment networks: the underlying currency is used frequently, rather than passively held.
Shift in Transaction Structure Highlights Payment Functionality
Excluding trading, fund flows, and exchange-related activity—which constitute the bulk of stablecoin transactions—the estimated inter-party payment volume last year ranged between $350 billion and $550 billion.
B2B stablecoin payments dominate
Business-to-business (B2B) remains the dominant force in stablecoin payments, consistently accounting for the largest share. At the same time, niche use cases—including peer-to-peer transfers and merchant receipts/payments—are expanding rapidly.
Geographic Concentration of Stablecoin Payments
Geographically, stablecoin payment activity is unevenly distributed.
Asia is the primary region for stablecoin payments
Nearly two-thirds of transaction volume originates from Asia, primarily Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.
North America accounts for roughly one-quarter of the total, Europe about 13%. Latin America and Africa combined represent a negligible share—less than $1 billion overall.
Local Stablecoins Run on Global Underlying Infrastructure
The rise of non-USD stablecoins is not unique to Europe; emerging markets are also adopting them rapidly—and for distinct reasons.
Monthly transfer volume of BRLA, the Brazilian real-pegged stablecoin
Brazil offers a vivid example. The Brazilian real-backed stablecoin BRLA saw its monthly transaction volume grow from nearly zero in early 2023 to around $400 million by early 2026—greatly accelerated by integration with Brazil’s instant payment network PIX.
Stablecoins’ cross-border payment function is weakening
Stablecoins have long been widely perceived as cross-border tools—but the actual share of cross-border transactions is steadily declining.
Domestic, local transactions rose from roughly 50% of total volume in early 2024 to nearly 70% by early 2026. This shift sends a clear signal: stablecoins’ core value is no longer confined to cross-border remittances and foreign exchange conversion. Instead, they are increasingly leveraging global underlying infrastructure to evolve into localized, everyday payment tools.
Conclusion
Taken together, all the data paint a clear industry picture—one that diverges sharply from earlier public expectations. Conventional wisdom held that stablecoins’ core value lay primarily in cross-border transfers. Reality points in the opposite direction: stablecoins are undergoing deep localization. While USD-pegged stablecoins still dominate overwhelmingly, stablecoins are not merely instruments for exporting the U.S. dollar. Non-USD stablecoins backed by local fiat currencies—including the euro and the Brazilian real—are steadily gaining market share.
Although peer-to-peer transfers remain the single largest use case, the share of daily commercial payments is rising steadily.
Each quarter’s data further corroborates the trend: stablecoins are gradually evolving into universal, public payment infrastructure. They are inherently global in design, yet increasingly local in application.
The industry remains in its early stages—but the ultimate form and trajectory of stablecoins are becoming increasingly clear.
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