a16z Report: Stablecoins Transforming Financial Infrastructure, Asia Has Dominated 2/3 of the Global Market

Stablecoins are moving away from their purely cross-border remittance role, shifting toward localized everyday payments, and are experiencing explosive growth under a well-established regulatory framework. This article is compiled from an analysis by a16zcrypto.com.
(Background: a16z announced a new fund raising $10 billion, focusing on AI, crypto finance, and defense technology)
(Additional context: Bloomberg: Why is a16z a key player behind US AI policy?)

Table of Contents

Toggle

• Regulatory Framework Implementation: GENIUS Act Boosts Trading Volume
• MiCA Policy Impact: Demand for Non-USD Stablecoins Surges
• Payment Scene Transformation: Explosive Growth in C2B Commercial Transactions
• Payment Card Infrastructure: Collateral Deposits Skyrocket
• Circulation Efficiency Doubles: Capital Turnover Speed Significantly Improves
• Asian Market Dominance: Controls Two-Thirds of Global Transaction Volume

For years, stablecoins have been establishing their core role.

Initially, they were just a trading tool used to transfer USD assets between major exchanges. Later, stablecoins evolved into savings instruments, becoming assets held long-term rather than for daily spending. Today, all data points to a new development direction: stablecoins are becoming a core part of global financial infrastructure.

The following nine charts reveal the underlying trends driving this transformation.

During most stages of stablecoin development, regulatory uncertainty long hindered institutional capital entry. With the implementation of the GENIUS Act, the regulatory framework has become clearer. The act is not the origin of industry trends but has accelerated their development.

The GENIUS Act and changes in stablecoin trading volume

Regulatory Framework Implementation: GENIUS Act Boosts Trading Volume

The US, through the GENIUS Act, has established the first federal-level regulatory framework for stablecoin issuance. Data clearly confirms the policy impact: in the quarters before the act’s implementation, stablecoin trading volume had been steadily rising; after the act took effect, growth further accelerated, reaching about $4.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2026.

MiCA Drives Non-USD Stablecoin Market

The European crypto asset regulation framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), shows a more complex picture. After full enforcement at the end of 2024, several major exchanges delisted USDT due to compliance reasons, directly causing a short-term surge in non-USD stablecoin trading, with peaks exceeding $40 billion.

Subsequently, market trading volume stabilized, with the overall base significantly higher than before MiCA’s implementation, maintaining monthly transaction scales between $15 billion and $25 billion. The new regulations have spurred demand in the previously almost empty non-USD stablecoin market.

The most important structural change in the market may be how people actually use stablecoins.

MiCA Policy Impact: Demand for Non-USD Stablecoins Surges

Stablecoin Business Payments Concentrate in C2C

Looking at transaction counts, person-to-person (C2C) transactions lead significantly, totaling 789.5 million in 2025. Meanwhile, person-to-business (C2B) transactions are growing fastest, increasing from 124.9 million in 2024 to 284.6 million in 2025, a 128% annual increase.

Growth Trend in Stablecoin Payment Card Infrastructure

Data from stablecoin payment cards, supported by Rain technology (including Etherfi Cash, Kast, Wallbit, etc.), also confirms this trend. Monthly collateral deposits skyrocketed from nearly zero in November 2024 to over $300 million at the beginning of 2026. Although these funds are used as collateral guarantees for payments rather than direct stablecoin spending, their growth curve is crucial: the commercial payment scene for stablecoins is rapidly emerging.

Payment Scene Transformation: Explosive Growth in C2B Commercial Transactions

The velocity of each dollar of stablecoin circulation continues to accelerate.

Stablecoin Circulation Velocity Trend

Since early 2024, the circulation velocity of stablecoins (adjusted monthly transfer volume ÷ circulating market cap) has nearly doubled, rising from 2.6 times to 6 times. Faster circulation means that the growth in stablecoin transaction demand has outpaced new issuance, greatly improving the utilization efficiency of existing funds.

This is a core feature of mature payment networks: underlying currencies are used at high frequency rather than passively held.

Excluding behaviors like trading, fund flows, and exchanges (which constitute most stablecoin transactions), the estimated payment volume among different participants last year ranged from $350 billion to $550 billion.

Payment Card Infrastructure: Collateral Deposits Skyrocket

B2B Stablecoin Payments Dominate

Business-to-business (B2B) remains the main force in stablecoin payments, maintaining the largest share. Meanwhile, segmented scenarios like person-to-person transfers and merchant payments are rapidly expanding.

Geographically, stablecoin payment activity is unevenly distributed.

Asia Leads in Stablecoin Payments

Nearly two-thirds of the transaction volume comes from Asia, mainly from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Circulation Efficiency Doubles: Capital Turnover Speed Significantly Improves

North America accounts for about a quarter, Europe around 13%. Latin America and Africa combined are very small, totaling less than $1 billion.

The rise of non-USD stablecoins is not unique to Europe; emerging markets are also rapidly adopting, driven by different logic.

Monthly transfer volume of the Brazil Real-pegged stablecoin BRLA

Brazil is a clear example. The monthly transaction volume of the BRLA stablecoin, supported by the Brazilian instant payment network PIX, grew from nearly zero at the start of 2023 to about $400 million in early 2026, greatly boosted by integration with PIX.

The cross-border payment attribute of stablecoins is weakening.

Asian Market Dominance: Controls Two-Thirds of Global Transaction Volume

For a long time, stablecoins have been broadly defined as cross-border tools, but the actual proportion of cross-border transactions is steadily declining.

Domestic transactions now account for about 50% at the start of 2024, rising to nearly 70% by early 2026. This shift signals that the core value of stablecoins is no longer limited to cross-border remittances and forex exchanges; instead, they are gradually relying on global underlying networks to transform into localized daily payment tools.

Combining all data, a clear industry landscape has taken shape, quite different from previous public expectations: many believed the core value of stablecoins was centered on cross-border transfers. The reality is quite the opposite—stablecoins are undergoing deep localization. While USD stablecoins still dominate, non-USD stablecoins backed by local currencies like the euro and the Brazilian real are steadily increasing their market share.

Although P2P transfers remain the largest use case for stablecoins, the proportion of daily commercial payments is steadily rising.

Data from each quarter continues to confirm: stablecoins are gradually evolving into a universal public payment infrastructure. They are inherently global but are becoming increasingly localized in application.

The industry is still in early stages, but the final form and development pattern of stablecoins are becoming increasingly clear.