Rich by Coin

Raw blockchain transfers are oftentimes pointed to as proof of stablecoin adoption, but the reality is only a small percentage of this activity—around 1% of roughly $35 trillion in total transaction volume—is actually related to real-world payments. This means stablecoin adoption, which the report estimates at $390 billion for 2025, only accounts for around 0.02% of global payments. According to the report, B2B payments and international remittances account for most of the stablecoin payment activity, and activities such as crypto exchanges moving funds between blockchain accounts, automated activity with smart contracts, and trading on decentralized exchanges should not be included in payment measurements. The report also indicates around 60% of this activity is originating in Asia, adding, “Activity today is driven almost entirely by payments sent from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.”

Despite the clear overstatements in stablecoin payment adoption made by various entities in the crypto industry, the report also indicates there are still signs of real growth. For example, the $390 billion in stablecoin payments occurring in 2025 is more than double what was seen in the previous year. Additionally, the total supply of stablecoins has increased from less than $30 billion in 2020 to more than $300 billion today. More generally, the prominence of stablecoins in crypto has caused a rift between cypherpunks focused on ideology and fintech startups focused strictly on adoption metrics.

While stablecoins were originally seen as a boon for crypto adoption, it’s now gotten to the point where stablecoin issuers are launching their own blockchain infrastructure, adding another layer of centralized control to the tech stack. Questions remain over how much value will accrue to these open protocols or if stablecoin issuers and other centralized entities could successfully cut these networks out of the equation entirely. There has also been plenty of hype built around metrics such as transactions per second over the years, which tend to miss the point of what makes this technology valuable. There are tons of raw blockchain transfers, but few could be considered ‘payments’.