Stablecoin adoption has surged to roughly 300 million unique users over the past year, even as retail crypto trading cools. The growth is driven by payment companies and consumer apps that are integrating dollar-pegged tokens into everyday financial services, according to industry data and executives.
Patrick Kim of analytics firm Artemis noted the scale: "In the past 12 months, there's been over 300 million unique users of stablecoins, which is an absurdly high number." He added that such figures would have been dismissed five years ago. While the count reflects on-chain addresses rather than verified individuals—and one person can control multiple wallets—the trend is unmistakable: stablecoin usage is expanding beyond crypto exchanges into mainstream payments.
The adoption is decoupling from the broader crypto market. Sami Start, co-founder of fiat-to-stablecoin onramp Transak, explained on the On The Margin podcast: "The total addressable market is much larger on the stablecoin side than the crypto side now. There's somewhat of a crypto winter happening in terms of retail buying and selling of crypto, but stablecoin adoption is orthogonal to that." Raj Kamal, who runs Dubai-based cross-border firm TransFi, added that the sector is still in its infancy: "We're just scratching at the surface of what is possible, because compared to traditional payments, stablecoins do very little volume."
Regulation has been a key catalyst. The GENIUS Act signed by President Trump establishes clear rules for stablecoin management in the US, while Europe's MiCA framework provides straightforward guidelines for issuers and applications. Ignas Survila, founder of dollar-banking app Rizon, said these rules have given the industry a legal footing. The financial sector has responded: Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge for about $1.1 billion, Mastercard is buying payments company BVNK, and Visa is building settlement on the same rails used by issuers Circle and Tether.
The core value proposition is fixing a payments system that remains slow and costly. "It's still slow. Swift internationally can take seconds or can take days," said Brian Mehler, CEO of Bitfinex-backed stablecoin chain Stable. He contrasted the speed of modern technology with outdated payment rails: "We look at the embrace of AI and how fast your 5G needs to be, but then we're totally okay, for some strange reason, that payments go extremely slow and are extremely expensive." Kim expects cards to become the primary retail use case for stablecoins by year-end.
Consumer-facing apps are now working to make stablecoins invisible to users. Rizon, for example, offers a card and account details while hiding the underlying crypto. "Our goal is to actually hide the stablecoins," said Survila. The app operates as a front-end technology provider, partnering with licensed entities like US-based Rain to issue cards. Rizon claims 122 countries in 65 weeks, 280,000 users, and $120 million in annual payment volume—self-reported figures that are not audited. The demand is real for users in regions with limited banking access. Matas Olendra, Rizon's marketing lead, described his experience in Pakistan: "My payments get declined. I want Spotify, I want to watch Netflix, I want to order things from Amazon, but I always get blocked."
However, skeptics argue that many stablecoin apps are not fundamentally new. Neo, who previously led Alipay's overseas QR-payments push and now runs onchain neobank UR, said: "Everyone's taking the easy way out. Easy USDC stablecoins, you issue a card, suddenly you're a neobank, and you can spend, and it's very cool. But structurally at its core, nothing's really changing." The open question is whether wrapping a stablecoin in a card offers a genuinely better banking experience or merely a cheaper way to distribute the same dollars.
Looking ahead, the trajectory of stablecoin adoption will depend on whether these apps become licensed banks or remain thin front ends, and how regulators in the Global South respond to dollar-based apps they do not control. Issuers remain optimistic. "Once you see there's an option out there, it's really hard to put that genie back in the bottle," said Mehler. "It's pretty much out. They know there's a better solution, and I think it's going to stick that way."
For investors, the stablecoin boom is intertwined with broader dollar dynamics. As the dollar steadies near 101.50 amid geopolitical and Fed uncertainty, stablecoins offer a digital representation of the greenback. Meanwhile, traditional safe havens like gold rebounding to $4,068 show how investors are hedging against currency fluctuations. The expansion of dollar-backed stablecoins could also influence dollar movements as global users gain easier access to US currency.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
