January 12, 2026
By Our Correspondent
Stablecoins, the once-niche plumbing of the crypto economy, are rapidly becoming a mass financial instrument. In 2025 their transaction volumes surged to unprecedented levels, buoyed by a friendlier regulatory climate in the United States under President Donald Trump and a growing appetite for dollar-linked digital money worldwide.
Data from Artemis Analytics show that total stablecoin transactions jumped by 72% last year, reaching $33trn. USDC, issued by Circle Internet Group, accounted for $18.3trn of that flow, overtaking Tether’s USDT, which recorded $13.3trn. Together, the two dollar-pegged tokens now underpin a large share of digital payments, trading and savings across borders.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a fixed value, usually pegged to the US dollar. Under the Trump administration they have enjoyed an unusually warm welcome. In July, Congress passed bespoke legislation under the Genius Act, providing legal clarity for issuers and users alike. The result has been a broadening of interest beyond the crypto industry, with firms such as Standard Chartered, Walmart and Amazon exploring their own stablecoin initiatives. In March, the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, launched USD1, its own dollar-backed token.
The nature of stablecoin use is also shifting. Anthony Yim, co-founder of Artemis, notes that while total transaction volumes rose sharply in 2025, a smaller share now flows through decentralised crypto platforms. That, he argues, points to wider everyday adoption. Stablecoins, he says, are increasingly “mass digital dollars”, particularly attractive in a volatile geopolitical environment.
For citizens of inflation-prone or unstable economies, stablecoins offer a simple way to hold dollars without access to the American banking system. Tether’s USDT dominates by size, with $187bn in circulation, compared with USDC’s $75bn, according to CoinGecko. Yet Artemis’s data suggest that USDC punches above its weight in terms of activity.
On decentralised finance (“DeFi”) platforms—blockchain-based systems for encouraging trading and lending—USDC is the preferred instrument. Traders repeatedly recycle the same dollars as they move in and out of positions, generating large volumes. Tether, by contrast, is more often held passively, used for everyday payments or as a store of value rather than actively churned.
Circle argues that trust and regulation explain the difference. “People choose USDC because it offers the deepest liquidity and the highest levels of regulatory confidence,” says Dante Disparte, the firm’s chief strategy officer. The Genius Act, he adds, has helped to formalise that trust. Tether declined to comment.
Governments in Asia are also jockeying for position. Hong Kong has been building an ambitious regulatory framework to attract crypto firms and stablecoin issuers as part of a broader digital-finance strategy. Singapore, meanwhile, ranks highest globally for regulatory clarity, according to Bybit’s 2025 World report.
Not everyone is reassured. The International Monetary Fund warned in October that the rise of stablecoins could undermine traditional banking, weaken monetary policy and trigger destabilising runs on assets long considered safe. Such concerns echo earlier anxieties about “shadow banking” in other guises.
Yet the momentum is unmistakable. Stablecoin transactions reached a record $11trn in the final quarter of 2025, up from $8.8trn in the previous three months. Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts that annual stablecoin payment flows could swell to $56trn by 2030.
If that comes to pass, digital dollars may soon rival, and perhaps reshape, the conventional financial system they were once meant merely to complement.
