As stablecoins continue to “eat the world,” the center of gravity in the value chain is shifting—from issuance to distribution. The question we shall consider is: how do we ride the wave of stablecoins’ accelerating momentum in the global market?

Where pre-GENIUS attention focused on who could mint the tokens, the spotlight now is on who can move them further: the global networks and real-world use-cases that put stablecoins into every wallet, checkout and treasury stack. The result is a market structure that may fragment away from a handful of crypto-native giants toward a diversified ecosystem of traditional banks, money transmitters, card schemes and commerce platforms.

Compliance clarity and mature tooling have let the tokens escape the exchange ghetto and seep into corporate treasury management, global payroll, repo markets, invoice factoring and everyday POS spending. Payment networks and issuing banks, in turn, are plugging stablecoins into the same rails used for card settlements, turning them from a brief off-ramp into a permanently circulating medium whose lifecycle is now measured in months instead of minutes—and whose liquidity glues the on-chain and off-chain economies together.

Data

DeFiLlama shows the aggregate stablecoin supply topped USD 280 billion in August—a clear post-GENIUS Act surge that has been compounding at roughly 10 % month-over-month, the same pace visible in Visa’s stablecoin dashboard.

According to BVNK’s 2025 Payments Guide, on-chain stablecoin transaction volume reached USD 32 trillion in 2024; if we isolate pure payment flows, that is about USD 6 trillion, or 3 % of today’s estimated USD 195 trillion in global cross-border payment volume.

The main brakes on these numbers are regulation, liquidity depth and poor interoperability with legacy rails—but daylight is appearing: rules are clarifying, growth is accelerating and incumbents are piling in. If the three frictions are solved, stablecoins could capture roughly 12% of global cross-border payments by 2030 according to FXC Intelligence. Only by lifting the hood on how money actually moves do the opportunities—and the bottlenecks—come into full view.

Regulatory Developments

United States: GENIUS Act Approval

The U.S. has taken a monumental step with the approval of the GENIUS Act, a landmark piece of legislation designed to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins. This act aims to instill confidence among investors and foster innovation by establishing clear guidelines for issuance, backing, and redemption processes.

Hong Kong: Stablecoin Ordinance

In Asia, Hong Kong has emerged as a leader by implementing its Stablecoin Ordinance. This regulatory framework is designed to attract global stablecoin projects by offering a supportive environment, ensuring issuers adhere to stringent compliance standards while promoting financial stability and fostering economic growth.

European Union: MiCA Legislation

The European Union has introduced the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation, aiming to harmonize crypto regulations across member states. This framework includes provisions specific to stablecoins, ensuring robust consumer protection, transparency, and market integrity.

Japan: Digital Yen Initiative

Japan is actively exploring the introduction of a digital yen as part of its broader strategy to incorporate stablecoins into the existing financial system. The government's proactive stance is expected to spur innovation and competition in the digital payments space.

Singapore: Progressive Regulatory Environment

Singapore continues to position itself as a global fintech hub, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) actively engaging with stablecoin issuers to create a conducive regulatory atmosphere. The country’s commitment to innovation is evident through its regulatory sandbox, allowing companies to experiment with stablecoin solutions in a controlled environment.

Blockchain Ventures

Circle, Stripe, and Google's Blockchain Ventures

As regulatory clarity improves, major corporations like Circle, Stripe, and Google are venturing into the stablecoin space by launching their own blockchain projects. These initiatives are aimed at enhancing transaction efficiency, reducing costs, and expanding financial inclusion on a global scale.

• Circle: Known for its USDC stablecoin, Circle is expanding its blockchain ecosystem to support a wider array of financial applications and services, facilitating seamless cross-border transactions.
• Stripe: The payment giant is developing a stablecoin blockchain designed to integrate with its existing payment infrastructure, enabling instant, low-cost transactions for its extensive network of merchants.
• Google: Leveraging its technological prowess, Google is exploring blockchain solutions to enhance its financial products, with stablecoins playing a central role in its strategy for digital payments innovation.

Google Cloud is quietly building a permissioned blockchain called Universal Ledger (GCUL) for regulated financial institutions. The network will natively tokenize bank deposits, support multi-currency clearing and programmable payments, and expose Python smart-contracts and REST APIs so that any bank can become an on-chain issuer and distributor without ceding control to a third-party chain.

An internal Google Cloud post argues that payment fragmentation could cost the global economy US $2.8 trn by 2030 and that stablecoins have already proven demand for 24-hour settlement; GCUL is designed to capture the next wave of institutional flows that want the efficiency of crypto rails inside a fully compliant, private environment.

Stripe’s decision to launch its own Layer-1 (“Tempo”) rather than deploy on an Ethereum L2 is best understood as a strategic data play, not merely a cost-saving move. Stablecoins are collapsing the historical separation of messaging, clearing and settlement, and Stripe wants to internalize all three steps so that every transaction—issuer, FX, KYC metadata and finality—resides on infrastructure it governs. Tempo is expected to run a permissioned consensus with zero-knowledge proofs that deliver sub-second finality and predictable fees, giving merchants a viable alternative to card rails and SWIFT without exposing them to the variable gas or regulatory risk of public chains.

More importantly, owning the ledger gives Stripe an immutable feed of high-quality settlement data that can be fed into AI models for real-time credit scoring, fraud detection and treasury optimization—services that command far higher margins than the 25–35 bps Stripe currently earns on payments. The network is therefore less a “walled garden” than an attempt to convert payments from a commoditized utility into a programmable operating system for commerce, luring traditional volume on-chain while creating new, data-driven revenue lines.

Strategic Market Events

Ripple's Acquisition

Ripple, a prominent player in the cryptocurrency space, has made headlines with its strategic acquisition aimed at bolstering its stablecoin capabilities. This move is expected to enhance Ripple's payment solutions, targeting new markets and expanding its reach in the digital payments ecosystem.

Rain's Funding Round

Rain, a leading stablecoin payment company, recently secured significant funding in a highly-publicized financing round. This capital infusion will accelerate Rain's expansion plans, allowing it to enhance its technological infrastructure and capture a larger share of the burgeoning stablecoin payments market.

Tether's Transparency Initiative

In response to increasing regulatory scrutiny, Tether has launched a transparency initiative, providing regular attestations of its reserves. This effort aims to bolster investor confidence and maintain Tether's position as a leading stablecoin issuer.

Binance's Expansion into DeFi

Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, is expanding its stablecoin offerings into decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. By integrating stablecoins into various DeFi protocols, Binance seeks to enhance liquidity and broaden access to decentralized financial services.

Visa's Stablecoin Partnerships

Visa has announced partnerships with several stablecoin projects to facilitate cross-border transactions. By integrating stablecoins into its payment network, Visa aims to offer faster, more efficient payment solutions, benefiting both consumers and merchants.

Mastercard's Crypto Support

Mastercard is also making strides in the stablecoin space by supporting cryptocurrencies across its networks. This initiative includes the potential use of stablecoins for everyday transactions, paving the way for mainstream adoption and enhanced consumer convenience.

JP Morgan's Blockchain Developments

JP Morgan has been at the forefront of blockchain innovation with its JPM Coin, a stablecoin designed for seamless interbank transfers. This initiative demonstrates how traditional financial institutions are embracing blockchain to enhance efficiency and reduce operational costs.

The overall convergence of regulatory support, corporate initiatives, and strategic market events signals a vibrant future for stablecoins. As more countries establish frameworks and major corporations invest in blockchain technology, stablecoins are poised to revolutionize global finance by providing unmatched efficiency, transparency, and inclusivity.

These developments underscore the necessity for continuous innovation and collaboration among stakeholders to address challenges such as regulatory compliance, interoperability, and security. The path forward promises not only to reshape the financial landscape but also to democratize access to financial services worldwide.

Investment Trend

Rain, the Visa-backed stablecoin payments startup, raised $58 million in a Series B led by Sapphire Ventures with Samsung Next, Dragonfly and Galaxy joining, bringing its total funding to $88.5 million. The company offers enterprise-grade card, wallet and payout rails that let fintechs, banks and marketplaces issue Visa-branded products settled in stablecoins; cards spend at any Visa merchant and volumes have grown 10× since January. With the U.S. GENIUS Act and the EU’s MiCA framework finally giving stablecoins a clear regulatory path, Rain is positioned to convert digital dollars into everyday purchasing power and capture a slice of a market that banks such as BofA expect to reach trillions of dollars.

Swiss issuer platform M0 closed a $40 million Series B co-led by Polychain, Ribbit and Endeavor Catalyst, lifting total capital to $100 million since its 2023 launch. M0 separates reserve management (regulated trustees hold cash/T-bills) from programmable token logic, letting developers define mint/burn/transfer rules while staying compliant; supply already doubled to $300 million in 2024 and MetaMask’s forthcoming mUSD will launch on the platform. The integration of Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition Bridge as the first U.S.-regulated issuer shows TradFi is now plugging directly into application-specific stablecoins, a trend M0 expects will spawn thousands of USDC/Tether competitors under the new rules.

Singapore-based Tazapay, which builds fiat on/off-ramps for emerging-market currencies, raised an undisclosed Series B led by Peak XV with strategic participation from Ripple and Circle; proceeds will secure money-transmitter licences in the U.S., Australia, Hong Kong and the UAE. The company already operates one of the widest local-collections networks in Asia, Africa and Latam and will use stablecoins to settle cross-border commerce in minutes instead of days. The co-investment by two of the largest blockchain payment giants signals a race to own the “last-mile” compliance layer that bridges digital dollars and local banking in markets historically underserved by SWIFT.

Transak, a fiat-to-stablecoin gateway active in 75 countries, took in $16 million of strategic funding led by Tether and IDG Capital, bringing total volume past $2 billion—30% already denominated in stablecoins—and expanding its reach across 450+ apps serving 10 million users. The company holds multiple VASP licences and will deepen liquidity in the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Investors are betting that compliant, KYC-screened on-ramps will become the indispensable toll roads as stablecoins evolve into the default settlement network for global commerce.

USD.AI, a lending protocol that issues dollar-pegged loans collateralized by physical GPU hardware, raised a $13 million Series A led by Framework Ventures with Dragonfly and Arbitrum participating; the private beta has already attracted $50 million in deposits from AI startups that prefer to borrow stablecoins instead of selling chips. The platform will supplement debt origination with an ICO and gamified token distribution, creating a new asset class that marries AI compute scarcity to on-chain credit. By collateralizing productive hardware rather than volatile tokens, USD.AI offers under-collateralized stablecoin exposure while giving miners a way to unlock dollar liquidity without curtailing operations.

Tether paid €30 million for a minority stake in Bit2Me, Spain’s first crypto exchange to receive a full CASP licence under the EU’s MiCA regime, and co-led the €30 million round that values the 1.2 million-user platform at roughly €200 million. Bit2Me will use the capital to expand across the 27-nation EU and into Argentina, giving Tether a compliant listing venue for USDT just as exchanges begin delisting or downgrading the token to meet the new rules. The deal illustrates how Tether is deploying last quarter’s record $4.9 billion profit to secure regulatory beachheads in jurisdictions where operating without a licence will soon be impossible.

Ripple agreed to acquire institutional stablecoin-payments provider Rail for $200 million in cash and stock, expecting the purchase to close in Q4 2025; Rail is on track to process more than 10% of this year’s estimated $36 billion in global stablecoin payment volume. The takeover will let Ripple offer enterprise treasury services that settle in RLUSD, XRP and other digital assets while allowing corporates to send and receive funds without ever touching crypto themselves. Coming only months after Ripple’s $1.25 billion purchase of prime-broker Hidden Road, the deal re-positions the company from cross-border messaging network to end-to-end fiat-and-stablecoin bank, intensifying competition with Circle, Stripe and PayPal.

Hong Kong-based HKDR issuer RD Technologies closed a $40 million Series A2 round led by ZhongAn International, Zhongwan International, CuiCan Investment and Hivemind Capital, with Sequoia China following on; the company has now raised nearly $50 million since 2022 and is a participant in the HKMA’s stablecoin sandbox. RD has signed an MOU with ZhongAn Bank to explore compliant stablecoin financial services and will use the capital to broaden adoption of its 1:1 Hong-Kong-dollar token. The round signals that Hong Kong’s regulator is serious about licensing local dollar-linked tokens and positions HKDR as a key piece of the city’s bid to become Asia’s premier crypto finance hub.

Zodia Markets, the institutional FX and digital-asset platform backed by Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures and OSL Group, raised $18.25 million in a Series A led by Pharsalus Capital with Circle Ventures participating; the firm already supports 20+ fiat currencies and 70+ digital assets, focusing on real-time wholesale settlement and cross-border treasury flows. The investment will accelerate expansion into Europe and the Middle East where banks are piloting non-USD stablecoins for intraday liquidity. By merging traditional foreign-exchange capital flows with on-chain stablecoin finality, Zodia exemplifies how global banks are beginning to treat tokenized dollars as core infrastructure rather than an experimental sideshow.

Stable, a new Layer-1 built expressly for zero-fee stablecoin payments, raised $28 million in seed funding co-led by Bitfinex and Hack VC with Franklin Templeton, Castle Island and KuCoin Ventures joining; the network will use USDT as gas and is targeting throughput rivaling Solana while keeping transaction costs below $0.01. The round arrives as single-purpose stablecoin chains such as Plasma (which recently sought $373 million) attract venture dollars eager to capture the $2.7 trillion payment volume now settling on-chain. Traditional asset-manager Franklin Templeton’s participation highlights growing institutional comfort with infrastructure plays that optimize solely for dollar-token movement rather than generalized smart contracts.

Dakota, a stablecoin-native bank founded by former Coinbase custody lead Ryan Bozarth, raised $12.5 million in a Series A led by CoinFund with 6th Man, DCG and Kraken’s Triton Ventures; the platform has processed $1.6 billion in payments for 500+ mostly non-U.S. clients and expects $4 billion by year-end. Dakota offers FDIC-pass-through checking accounts and yield products but routes deposits through multiple partner banks using stablecoins, giving overseas businesses seamless U.S.-dollar banking without maintaining a traditional charter. The model illustrates how ex-exchange operators are carving out regulated niches that combine fintech UX with tokenized dollar rails, a template likely to multiply as agencies finalize bank-stablecoin guidance.

Plasma, which markets itself as “zero-fee Bitcoin-secured stablecoin payments,” opened a public token sale on 17 July aiming to raise $50 million by selling 1 billion XPL (10% of supply) at a $500 million fully-diluted valuation; more than 4,000 wallets pre-deposited. XPL will collateralize a PoS validator network that targets 5% initial inflation falling to 3% and is designed to pull trillions of off-chain dollar liquidity into programmable rails that merge Bitcoin finality with EVM compatibility. If regulators enshrine low-cost stablecoin settlement as a utility, Plasma’s fee-less architecture could siphon both retail remittances and DeFi arbitrage away from existing Layer-2s.

Agora, a white-label stablecoin infrastructure provider, raised $50 million in a Series A led by Paradigm, bringing total funding to $62 million; the company lets brands launch co-named tokens on top of its AUSD stablecoin while sharing the underlying dollar-yield with partners. Reserves are managed off-chain by State Street and VanEck, and the open-source platform already powers $130 million of circulating supply. As non-crypto giants like Meta and Amazon weigh branded dollars, Agora’s “public-utility” model—where issuers keep the float—could accelerate the fragmentation of stablecoin market share beyond USDT/USDC while still aggregating liquidity across a single network.

Tether made a strategic investment in blockchain-analytics firm Crystal Intelligence to gain real-time risk-scoring, fraud-detection and regulatory-intelligence tools that will help law enforcement trace illicit USDT flows. The partners already operate a public Scam Alert database that flags wallets tied to pig-butchering and other frauds, addressing FBI data showing $9.3 billion in crypto-related losses last year. By proactively funding compliance tech, Tether aims to pre-empt further black-listing pressure from European and U.S. regulators and to defend the $118 billion USDT franchise against accusations that its transparency lags behind rivals.

Conclusion

The stablecoin sector is experiencing unprecedented momentum, driven by regulatory advancements, corporate engagements, and strategic market maneuvers. As stablecoins continue to gain traction, they stand to redefine the future of finance, presenting opportunities for growth, innovation, and financial inclusion in a rapidly evolving digital economy.

About PolyFlow

PolyFlow is an innovative PayFi protocol designed to connect real-world assets (RWA) with decentralized finance (DeFi). As the infrastructure layer of the PayFi network, PolyFlow integrates traditional payments, crypto payments, and DeFi in a decentralized manner to handle real-world payment scenarios. PolyFlow provides the necessary infrastructure to ensure compliance, security, and seamless integration of real-world assets, paving the way for a new financial paradigm and industry standards.

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