Stablecoin Adoption: The Tipping Point for Mainstream Payments?

In the evolving landscape of digital finance, stablecoins have emerged as a transformative force, reshaping cross-border transactions and global commerce. With monthly transaction volumes now exceeding $710 billion and continuing to rise sharply, are we witnessing the tipping point for mainstream stablecoin adoption? What barriers still need to be addressed, and how can we bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional financial networks?

The State of Global Payments & Key Challenges

Despite advancements in financial technology, cross-border payments can still be slow, costly, and fragmented. While initiatives like ISO 20022 and SWIFT GPI have improved transaction transparency and efficiency, businesses still face challenges in achieving real-time, cost-effective payments.

Stablecoins provide a compelling alternative to existing solutions by eliminating inefficiencies like trapped liquidity and high foreign exchange costs. However, to build trust and drive adoption, stablecoin networks must seamlessly connect with legacy banking systems, real-time payment networks, and mobile wallet infrastructures.

Stablecoins: A Game-Changer for Merchant Payments

The surge in stablecoin adoption has moved beyond a theory and is already reshaping merchant payments. In 2024, stablecoin transaction volumes exceeded $450 billion per month, roughly half of Visa’s $1 trillion monthly processing volume. New data from Visa published in March 2025 shows that this number has now surged to $710 billion. The number of unique stablecoin addresses has grown by 50% year-over-year to 35 million. This exponential growth reflects stablecoins’ increasing role in mainstream financial systems.

For merchants and marketplaces, stablecoins offer significant advantages. By eliminating intermediaries, businesses can significantly lower transaction fees. Unlike traditional banking hours, stablecoin payments function 24/7, allowing real-time transactions across borders. Businesses can track funds in real time, reducing reconciliation challenges. These benefits create new opportunities for industries such as e-commerce, the gig economy, and global supplier payments.

Thanks to their benefits, stablecoins are revolutionising payments across industries. A rideshare driver can receive earnings immediately after completing a ride. Companies like ScaleAI are leveraging stablecoins to pay international contractors efficiently. Businesses can send and receive cross-border payments without costly intermediaries, and merchants can accept stablecoins without requiring traditional banking infrastructure, expanding their global reach.

Wholesale Business Settlements: Unlocking Instant, Cost-Effective Payments

Stablecoins offer a breakthrough in wholesale settlements for businesses managing high-value B2B transactions, such as a fintech or a neobank looking to offer instant cross-border payments but requiring liquidity in local currencies across multiple markets.

For example, a fintech looking to facilitate real-time global transactions can pre-fund its accounts in key markets using USDC via blockchain-based wholesale settlement networks. The process begins with the fintech converting USD to USDC and depositing it into a liquidity provider’s account. The liquidity provider, or a partner bank, then settles the equivalent amount in local fiat via local ACH, RTGS, or SWIFT. This ensures faster payouts without the need to wait for traditional wire transfers to clear, significantly improving liquidity management and reducing operational costs.

Traditional banking systems often introduce inefficiencies such as long settlement cycles, high fees, and rigid cut-off times. These friction points can impact liquidity, increase operational costs, and create cash flow bottlenecks. By leveraging stablecoins like USDC, businesses can execute large-scale settlements in real time, 24/7, eliminating the delays associated with bank wires and cross-border transfers. Unlike traditional payment rails that take days to clear high-value transactions, stablecoins enable instant settlement, improving cash flow management and reducing counterparty risk. Businesses can also bypass intermediaries and costly foreign exchange conversions, leading to significant savings, particularly for multinational corporations operating in multiple currencies.

With blockchain-based settlement, businesses gain real-time visibility into transaction statuses, simplifying financial reconciliation and audit processes. Stablecoins also open the door for programmable payments, automating invoice settlements, trade financing, and supplier payments, enhancing overall supply chain efficiency.

Regulation & Trust: The Key to Sustainable Growth

While stablecoins offer immense potential, regulatory clarity is crucial to their long-term viability. A well-balanced regulatory framework can foster mainstream adoption by ensuring financial stability and consumer protection. It can provide clear compliance standards to prevent fraud and illicit transactions while encouraging collaboration between industry leaders and regulators to integrate stablecoins into existing payment infrastructures.

But it is critical to achieve the right balance to enable innovation. Clear regulatory frameworks can foster mainstream adoption, financial stability, and consumer trust, while excessive restrictions risk stifling progress.

2025: A Defining Year for Stablecoins?

The current momentum behind stablecoins indicates that 2025 could be a turning point, shifting from early adoption to mainstream global payment infrastructure. Financial institutions, fintechs, and regulators will play a critical role in shaping this transition.

Key trends to watch include bridging digital and traditional finance, with seamless integration of stablecoins into mobile wallets and banking networks. Stablecoin transaction volumes will continue to grow as major corporations integrate them into their payment ecosystems. Regulatory clarity will be essential in establishing stablecoins as a trusted part of global financial infrastructure while coexisting with CBDCs and Web3 innovations.

Thunes’ role in the digital asset ecosystem

For stablecoins to achieve mainstream adoption, efficient on- and off-ramps are essential. This involves eliminating interoperability barriers and building a financial ecosystem that is faster, more inclusive, and more efficient. As the Smart Superhighway to move money around the world, Thunes plays a crucial role in addressing this challenge by connecting digital asset networks with fiat-based applications, including bank payments and mobile wallets.

Thunes proprietary Direct Global Network, which spans 130 countries, offers access to over 7 billion mobile wallet and bank accounts, as well as 15 billion cards and over 320 alternative payment integrations, ensuring last-mile delivery to local endpoints. Through our SmartX Treasury System, Thunes provides real-time stablecoin settlement, pairing real-time payments with real-time settlements, and instant liquidity funding.

Thunes’ SmartX Treasury System also ensures seamless wholesale stablecoin settlement, offering businesses an efficient bridge between digital assets and traditional banking. With real-time liquidity funding and regulatory compliance, Thunes enables enterprises to integrate stablecoin settlements effortlessly, unlocking new opportunities for global trade and treasury optimisation.

Thunes addresses regulatory complexities which are presented by moving money around the world through its Fortress Compliance Platform, which manages over 50 payment licences worldwide. This ensures full compliance with local regulations for seamless, secure transactions while providing real-time visibility and protection for financial institutions and businesses.

And importantly, Thunes’ collaborations with major industry players like Circle are embedding stablecoins into mainstream payment flows. These capabilities help ensure that stablecoin payments are not just a niche innovation but a fully integrated component of the global financial ecosystem.

Final Thoughts

With transaction volumes skyrocketing and real-world applications proving their utility, stablecoins are well on their way to becoming a cornerstone of global payments. As adoption accelerates, addressing regulatory concerns and ensuring seamless integration with fiat payment networks will be critical.

Thunes is at the forefront of this transformation, playing an anchor role in enabling businesses and financial institutions to harness the power of stablecoins while maintaining compliance and security. The next few years will determine how deeply stablecoins embed themselves into mainstream finance, but one thing is clear: the future of payments is digital, instant, and borderless.

Keen to explore stablecoin payments? Contact us today to learn how we can help you integrate payment capabilities which will boost the growth of your business.