Stablecoins quietly became the biggest payments story in crypto.

@a16zcrypto says stablecoins did $46T in transfer volume over the last year: 3x Visa, and closing in on ACH.
Here's a summary of their State of Crypto 2025: Stablecoin edition 🧵
1. From Trading Tool to Global Payment Rail
- Initially designed for speculative crypto trades
- Now: transfer $1 globally in under a second for less than a cent, almost anywhere
- Stablecoins have evolved from niche infrastructure to essential financial plumbing
2. Explosive Growth in Transaction Volume
- $46 trillion in total stablecoin transaction volume last year, up 106% year-over-year
- Nearly three times Visa’s volume and approaching ACH, which supports the entire U.S. banking system
- While not a perfect comparison (financial flows vs. retail payments), the scale is undeniable
3. Adjusted Volume Confirms Real Usage
- $9 trillion in adjusted transaction volume over the past 12 months
- Over 5× PayPal’s throughput
- More than 50% of Visa’s volume
4. Adoption Is Accelerating
- Monthly adjusted volume reached a new all-time high
- $1.25 trillion in September 2025 alone
- Growth is largely uncorrelated with crypto trading volume
- Confirms stablecoins are being used as products, not just trading instruments
5. Supply at Record Highs
- Total stablecoin supply exceeds $300 billion
- Market concentration: USDT and USDC account for 87% of the total supply
- $772 billion in adjusted transactions settled on Ethereum and Tron in September 2025
- New chains and issuers are growing rapidly, despite the dominance of incumbents today
6. Stablecoins as a Global Macroeconomic Force
- Over 1% of all U.S. dollars now exist as tokenized stablecoins on public blockchains.
- Stablecoins are the 17th largest holders of U.S. Treasuries (up from 20th last year), holding over $150 billion in U.S. Treasuries.
7. Dollar Dominance, Reinforced
- Global demand for U.S. debt is weakening.
- For the first time in 30 years, foreign central banks hold more gold than Treasuries.
- Stablecoins are bucking the trend: over 99% are USD-denominated.
- Projected to grow tenfold to over $3 trillion by 2030.
- Stablecoins may become one of the largest and most durable sources of demand for U.S. Treasuries.
8. Final Thoughts
Stablecoins are basically crypto’s first true mainstream product. They moved from a trading tool to global dollar rails with real PMF, scaling even when broader crypto volume didn’t.
If they really grow 10× to $3T+ by 2030, they won’t just be a crypto story, they’ll be a macro USD demand story (T Bills + dollar dominance).