By Chris Pereira, Protocol Specialist

With the halfway point of 2025 past, stablecoins have become one of the most consistent and rapidly expanding segments of the crypto world. These cryptocurrencies, whose stability is designed to be maintained by aligning their values with the values of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, have grown from being niche trader tools to essential infrastructure for cross-border payments, remittances, and more. Even after falling from a mid-year high of $290 billion to $230 billion today, the combined market capitalization still represents roughly 7% of the entire crypto market. The increase is fueled by record-high volumes of transactions, which for 2024 hit $5.7 trillion and increased by 66% alone during the first quarter of 2025. Dominant players like Tether’s USDT, with a market cap of over $150 billion, continue to lead, but the landscape is growing more diversified. Nearly 240 stablecoins have been launched and new entrants are launching all the time, such as Hype’s USDH, whose bid was recently won by Native Markets to bring its HypeEVM stablecoin to market. With the substantial growth in stablecoins, both in projects and market value, TradFi has begun to take notice since it provides substantial revenue opportunity.

Recent and Future Launches: Innovation Speeds Up

The world of stablecoins has seen a plethora of activity in 2024 and 2025, fueled by anticipated and increasing regulatory clarity, technological advancements, and the quest for local solutions. Among the recent highlights is Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), which became live on mainnet in August 2025. The nation’s first state-backed stablecoin, FRNT aims to provide a government-backed digital dollar for streamlined public sector transactions, a milestone move in fintech adoption to the level of the government.

At the country level, South Korea’s BDACS just introduced KRW1, the country’s first stablecoin pegged to the Won, on the Avalanche blockchain . This move is to address domestic demand for a stable, fiat-collateralized asset in the face of rising crypto adoption across Asia. Looking a bit further back, Paxos introduced its Global Dollar (USDG) in November 2024 through its Singapore branch, introducing yield-paying stablecoin options for international users.

Subsequent launches are set to introduce even more momentum. Tether, maker of the world’s largest stablecoin, stated on September 12, 2025, that it would introduce USA₮ (USAT), a U.S.-regulated dollar-backed stablecoin for American citizens. Teaming with Cantor Fitzgerald and Anchorage Digital Bank, Tether has appointed former congressional candidate Bo Hines as CEO of the project, a sign that the company is strategically increasing compliance and eyeing towards U.S. expansion. Meanwhile, Plasma, a blockchain tailored for stablecoins, will launch its mainnet beta in late September 2025, possibly opening the door to quicker, cheaper issuance and transfers for issuers globally.

Among other forthcoming releases is MetaMask’s MetaMask USD, which is set to be launched later in 2025 on Ethereum and Linea networks and is planned to be easily integrated into tens of millions of crypto wallets belonging to an array users. Fiserv is also gearing up its FIUSD stablecoin over the coming months, leveraging its vast infrastructure to bridge off-chain banking with onchain finance. In Hong Kong, a new system of stablecoin licensure enters effect later this year, with issuers having until October 31, 2025 to file an application paving the way for regulated Asian stablecoins that may rival the existing largest.

These trends suggest more emphasis on more regulated jurisdictional stablecoins, which increases the viability of onshore options and appeal to institutional players concerned about volatility of emerging market currencies.

Deepening Involvement of Traditional Finance

What was once seen as a crypto fad is now a strategic priority for banks and established financial institutions. The U.S. GENIUS Act of 2025, which gave explicit regulatory guidance on payment stablecoins, accelerated this trend by encouraging TradFi adoption and stablecoin mainstreaming in finance. Notably, the CFTC’s September 2025 initiative to integrate stablecoins as tokenized collateral in derivatives markets, dubbed the “killer app” by Acting Chairman Caroline Pham, further signals regulatory support for their role in modernizing financial infrastructure. Banks are no longer sitting around and merely observing; they are now issuing actively, investing, and cooperating.

Bigger players like JPMorgan are writing in-depth reports on the benefits of stablecoins for cross-border payments, emphasizing their speed and efficiency compared to wires. This illustrates the shifting landscape alone as they previously spoke out against crypto in the past. Fiserv’s plan to roll out FIUSD shows how payment processors are folding stablecoins into their central business, possibly handling trillions in volume annually. Even states like Wyoming are piloting sovereign stablecoins, growing synergies between public finance and blockchain.

Institutional investment in stablecoin infrastructure has gone into overdrive, with corporate funding rounds for these startups piling up in 2025 while the long standing companies have started to IPO. The IMF and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) already look into stablecoins’ place in the future monetary system, mentioning their use to complement CBDCs while introducing private-sector innovation. McKinsey sees 2025 as a critical year, with tokenized cash driving a global realignment of the world’s payments infrastructure. This intervention is not without its challenges; banks need to navigate regulatory barriers and prevent stablecoins from eating into deposit bases.

What This Means for the Future of Finance

The intersection of stablecoins and TradFi has the potential to fundamentally redefine how money flows, maintains value, and mediates exchange. Stablecoins enable fast, low-cost cross-border transactions, addressing traditional banking’s multi-day settlements and potentially saving billions in fees yearly. With wider adoption, they could underpin the U.S. dollar’s supremacy in a digital era, with over 90% of stablecoins anchored to USD, continuing American economic influence to all corners of the globe without employing physical currencies.

Stablecoins could democratize access to finance, particularly in developing markets where remittances over platforms like Ripple or Solana already outpace Western Union, while interoperability with traditional finance may strengthen systemic stability through regulated issuers under frameworks like the GENIUS Act. Barclays has described stablecoins as the “new generation of financial infrastructure,” enabling use cases from tokenized securities to micropayments, but the key question is whether crypto-native networks will lead this transformation or whether incumbents such as MoneyGram will integrate stablecoins into their existing services through partnerships with chains like Stellar.

Challenges lie ahead: cross-jurisdictional regulatory fragmentation has the potential to hinder interoperability and de-pegging risks underscore the need for reasonable regulation. Stablecoins can aggravate financial vulnerabilities if poorly managed, though, so calls for FDIC-style insurance or central bank guarantees may grow. Ultimately, 2025’s momentum ensures that stablecoins won’t just sit alongside traditional finance but they’ll reinvent it, as blockchain ease of use meets institutional trust to form a hybrid system.

Are stablecoins the future of money?