Finance Goes 'Invisible': How Stablecoins Are Becoming the New Arteries of the Digital Economy

比推Published on 2025-12-22Last updated on 2025-12-22

Abstract

This article explores the transformative role of stablecoins as the "new arteries" of the digital economy, moving finance into an "invisible" infrastructure layer. Key developments include Coinbase's major product upgrades, positioning it as an "Everything Exchange" that integrates trading, derivatives, stablecoins, and AI-driven services. Stablecoin adoption is accelerating, with Visa now allowing USDC settlements within the U.S. banking system, marking a structural shift in settlement layers. Regulatory progress is evident as U.S. authorities conditionally approve federal trust bank charters for firms like Ripple and Circle, while the FDIC advances stablecoin rules. New stablecoin products and payments integrations are emerging, such as PayPal's PYUSD for YouTube creator payouts and ADNOC's adoption of a national stablecoin at gas stations. Major financial institutions, including JPMorgan, are actively exploring tokenized deposits and assets on public blockchains. The growth of gold-backed stablecoins and national strategies like the UAE's push for asset tokenization further highlight the expansion of stablecoins beyond pure currency use cases into broader economic infrastructure. However, JPMorgan analysis suggests stablecoin growth may be limited by competition from bank-issued tokenized deposits and CBDCs, projecting a market cap of $500-600 billion by 2028.

Author: Cobo

Original Title: Finance Goes 'Invisible': How Stablecoins Are Becoming the New Arteries of the Digital Economy

This week's highlights:

This week, Coinbase hosted a system-level product launch event with the scale of WWDC, unveiling updates across trading, derivatives, stablecoins, AI, and payment protocols. Coinbase's vision of an "Everything Exchange" not only reflects its ambition to become a super app but also points to a new implementation path for the crypto era—a foundational financial structure centered on stablecoins, asset issuance, and on-chain settlement. Financial capabilities thus become a basic resource, like internet bandwidth, that can be natively called by software and AI and automatically scheduled in the background. Stablecoins have evolved from investment products into infrastructure supporting the operation of the digital economy. In this context, we can say that Coinbase's boundaries extend beyond traditional internet super apps, and finance is beginning to detach from apps, moving towards an omnipresent "invisible finance."

Meanwhile, the mainstream adoption of stablecoins continues to accelerate. On one hand, this is evident in user-perceivable daily scenarios: the UAE's largest fuel retailer, ADNOC, now accepts stablecoin payments at nearly a thousand gas stations; Interactive Brokers supports stablecoin deposits; the fintech company Ramp, which serves businesses, enables direct stablecoin payments for paper checks; YouTube supports creators receiving payments in PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD. Stablecoins are rapidly entering corporate finance and consumer systems. On the other hand, more profound changes are occurring at a level almost imperceptible to users. Visa has launched USDC settlement within the U.S. banking system, allowing certain banks to fulfill settlement obligations directly on VisaNet using USDC. This marks a structural重构 of the settlement layer, happening deep within the banking system—more隐蔽 yet far more impactful.

Market Overview and Growth Highlights

The total market capitalization of stablecoins reached $308.606 billion, decreasing by $1.456 billion week-over-week. In terms of market structure, USDT maintains its dominant position, accounting for 60.32%; USDC ranks second with a market cap of $77.336 billion, representing 25.06%.

Blockchain Network Distribution

Top three networks by stablecoin market cap:

Ethereum: $166.19b
Tron: $80.993b
Solana: $16.048b

Top 3 networks with the highest weekly growth:

Related Questions

QWhat is the core concept of 'Invisible Finance' as described in the article, and how do stablecoins contribute to it?

AThe article describes 'Invisible Finance' as a future where financial capabilities, like internet bandwidth, become a fundamental resource that can be natively called by software and AI, automatically scheduled in the background. Stablecoins evolve from investment products into infrastructure supporting the digital economy. They enable this by becoming a foundational layer for asset issuance and on-chain settlement, allowing financial functions to be integrated seamlessly into any application, moving beyond a single super-app model.

QWhat significant step did Visa take regarding USDC, and why is it considered a key node for stablecoins entering the banking settlement layer?

AVisa began allowing certain US banks to use Circle's USDC directly on the VisaNet to fulfill settlement obligations, with the initial rollout on the Solana network. This is a key node because it integrates stablecoins into the core settlement process itself, moving beyond just being a front-end payment tool. It enables 24/7 settlement, reduces funds in transit time, improves liquidity predictability, and compresses the need for redundant capital reserves, fundamentally changing bank behavior towards liquidity management.

QAccording to the market overview, what are the top three blockchain networks by stablecoin market value, and which stablecoins showed the highest weekly growth?

AThe top three blockchain networks by stablecoin market value are: 1. Ethereum with $166.19 billion, 2. Tron with $80.993 billion, and 3. Solana with $16.048 billion. The stablecoins with the highest weekly growth were: 1. USDD (USDD) at +20.29%, 2. Resolv USD (USR) at +16.97%, and 3. First Digital USD (FDUSD) at +16.35%.

QWhat major regulatory shift is occurring in the US regarding crypto companies and banking, as indicated by the OCC's actions?

AThe US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted conditional approval for federal trust bank charter applications to several crypto companies including Ripple, Circle, and BitGo. These charters allow the companies to hold customer assets but not accept deposits or make loans. This regulatory shift marks the deep integration of stablecoins, custody, and traditional financial regulation, paving the way for institutional capital entry and providing a clear path for compliant stablecoin expansion within the US banking system.

QHow does JPMorgan's analysis contrast with optimistic projections for stablecoin growth, and what factors does it cite for a more conservative outlook?

AJPMorgan projects the total stablecoin market capitalization to reach only $500-600 billion by 2028, which is far below the often-cited trillion-dollar expectations. The analysis argues that current stablecoin demand is still primarily driven by crypto trading, derivatives, and DeFi, rather than real-world payment scenarios. It also cites competition from bank-issued tokenized deposits, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and potential SWIFT on-chain solutions as factors that will divert demand away from private stablecoins, leading to a future of coexistence and division of labor rather than independent explosive growth for stablecoins alone.

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