Written by: Cathy
In January 2026, the total market capitalization of the global stablecoin market surpassed $3.17 trillion, reaching a new all-time high.
But what's truly noteworthy is not the number itself, but the trend behind it: Circle's USDC surged 73% in 2025, marking the second consecutive year its growth rate crushed Tether's USDT (36%). And in December 2025, Visa announced the launch of USDC settlement services in the US.
When the world's largest payment network starts settling with stablecoins, when the asset manager overseeing $10 trillion launches an on-chain money market fund, when JPMorgan settles $3 billion daily via blockchain—what exactly do these traditional finance giants see?
01 Why Are Traditional Finance Giants All In On-Chain?
In March 2024, BlackRock launched BUIDL—a tokenized money market fund.
This wasn't BlackRock's first foray into blockchain, but it was its most aggressive move yet. BUIDL is issued directly on a public blockchain, holds US Treasuries and cash, maintains a $1 net asset value, and distributes yields monthly to holders.
BUIDL broke the $1 billion mark in March 2025, becoming the first on-chain fund to reach this scale. By the end of 2025, its size had exceeded $2 billion, making it the largest tokenized fund to date.
What did BlackRock see?
The answer is simple: efficiency and cost.
Traditional money market funds require T+1 or T+2 settlement for subscriptions and redemptions, and cross-border transfers must go through the SWIFT system, incurring layers of fees. On-chain funds, however, settle transfers in seconds, with fees under $1, operating 24/7.
More importantly, BUIDL opens a全新的 distribution channel. In the past, it was difficult for retail investors to directly buy money market funds (the threshold is typically over $1 million). But via blockchain, anyone can buy.
This is why protocols like Ondo Finance have been able to rise.
What Ondo does is simple: repackage BlackRock's BUIDL and other institutional-grade RWA products into smaller shares and sell them to DeFi users. Its OUSG product directly in BUIDL, allowing ordinary users to enjoy the 4-5% annualized yield of US Treasuries.
The tokenized US Treasury sector experienced explosive growth in 2025, skyrocketing from less than $200 million in early 2024 to over $7.3 billion by the end of 2025 (RWA.xyz data). BlackRock's entry, in a way, provided a compliance背书 for the entire RWA sector.
02 Why Choose USDC Over USDT?
Tether (USDT) remains the king of stablecoins, with a market cap of $186.7 billion, holding a 60% market share.
But the smart money is voting with its feet.
In 2025, USDC's market cap grew from approximately $44 billion to over $75 billion, a 73% growth rate. USDT only grew 36%, from about $137 billion to $186.7 billion. This is the second consecutive year USDC's growth has exceeded USDT's.
Why?
The answer: regulation.
On July 18, 2025, the US President signed the GENIUS Act, the first federal legislation targeting stablecoins. The Act requires "payment stablecoins" to have 100% reserves (cash or short-term Treasuries) and prohibits paying interest to users.
Circle's USDC fully meets this standard. Moreover, Circle became the first global issuer to gain full EU MiCA compliance status.
What does this mean?
It means USDC has obtained a passport into the mainstream financial system.
When Stripe chose a stablecoin for payments, it chose USDC. When Visa launched stablecoin settlement, it chose USDC. When Shopify allowed merchants to accept stablecoins, it supported USDC.
For banks, payment companies, and compliant exchanges, USDC is a "whitelisted asset," while USDT faces delisting pressure in Europe due to reserve transparency issues.
But Tether isn't worried.
Because its main battlefield isn't in the US and Europe, but in high-inflation regions—Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia.
In high-inflation countries like Argentina, Turkey, and Nigeria, USDT has effectively replaced some functions of the local currency, becoming a de facto "shadow dollar." The first thing people do after getting paid is often to convert it to USDT to preserve value.
The stablecoin market is clearly diverging into two paths:
- USDC: Compliant route, serving Western institutions and payment scenarios, backed by top-tier investors like BlackRock, Fidelity, General Catalyst.
- USDT: Offshore route, serving emerging markets and trading scenarios, holding an irreplaceable position in the Global South.
03 Payment Giants: Surrender or Evolution?
In December 2025, Visa announced the launch of USDC settlement services in the US.
This is a historic moment.
In the past, Visa's business model charged 1.5%-3% per transaction fee. Now, it allows partners to settle with USDC, significantly reducing fees.
This looks like self-disruption. But actually, Visa is on a defensive offensive.
What threat does Visa see?
Stablecoins are eating into its core business—cross-border payments.
Traditional cross-border payments require multiple correspondent banks,层层 fees, and take 3-5 days to arrive. Stablecoin payments arrive in seconds, with fees under $1.
According to an a16z report, total stablecoin transaction volume reached $46 trillion in 2025 (surpassing Visa), with adjusted payment/settlement volume around $9 trillion, growing rapidly and eating into cross-border/emerging market share.
Visa's strategy is: if you can't beat them, join them.
By launching USDC settlement services, Visa transforms itself from a "payment channel" to a "payment coordinator." It no longer charges high fees but makes money by providing value-added services like compliance, risk control, and anti-money laundering.
Meanwhile, other payment giants are also acting:
- Stripe: Acquired stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge for $1.1 billion in October 2024, one of the largest acquisitions in crypto history.
- PayPal: Its stablecoin PYUSD surged 600% in 2025, from $600 million to $3.6 billion.
- Western Union: Will launch USDPT stablecoin on Solana in the first half of 2026.
- 10 European banks: Jointly established Qivalis, planning to launch a euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026.
Notably, Western Union and Visa's first partners both chose Solana as the settlement chain, highlighting the advantages of high-performance public chains in payment scenarios—high throughput, low transaction fees.
04 Banks Won't Sit Idly By
Faced with attacks from non-bank institutions (Circle, Tether) and payment giants (Stripe, Visa), banks are not sitting idle.
JPMorgan is the most aggressive one.
In early 2026, JPMorgan expanded its blockchain division Kinexys' JPM Coin to the Canton Network for multi-chain interoperability. This is not a publicly traded stablecoin but a "deposit token."
Kinexys' daily trading volume exceeds $3 billion. It primarily serves multinational corporations like Siemens and BMW to complete fund transfers between global subsidiaries within seconds.
JPMorgan's logic is clear:
We don't need to issue coins on public chains to compete with you. We just need to lock our clients into our private chain, use blockchain technology to improve efficiency, but not give up control.
In Europe, Société Générale has gone further. Its SG-FORGE issued the euro stablecoin EURCV and dollar stablecoin USDCV, the first stablecoins issued by a regulated bank on a public chain (Ethereum), and listed on compliant exchanges like Bitstamp.
However, it's important to note that bank-affiliated stablecoins like JPM Coin and USDCV primarily serve corporate clients, not the retail market. They represent the path of traditional financial institutions embracing blockchain technology while maintaining centralized control.
05 Stablecoin Trends Emerge
To sum up, the stablecoin market in 2026 is showing four clear trends:
Accelerated RWA Tokenization
BlackRock, Ondo, Franklin Templeton are all issuing tokenized US Treasuries and money market funds. This sector experienced explosive growth in 2025, skyrocketing from less than $200 million in early 2024 to over $7.3 billion, a growth of over 35 times. Traditional financial institutions are bringing US Treasury yields into the on-chain world through tokenization.
Increasingly Clear Compliance Path
USDC grew 73%, surpassing USDT for two consecutive years. After the passage of the GENIUS Act, compliance has become the only choice for mainstream institutions. Circle's backers include top-tier institutions like BlackRock and Fidelity. If its 2026 IPO plan materializes, it will be an important milestone for the stablecoin industry.
Reconstruction of Payment Infrastructure
Stripe's $1.1B acquisition of Bridge, Visa's USDC settlement launch, PayPal's PYUSD surge of 600%. Traditional payment giants are integrating stablecoins into their infrastructure, not just defending passively. High-performance public chains like Solana are becoming the preferred choice for enterprise applications due to their advantages in payment scenarios.
Intensifying Market Divergence
Stablecoins are no longer synonymous with just "stability." They are diverging into two distinct tracks:
- Payment Stablecoins (USDC, PYUSD): Non-interest bearing, but compliantly backed, serving institutions and merchants.
- Yield-bearing Stablecoins (Ondo USDY, Ethena USDe): Offer 4-5% annualized yield, attracting DeFi capital.
06 Summary
When BlackRock starts issuing on-chain funds, when Visa starts settling with USDC, when JPMorgan settles $3 billion daily—stablecoins are no longer a "crypto" story, but the prelude to the restructuring of the entire financial system.
This is not hype, nor a concept. In 2025, total stablecoin transaction volume reached $46 trillion, with adjusted payment/settlement volume reaching $9 trillion. This is real commercial flow of capital.
The entry of traditional finance giants means stablecoins are transforming from "toys for the crypto circle" into "infrastructure for global finance." For those watching this market, the important thing is not to predict the next hot topic, but to understand the underlying logic of this transformation.
The smart money is already in action.
