How stablecoins are evolving from crypto instruments into mainstream infrastructure for payments, settlement and treasury.
Stablecoins are rapidly becoming one of the most important developments in modern payments. What began primarily as a way for cryptocurrency traders to move between volatile digital assets and the US dollar is evolving into something much broader: a new settlement layer for payments, treasury management and cross-border commerce.
By October 2026, the global stablecoin market is worth around $300 billion, depending on the methodology used. Tether’s USDT alone represents approximately $184 billion and USDC around $74 billion. Together, the two currencies dominate the market.
But market capitalisation tells only part of the story. Visa estimates that adjusted stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $10 trillion over the previous twelve months, after filtering out activity such as high-frequency trading and automated smart-contract transactions.
Stablecoins are therefore moving beyond crypto markets and increasingly becoming part of the global payments infrastructure.
What is a stablecoin?
A stablecoin is a digital token designed to maintain a stable value relative to another asset, most commonly the US dollar or euro. Unlike Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies, where the market determines the price, one US dollar stablecoin is normally designed to remain worth approximately one US dollar.
The most straightforward model is a fiat-backed stablecoin. A customer deposits dollars with an issuer, which creates the corresponding number of digital tokens. The issuer holds reserves against the tokens in circulation, typically in cash, bank deposits or highly liquid government securities. The token can then move between digital wallets over a blockchain. When it is redeemed, the token is destroyed and the corresponding traditional currency is returned to the holder.
The important innovation is therefore not necessarily the currency itself. It is the payment and settlement mechanism. Instead of value moving through several banks, correspondent accounts and clearing systems, a stablecoin can potentially move directly from one wallet to another, around the clock, with settlement taking place on the blockchain.
Not all stablecoins work in the same way
Fiat-backed stablecoins such as USDT and USDC dominate today’s market, but other structures exist. Crypto-collateralised stablecoins use digital assets and increasingly tokenised real-world assets as collateral. DAI and its successor ecosystem around USDS are important examples.
Synthetic stablecoins use financial positions rather than conventional cash reserves to maintain their value. Ethena’s USDe is one prominent example. These structures can provide interesting financial functionality but have substantially different risk characteristics from a token backed primarily by cash and government securities.
Consequently, the word stablecoin describes a broad category rather than a single financial instrument. Reserve structure, redemption rights, issuer, jurisdiction, blockchain and regulatory status all matter.
The largest stablecoins
The market remains overwhelmingly denominated in US dollars. As of early October 2026, the leading stablecoins include:
| Stablecoin | Approx. market value | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| USDT – Tether | $184bn | Largest global stablecoin; particularly strong in international crypto markets and cross-border dollar liquidity |
| USDC – Circle | $74bn | Fiat-backed dollar stablecoin with strong institutional and payments integration |
| USDS – Sky | $10bn | Decentralised stablecoin emerging from the Maker/Sky ecosystem |
| USDe – Ethena | $4.9bn | Synthetic dollar using hedged digital-asset positions |
| DAI | $4.6bn | One of the longest-established decentralised stablecoins |
| USD1 | $4.4bn | Rapidly growing dollar stablecoin |
| USDG – Global Dollar | $3.2bn | Paxos-issued stablecoin supporting the Global Dollar Network |
| PYUSD – PayPal USD | $2.9bn | PayPal’s dollar stablecoin |
| RLUSD – Ripple USD | $2.5bn | Ripple’s regulated dollar stablecoin |
Figures fluctuate continuously, but the scale difference is striking: USDT and USDC remain considerably larger than the rest of the market. The euro market is much smaller. Circle’s EURC, currently worth roughly $470 million, is one of the leading euro-denominated stablecoins. That imbalance also illustrates something strategically important: stablecoins have so far strengthened rather than weakened the international role of the US dollar.
From crypto trading to payments
Perhaps the most significant change is why stablecoins are being used. Stablecoins originally solved a problem within cryptocurrency markets. Traders needed a relatively stable digital asset that could move between exchanges without constantly moving money through the banking system. That use remains important, but several new applications are developing rapidly.
Companies can use stablecoins for international supplier payments, merchant settlement, treasury transfers and payouts. Payment providers can use them as an underlying settlement mechanism while allowing the customer experience to remain entirely in conventional currencies.
A European company could, for example, receive euros from a customer, convert the funds into a stablecoin for international settlement, and have the recipient receive dollars or another local currency. The blockchain transaction may take place entirely behind the scenes. This is important because the future of stablecoins may be invisible to the end user.
Just as consumers generally do not know whether a card transaction ultimately travels through SEPA, correspondent banking or another settlement mechanism, they may not need to know that a future international payment temporarily uses USDC or another stablecoin.
Business adoption is accelerating
Evidence of this transition is becoming increasingly visible. In October 2026 Visa reported that approximately 17% of the volume generated by stablecoin-linked Visa cards during its 2026 financial year came from business and commercial programmes. Visa now supports more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programmes and describes stablecoins as increasingly relevant for treasury management, settlement and cross-border commerce.
The attraction is understandable. Traditional international payments can involve multiple intermediaries, cut-off times, correspondent banks, reconciliation processes and trapped liquidity. Blockchains operate continuously. Settlement can take place during evenings, weekends and public holidays.
This does not mean that stablecoins will replace banks or established payment networks. More likely, they will become another settlement rail within an increasingly interconnected financial system.
The rise of currencies beyond the dollar
The dollar remains overwhelmingly dominant, but another trend is beginning to emerge. Visa’s research found that the supply of non-dollar stablecoins grew approximately 90% year-on-year to February 2026, compared with 42% growth for dollar stablecoins. Their transfer volume increased sixteenfold between 2023 and early 2026. Euro stablecoins accounted for more than 80% of the local-currency stablecoin supply examined in the study.
The absolute numbers remain small compared with USDT and USDC, but the direction is significant. As stablecoins become payment infrastructure rather than primarily crypto-market instruments, businesses increasingly have reasons to settle directly in their domestic currencies rather than introduce unnecessary foreign-exchange exposure.
Regulation is becoming part of the infrastructure
Regulation is another major driver of the transition. Europe moved early with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Stablecoins referencing a single official currency generally fall within MiCA’s category of e-money tokens, while tokens referencing baskets or other assets may qualify as asset-referenced tokens. The framework introduces requirements covering authorisation, reserves, governance, disclosure and redemption.
The United States subsequently introduced its first federal payment stablecoin framework through the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025. Among other provisions, it requires permitted payment stablecoins to maintain qualifying reserves of at least one-to-one against outstanding tokens and establishes disclosure and supervisory requirements.
The significance extends beyond compliance. Regulatory clarity makes it easier for banks, payment institutions, card networks and large corporations to incorporate stablecoins into mainstream financial products.
The next stage: stablecoins as settlement infrastructure
The next phase of development is unlikely to be defined simply by the number of stablecoins issued. The more important question will be how easily value can move between bank accounts, cards, payment institutions, stablecoins and different blockchain networks. This is where payment orchestration becomes increasingly important.
Businesses generally do not want to choose between traditional payments and blockchain settlement. They want the best combination of cost, speed, availability, currency, liquidity and regulatory certainty for each transaction. The payment infrastructure therefore needs to be able to select and connect different rails.
At Valuno, this is the perspective behind Atlas. Stablecoins are not treated as a replacement for existing financial infrastructure, but as an additional settlement capability that can be combined with traditional payment rails. The objective is to allow money to move through the most appropriate infrastructure for each transaction while presenting businesses with a coherent payment environment.
From alternative money to financial plumbing
Stablecoins are frequently discussed as a new form of money. That description is only partly correct. Their more profound impact may come from providing new infrastructure for moving existing money. The distinction matters.
The long-term winners in stablecoins may therefore not simply be the issuers with the largest tokens. They may also be the banks, payment providers and technology platforms capable of connecting stablecoins with existing financial systems and making the underlying complexity disappear.
The evolution of payments has consistently followed the same direction: less friction, faster settlement and greater connectivity. Stablecoins add another important capability to that evolution — programmable, global and continuously available settlement. And that is why they are moving rapidly from the edge of the cryptocurrency industry towards the centre of the payments industry.
