Stablecoin Gold Rush: why financial giants are entering the market en masse

Big players are taking over the market

In February 2025, Bank of America announced its intention to launch its stablecoin. Thus, it joined other major financial institutions, including Standard Chartered, PayPal, Revolut, and Stripe, which are already actively implementing similar projects. The main goal of these companies is to take a significant share of the cross-border payments market, which is currently dominated by Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC).

Regulators are opening doors

The growing interest of major financial institutions is due to the positive attitude of regulators around the world towards stablecoins. For example, U.S. President Donald Trump's support for digital assets has significantly boosted companies' work in this area.

In Europe, the key moment was the adoption of the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA). The new regulation sets strict and transparent standards for issuing and using stablecoins. In particular, MiCA restricts the use of stablecoins as the primary means of payment. If the daily transaction volume of a specific stablecoin exceeds 1 million transactions or reaches 200 million euros, the issuer is obliged to take measures to reduce these figures.

As of February 2025, only ten companies have been authorized to issue stablecoins in the EU, including Circle with EURC and USDC coins. European regulators continue to encourage all EU countries to ensure strict compliance with these rules, ultimately increasing confidence in digital assets.

Expanding applications

Initially, stablecoins were primarily used for exchange, but today, they are actively used in developing countries as an alternative to traditional wire transfers.

For example, SpaceX, a company owned by Elon Musk, uses stablecoins to repatriate revenue from selling Starlink satellites in Argentina and Nigeria, where converting local currencies into U.S. dollars is difficult due to currency restrictions.

Another example of successful use of stablecoins is ScaleAI, a company specializing in artificial intelligence data processing. ScaleAI pays its contractors from developing countries in digital tokens, which is especially attractive for workers from regions with unstable economic situations.

Stablecoin market in numbers

As of March 2025, the total supply of stablecoins exceeded $200 billion.

Transaction volumes using stablecoins are also showing significant growth. In February 2025, transaction volume reached $710.5 billion, an increase of 36% year-on-year. The number of unique addresses using stablecoins reached 35 million, a 50% increase year-on-year.

As of March 2025, the cumulative supply of Stablecoins exceeded $200 billion. In February of the same year, the volume of stablecoin transactions reached $710.5 billion, up 36% year-on-year. In addition, the number of unique addresses using stablecoins reached 35 million, up 50% from last year.

Challenges and prospects

Despite stablecoins' obvious advantages, new companies face serious competition from dominant players such as Tether and Circle. For example, in February 2025, transaction volume using PYUSD, PayPal's stablecoin, totaled just $1.4 billion, while Tether reached a transaction volume of $478.5 billion during the same period.

Analysts warn that the market will not be able to accommodate dozens of new stablecoins without considering the quality and reliability of these assets. Users are becoming more demanding of stablecoin issuers, paying close attention to their transparency of operations, asset security mechanisms, and regulatory compliance.