Stablecoin Payments Surge to $35 Trillion, Yet Face a Daunting 99% Reality Gap in Real-World Use
January 25, 2026 – The stablecoin market has achieved a staggering milestone, processing an estimated $35 trillion in volume during 2025. This figure represents a monumental 76-fold increase since 2020. However, a groundbreaking report from Artemis and McKinsey reveals a critical paradox: despite this explosive growth, stablecoins are barely scratching the surface of the global payments landscape, accounting for less than 1% of real-world transaction value.
The Staggering Scale of the Stablecoin Volume Paradox
The report provides crucial context for understanding the stablecoin market’s position. In 2025, the total volume of all global payments—encompassing everything from wire transfers and card swipes to cross-border trade settlements—reached an almost incomprehensible $2 quadrillion. Against this titanic backdrop, the $35 trillion in stablecoin volume, while impressive, represents just 1.75% of the total. More critically, the analysis distinguishes between speculative activity and genuine economic utility.
Artemis and McKinsey found that a mere $390 billion of that $35 trillion stablecoin volume stemmed from tangible, real-world payments like remittances, payroll, and consumer purchases. Consequently, real-world stablecoin payments constituted less than 0.02% of the $2 quadrillion global total. The remaining 99% of stablecoin activity was linked to internal crypto ecosystem functions: trading, speculation, arbitrage, and transfers between digital wallets and exchanges.
Sector Analysis: Explosive Growth from a Tiny Base
Despite the small overall share, specific sectors witnessed meteoric growth rates in 2025, signaling potential future disruption. The data reveals a clear hierarchy of adoption.
- Business-to-Business (B2B): This sector emerged as the undisputed leader for real-world use. B2B stablecoin payments skyrocketed to $226 billion, marking a 733% year-on-year increase. This growth is primarily driven by corporations leveraging stablecoins for faster, cheaper cross-border settlements and treasury management.
- Card-Linked Spending: Closely following B2B, payments initiated via crypto-linked debit and credit cards exploded by 673%. This surge indicates growing consumer comfort in converting stablecoins to fiat at the point of sale, bridging the digital and traditional economies.
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Consumer-to-Business (C2B): These categories recorded $77 billion and $76 billion, respectively. They reflect growing use for remittances and direct online purchases.
- Business-to-Consumer (B2C): Activities like payroll and creator payouts lagged significantly at just $10 billion. This suggests enterprises remain hesitant to deploy stablecoins for mass disbursements, likely due to regulatory and operational complexities.
The report offers a sobering comparison: the $226 billion B2B stablecoin volume equates to just 0.01% of the global B2B transaction share. This highlights the immense runway for growth but also the monumental challenge of displacing incumbent systems.
The Supply Landscape: Tether’s USDT Continues to Dominate
The growth in transaction volume parallels a rapid expansion in the total supply of stablecoins. The overall market capitalization surged from $204 billion to $307 billion over the past year, adding over $100 billion. Tether’s USDT was responsible for nearly half of this new supply, growing by $48 billion to command a $186 billion market cap. Circle’s USDC also expanded significantly, adding $26 billion to reach $76 billion.
Other notable issuers include Sky Protocol’s USDS and PayPal’s PYUSD. Analysts note that the yield-bearing features of tokens like USDS and PYUSD served as a key growth catalyst in 2025. The report also confirms the overwhelming dominance of the U.S. dollar, with 99% of all stablecoins pegged to it, reinforcing its role as the backbone of the digital asset economy.
Interpreting the Data: A Report or The Reality?
The Artemis/McKinsey findings present a notably conservative figure compared to other industry estimates. For instance, payment giant Visa has previously reported over $11 trillion in stablecoin settlement volume. This discrepancy likely stems from methodological differences. The $390 billion real-world payment figure probably captures only on-chain, peer-to-peer transactions that are clearly identifiable as commercial payments, excluding volumes settled through intermediary payment processors or layer-2 networks.
This distinction is crucial for understanding the true adoption curve. Much stablecoin payment volume may be abstracted away from end-users through fintech apps and banking partners, making direct measurement challenging. Nevertheless, the core thesis stands: stablecoins remain a niche player in global payments but are growing at an extraordinary pace in key corridors.
Conclusion: A Decade to Disruption?
The 2025 data paints a picture of a technology in a powerful, yet embryonic, stage of adoption. Stablecoin volumes of $35 trillion demonstrate robust infrastructure and deep liquidity within crypto markets. However, the sub-1% share of real-world payments reveals the vast gap between potential and current utility. The triple-digit growth in B2B and card-linked spending provides a clear roadmap for where integration is proving most valuable today—in cost-sensitive, speed-critical commercial and cross-border use cases.
The report concludes with a forward-looking projection: if the current growth trajectories in these high-potential sectors continue, stablecoin payment traction could surpass certain legacy transfer systems in less than a decade, driven by their inherent advantages in cost, speed, and programmability. The journey from $390 billion to meaningful market share remains daunting, but the velocity of change suggests the stablecoin story in global payments is just beginning its most critical chapter.
FAQs
Q1: What percentage of global payments are currently made with stablecoins?
According to the Artemis/McKinsey report, identifiable real-world stablecoin payments accounted for less than 1% (approximately 0.02%) of the estimated $2 quadrillion in global payment volume in 2025.
Q2: Which sector is driving the most growth in real-world stablecoin use?
Business-to-Business (B2B) payments are the top driver, surging 733% year-on-year to $226 billion in 2025. This is followed closely by card-linked consumer spending, which grew by 673%.
Q3: Why is there a difference between the $35 trillion stablecoin volume and the $390 billion real-world payment figure?
The vast majority of stablecoin volume (about 99%) is associated with activities within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, such as trading on exchanges, speculative transfers, and liquidity provisioning, rather than payments for goods, services, or salaries in the traditional economy.
Q4: Which stablecoin has seen the largest supply growth?
Tether’s USDT accounted for nearly half of the $100+ billion increase in total stablecoin supply over the past year, growing by $48 billion to reach a market capitalization of $186 billion.
Q5: What are the main advantages of using stablecoins for payments?
The primary advantages are significantly lower transaction costs compared to traditional cross-border wire transfers, settlement speeds that can occur in seconds or minutes (24/7), and the programmability that allows for automated, conditional payments via smart contracts.
