Stablecoins are evolving from a niche crypto trading tool to a potential layer of global financial infrastructure, according to Australian investment bank Macquarie.
While most activity in U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins, primarily in Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, still comes from crypto trading, accounting for about 90% of volume, the bank said adoption is expanding to payments, remittances, treasury operations and tokenized assets, increasingly linking traditional finance with decentralized finance.
“Stablecoin adoption is making progress in cross-border remittances, but adoption as a payment method still has room to grow, presenting an attractive total addressable market (TAM) opportunity,” analysts led by Paul Golding said in Monday’s note.
Regulatory progress is helping to accelerate this change. Analysts have pointed to developments such as the US GENIUS Act, the European MiCA framework and emerging regulations in Asia-Pacific as factors pushing stablecoins from speculative uses towards institutional settlement tools.
Read more: Stablecoin Market Grows, Bitcoin Recovers as Iran War Panic Calms
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a fixed value, usually linked to the US dollar, and are widely used in digital asset markets for trading, payments and transfers.
Tether’s USDT is the largest stablecoin by market value and trading volume, serving as a key source of liquidity on crypto exchanges, while Circle’s USDC is the second largest and is widely used in institutional and decentralized financial applications. Together, the tokens support much of the crypto market activity and are increasingly being explored for payments, remittances, and settlement.
The growth of stablecoin has been rapid. Macquarie estimates the combined market capitalization of major coins at around $312 billion in March 2026, up around 50% year-over-year and representing around 7-8% of the total crypto market.
Transactional activity is growing even faster. The adjusted volume of stablecoin transfers reached around $11 trillion in 2025, the bank said, suggesting that on-chain dollars are becoming a significant economic tool in both crypto markets and some real-world payment corridors.
Payment networks and fintech companies are starting to integrate this technology. The report notes that Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) now support USDC settlement, enabling card obligations to be fulfilled on-chain.
Banks are experimenting with similar systems. Macquarie pointed to initiatives such as JPMorgan’s JPMD token deposit product, Citi’s token services and token deposit pilots at HSBC as evidence that blockchain-based settlement is gaining traction among large financial institutions.
Learn more: Standard Chartered says US regional banks most exposed to risk of moving $500 billion in stablecoins
