Following the passing of the GENIUS Act, fintechs and neobanks are spearheading the next wave of stablecoin adoption, integrating these assets into their services to address financial gaps where traditional systems fall short. Morgan Krupetsky, vice president of Onchain Finance at Ava Labs, emphasizes that this trend enhances competitive edges by enabling access to stable value storage, remittances, credit, and savings through mobile wallets.
In regions grappling with hyperinflation and currency volatility, stablecoins offer a reliable alternative. In Argentina, where annual inflation exceeds 100%, small businesses and freelancers increasingly use USDC and USDT for invoicing international clients and paying salaries. Stablecoins account for nearly 30% of remittances in certain Latin American corridors, and countries like Turkey utilize them as a hedge against devaluation risks.
The stablecoin market cap has soared past $265 billion, fueling an 'earn' phase where users can generate yields via DeFi platforms or tokenized money market funds. For example, in Nigeria, Fonbank allows conversions to dollar-denominated stablecoins for onchain savings products with yields surpassing local bank rates. This capability empowers users in emerging economies, where only a quarter of adults use savings accounts, to preserve value and earn passive income.
Transitioning to the 'spend' phase, stablecoin-backed cards enable instant, low-cost cross-border payments and everyday purchases wherever Visa is accepted. Stablecoin transfer volume in 2024 eclipsed the combined volumes of Visa and Mastercard, signaling a shift from speculative tools to fundamental programmable money for real-world utility.
Concurrently, Louise Ivan, co-founder and CEO of Ryder, highlights changing crypto demographics, with USDT and USDC collectively making up approximately 40% of total crypto volume in Q3 2025. This surge is driven by practical needs in emerging markets like Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where retail-sized transfers under $250 are growing for essentials like groceries and bills.
Adoption is utility-focused, not ideological; in the Philippines, crypto usage rose to 22.5% in 2025, spurred by play-to-earn gaming and remittances. However, new users often rely on custodial wallets, skipping self-custody fundamentals, which necessitates built-in security features like social recovery and multifactor authentication to mitigate risks and support mass adoption without complexity.
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