Stablecoins have become a dominant force in global payments, processing a staggering $33 trillion in on-chain transaction volume during 2025. This figure surpasses the combined $25.5 trillion handled by legacy payment giants Visa and Mastercard, according to the "State of Stablecoins" report from Ethereum layer-2 network Morph. The data signals a pivotal shift where tokenized dollars have quietly outgrown traditional card rails.
The report highlights that stablecoins have evolved beyond their speculative origins to become a core settlement layer for global finance. Crucially, around 60% of stablecoin flows are now business-to-business (B2B), as corporations increasingly leverage dollar tokens for cross-border treasury management, supplier payments, and procurement. "Enterprise adoption is no longer a thesis; it is visible in the data," the Morph team stated, pointing to rising average transaction sizes and the growing institutional use of stablecoins for liquidity and settlement.
In several recent months, stablecoin volumes exceeded $1.5 trillion, rivaling or surpassing the monthly throughput of major card schemes. Looking ahead, Morph projects annual stablecoin settlement volumes could exceed $50 trillion as early as 2026, solidifying their role as a parallel payment stack. By 2030, the report forecasts stablecoins could account for roughly 10% of global cross-border payments, aided by regulatory clarity from frameworks like the EU's MiCA and new U.S. stablecoin laws.
An emerging driver for this growth is the anticipated role of AI agents. Morph estimates that autonomous systems could become primary initiators of stablecoin transactions, automating payments across global supply chains and potentially supporting a $1.9 trillion market by 2030. The report's findings are echoed by industry leaders; Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently described stablecoins' massive volume as potentially crypto's "ChatGPT moment" for businesses. Furthermore, a separate survey indicates that 90% of financial institutions are already using or piloting stablecoins for purposes ranging from settlement to collateral management.
This rapid adoption suggests the line between "crypto" and conventional payments is blurring, with incumbents like SWIFT already testing blockchain-based rails. The scale achieved by stablecoins, with a market cap in the low hundreds of billions facilitating trillions in flow, underscores a fundamental shift in how value moves globally.
