The market capitalization of stablecoins approaches $300 billion, with RWA tokenization and cross-border payments emerging as new trends.

Recently, with the rapid evolution of the global digital financial ecosystem, the market focus has shifted to stablecoins surpassing a market capitalization of $300 billion. Meanwhile, the growth momentum in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector remains strong. According to the latest data, the growth trajectory of stablecoin market cap and on-chain asset scale is undergoing subtle but profound changes, reflecting a trend of financial digitization shifting from a trading tool to a payment infrastructure.

Multi-dimensional Expansion of On-Chain Assets, RWA Breaks $19 Billion Threshold

Market observations show that the total on-chain market cap of RWAs has reached $19.04 billion, a slight increase of 4.09% compared to previous periods, maintaining steady growth. More notably, the expansion of asset holders—total holders have surpassed 593,900, a 7.72% increase month-over-month—indicates a continued rise in investor interest in digitalized physical assets.

In contrast, the stablecoin market growth has been sluggish. By the end of the reporting period, the total stablecoin market cap reached $298.56 billion, just shy of $300 billion, but the growth rate has nearly stagnated, with a mere 0.36% increase MoM. Monthly on-chain transfer volume shrank to $6.08 trillion, and active addresses also declined slightly by 1.04%, indicating a contraction in activity.

A noteworthy phenomenon is that the total number of stablecoin holders has increased against the trend to 213 million, a 4.33% MoM rise, yet on-chain transaction activity has significantly decreased. This divergence—more holders but lower activity—clearly suggests that new holders are mainly long-term or low-activity accounts, while payment settlement needs and trading activity are weakening across the board. The market is transitioning from active usage to passive holding.

Steady Growth in Stablecoin Market Cap, USDT and USDS Lead

Within the stablecoin ecosystem, the top three stablecoins show varied performance. USDT’s market cap increased slightly by 1.39%, maintaining its leading position; USDC’s market cap decreased marginally by 1.34%; and the emerging USDS grew by 2.99%, leading in growth rate, indicating ongoing exploration of diversified stablecoin products.

The combined growth of these three stablecoins has driven the overall expansion of the stablecoin market cap, but the overall sluggishness reflects constraints on market demand. Currently, stablecoin demand is mainly driven by crypto trading and collateralization, rather than broader payment scenarios. However, this pattern is beginning to change.

Accelerating Global Policy Frameworks, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Stablecoins Evolve Together

Proactive policy support is reshaping the stablecoin ecosystem. U.S. bipartisan lawmakers are drafting a cryptocurrency tax framework that aims to provide tax safe harbors for qualifying stablecoin transactions. This framework would exempt long-term stablecoin holdings valued between $0.99 and $1.01 from capital gains tax, and establish safe harbor rules for staking and mining rewards—an important step toward industry compliance.

Japan is also accelerating its plans, aiming to introduce legislation by 2026 to promote the tokenization of local bonds via blockchain. This would enable rapid, intermediary-free issuance and settlement of bonds, potentially using local stablecoins for interest payments, opening new pathways for regional financing.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s central bank is preparing for the second phase of CBDC testing, including innovative plans to distribute some government subsidies in digital currency, aiming to restrict subsidy use and reduce management costs. Ghana’s parliament has also passed legislation legalizing virtual asset service providers, with plans to explore asset-backed digital settlement tools, including gold-backed stablecoins, by 2026.

In China, eight departments, including the central bank, jointly issued guidelines to deepen cross-border applications of digital RMB. They support participation in multilateral CBDC bridge projects, promote cross-border payments with CBDCs involving Thailand, Hong Kong, UAE, and support cross-border digital RMB pilot programs with Singapore. These initiatives indicate a “dual-track” framework where CBDCs and private stablecoins co-develop, jointly advancing global digital financial infrastructure.

Financial Institutions Lead the Way, Ctrip, ICBC, and Others Drive Tokenization Applications

Under policy support, financial institutions and leading enterprises are accelerating deployment of stablecoin applications in real-world scenarios. ICBC’s Singapore branch, under guidance from the PBOC and MAS, successfully piloted cross-border digital RMB personal wallet top-up, allowing Singapore users to recharge digital RMB wallets via local accounts for travel and consumption within China—another innovation following pilot programs for import-export settlement.

Ctrip’s overseas platform Trip.com launched a commercialized stablecoin payment feature supporting USDT and USDC, with payments processed via Ethereum, Tron, Polygon, Solana, and other major blockchains. Field tests in Vietnam showed that using USDT for flight payments saved about 18% in fees, and hotel booking costs saved 2.35%, demonstrating stablecoins’ cost advantages in cross-border travel payments. Crypto payments are supported by Singapore-based Triple-A, which simplifies the process to just name and email, lowering user barriers.

Similarly, Korean payment giant BC Card completed a pilot allowing foreign users to pay local Korean merchants with stablecoins, converting overseas wallets’ stablecoins into digital prepaid cards for spending. As a provider handling over 20% of domestic card transactions, BC Card’s move exemplifies deep integration of traditional finance and crypto ecosystems.

China’s Qianxun Technology (listed in Hong Kong) also launched PayKet, a global digital currency financial platform based on compliant stablecoins, offering digital asset payment and settlement services for institutions and individuals.

Funding Boom and Business Shifts, Industry Innovation Reshaping the Market

Innovation is injecting new growth into the stablecoin ecosystem. NYSE-listed Shift4 launched a stablecoin settlement platform enabling merchants to settle using USDC, USDT, EURC, DAI, and other major stablecoins without bank transfers, supporting multiple blockchain networks like Ethereum, Solana, Polygon. This directly bridges traditional commerce and crypto payments.

Asset management firm Amplify ETFs introduced two new ETFs—Amplify Stablecoin Technology ETF (STBQ) and Amplify Tokenization Technology ETF (TKNQ)—focusing on stablecoin tech and asset tokenization. STBQ holds assets like XRP, SOL, ETH, LINK among 24 holdings; TKNQ includes 53 companies supporting real-asset digitization and crypto assets, with expense ratios of 0.69%. This signals traditional asset managers’ formal entry into the tokenization space.

Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla made a strategic shift, selling 24,291 ETH (about $74.5 million) to redeem preferred convertible bonds, and announced a focus on RWA tokenization. This transition reflects a market moving from passive holdings to active value creation, with tokenization becoming a new growth engine for institutions.

Funding in stablecoin infrastructure is also heating up. London-based startup Nodu raised $1.45 million pre-seed to develop compliant stablecoin access solutions for European institutions under MiCA regulations. Stablecoin payment trust layer Coinbax completed $4.2 million seed funding, offering custody, strategy execution, and programmable settlement features. These investments focus on integrating stablecoins deeply into traditional finance.

On the chain layer, Aptos has become the preferred blockchain for stablecoins, with on-chain stablecoin market cap growing over 60% in 2025, reaching a peak of $1.8 billion. Tokenized stock trading platform MSX is expanding asset coverage, listing major stocks like Nike, precious metals ETFs, and Nasdaq 100 products for spot and derivatives trading.

The Stablecoin Ecosystem Is Evolving from a Trading Tool to Payment Infrastructure

JPMorgan’s latest analysis offers deep insights. The bank forecasts stablecoin supply could reach $500–600 billion by 2028, well below the optimistic $2–4 trillion estimates. However, this conservative outlook reflects a profound understanding of stablecoin value transformation.

JPMorgan notes that stablecoin demand remains primarily driven by crypto trading and DeFi collateralization. Yet, the demand for payment services is emerging, as more providers test cross-border transfer channels based on stablecoins, potentially boosting usage. More importantly, as integration deepens, the velocity of stablecoin circulation may increase, meaning the growth in circulation volume could be replaced by higher flow speed.

From a macro perspective, the US SEC is pushing a “two-year on-chain” digital asset revolution, with expectations that the US financial markets (stocks, bonds, etc.) will undergo large-scale blockchain transformation within two years—the most significant shift since electronic trading in the 1970s. The DTCC has received SEC approval to pilot tokenization, marking substantial progress in core market infrastructure digitization.

Meanwhile, Visa, Coinbase, and other traditional finance and crypto bridges are pushing stablecoins toward becoming “invisible finance”—a foundational layer of services that can be directly called by any software or AI, like water or electricity. Visa’s enabling banks to settle in USDC 24/7 is a milestone in this shift.

Overall, while stablecoin market cap growth has slowed, its strategic importance is rising. The market is at a critical juncture shifting from “investment attribute” to “payment attribute” and from “trading tool” to “financial infrastructure.” Real-world applications in cross-border payments, institutional settlement, and corporate finance are laying the groundwork for the next phase of growth. With policy frameworks improving, application ecosystems expanding, and industry innovation accelerating, stablecoins are poised to maintain relatively stable market caps while increasing velocity and application depth—becoming a new artery of the global digital economy.