[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] "Stablecoin data are now pointing in a new direction. Stablecoins are becoming core financial infrastructure."

a16z Crypto feature editor Robert Hackett (로버트 해캣) and partner Jeremy Zhang (제레미 장) recently shared the latest stablecoin data on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and drew that conclusion.

They said stablecoins initially served as a way to move dollars between exchanges. They then became defined by held assets. Now their presence as financial infrastructure is growing, they said.

The authors said regulation accelerated growth. They said the United States created the first federal framework for stablecoin issuance through the GENIUS Act, and adjusted stablecoin volume reached about $4.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2026.

Europe's MiCA regulation led to the birth of a non-dollar stablecoin market, they said.

The authors said that as MiCA regulation was fully implemented in late 2024, major exchanges delisted USDT and non-dollar stablecoin trading volume temporarily exceeded $40 billion before stabilising at $15 billion to $25 billion a month. They said it effectively created a new market for non-dollar stablecoins where there had been little regulation.

The transaction mix is also changing. In 2025, consumer-to-consumer transactions accounted for an overwhelming share at 789.5 million, but consumer-to-business transactions also rose 128 percent from a year earlier to 284.6 million. Monthly collateral deposits for stablecoin card programmes also rose from nearly zero in November 2024 to more than $300 million a month in early 2026.

The authors said collateral deposits are not direct stablecoin spending, but can be interpreted as a sign that stablecoin-based commerce is actually increasing.

A trend in which the same stablecoins are used more often in transactions is also pronounced. That means transaction demand is rising faster than issuance growth. The authors said stablecoin velocity, defined as circulating supply versus adjusted monthly transfer volume, rose to 6 times from 2.6 times in early 2024. They said it signals that stablecoins are evolving into a payment network for real use rather than held assets.

Stripping out factors such as investment and exchange operations, the amount used for actual payments last year is estimated at $350 billion to $550 billion. Business-to-business payments account for the largest share of transaction volume, but direct consumer-to-consumer payments and merchant payments are also rising quickly, the authors said.

Geographically, Asia accounts for two-thirds of total transaction volume. By country, it is followed by Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. North America is about one quarter and Europe is about 13 percent. Latin America and Africa together are still small at less than $1 billion combined.

Non-dollar stablecoins are also growing beyond Europe.

The authors said monthly transfer volume for BRLA, a Brazilian real-based stablecoin, rose to about $400 million in early 2026 from nearly zero in early 2023. They said integration with Brazil's real-time payment network PIX is accelerating adoption of BRLA.

Stablecoins have often drawn attention as a cross-border remittance tool, but the data carry an unexpected result. The share of domestic transactions rose to about 75 percent in early 2026 from about 50 percent in early 2024. The authors said this means stablecoins are becoming established as a local payment tool operating on the global infrastructure of blockchain. They said stablecoins are increasingly being used as an everyday payment method within each country.

The authors said many expected stablecoins to become a cross-border transaction tool, but they are actually becoming more local. They said the dollar accounts for most stablecoin collateral, but non-dollar stablecoins based on currencies such as the euro and the real are expanding their reach. They said evidence is accumulating each quarter that stablecoins are developing into a general-purpose payment infrastructure.