A criticism you’ll hear about stablecoins is this: “How can something with a $250 billion market cap possibly power a $250 trillion global payments system?”
At face value, it sounds like a knockout punch. The sheer size mismatch makes stablecoins seem irrelevant in the grand scheme of cross-border money movement. But that comparison is fundamentally flawed and it reveals a deeper misunderstanding of how payments infrastructure actually works.
The truth is, you don’t need $250 trillion sitting idle to process $250 trillion in value. You just need that same dollar to move fast enough. Because the essence of payments is not about how much money you hold, but how efficiently you can move it.
Stablecoins, by design, are built for velocity. They’re liquid, programmable, borderless, and available 24/7. Hence, they are arguably superior to the legacy financial rails we rely on today.
The cross-border payments industry processes over $250 trillion in transactions annually. This includes everything from remittances to B2B trade, interbank settlements, and global capital flows.
But, here’s the reality behind that $250T figure:
Transfers take days, especially across emerging market corridors.
Fees are high, averaging 6.62% for remittances, sometimes higher for SMEs.
Tracking is opaque, with many payments routed through multiple intermediaries.
Pre-funding is mandatory, meaning trillions of dollars sit idle in nostro and vostro accounts to grease the wheels of settlement.
Billions of people remain excluded, either due to lack of documentation, unreliable banking access, or infrastructure gaps.
In a world where data travels in milliseconds and video calls span continents, why is moving money still stuck in the analog era?
Stablecoins are often misunderstood as merely “crypto dollars.” But they’re more than just digital representations of fiat. They are programmable money, designed for a world that’s online 24/7.
Unlike traditional bank accounts, stablecoins don’t rely on banking hours or geographic constraints. They can settle instantly, interact with smart contracts, and move across borders without intermediaries.
But the most important concept here is velocity.
In 2024, the total volume transacted using stablecoins was over $27.4 trillion. That’s more than the combined volume of Visa and Mastercard. How was that possible with less than $250B in market cap? Because those digital dollars moved hundreds of times throughout the year.
A single stablecoin can be used by:
A freelancer in the Philippines getting paid by a client in Europe
Then sent to their family in rural Luzon
Then converted to pesos and spent at a local store
All before the end of the day
This high-frequency usage is precisely what makes stablecoins such powerful tools for real-world payments and it’s why comparing market cap to annual transaction volume is an incomplete lens.
In regions like Latin America, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa, stablecoins are everyday tools. With local currencies devaluing and banking systems failing to meet needs, people are adopting stablecoins organically as a more stable store of value and more usable medium of exchange.
Stablecoins for remittances and in the freelance economy are real use cases happening every day. But for these flows to scale, they need more than just wallets and blockchains. They need fiat bridges, compliance layers, and user-friendly access points. That’s where platforms like Transak play a pivotal role.
Even the most revolutionary technology is useless if people can’t access it.
Stablecoins are powerful, but onboarding and offboarding are still major bottlenecks. In many parts of the world, users still face friction when converting local currency into digital dollars or vice versa. Payment methods differ. Regulations vary. Banking infrastructure is inconsistent.
Transak, a stablecoins payment infrastructure provider, solves this problem by building a compliant, localized payments stack for stablecoin access, which any financial application can integrate within its existing tech stack. Transak acts as the gateway between fiat and stablecoin liquidity across wallets, dApps, neobanks, and even enterprise payment platforms.
It’s these kinds of on/off-ramp layers that enable stablecoins to function not just as digital assets, but as real-world payment tools.
The $250B vs $250T argument might sound like a mic drop, but it misses the point entirely. Stablecoins don’t need to match the global money supply. They just need to move faster, more freely, and more efficiently than the legacy systems we rely on today.
The question isn’t whether stablecoins are big enough.
The question is whether we’re ready to stop thinking in outdated terms.