Stablecoins aren’t just for cross-border payments—they’re for going local too! a16z’s latest report: Asia supports two-thirds of transaction volume

Crypto venture capital giant a16z’s latest report, “9 charts on what stablecoins are becoming,” uses nine key charts to depict the structural changes stablecoins are undergoing. The report’s core takeaway is not about new tokens or a new narrative, but about stablecoins’ role shifting—from “trading tools” and “store-of-value vehicles” to “core financial infrastructure”—and becoming increasingly localized, creating a clear mismatch with the market’s original imagination of stablecoins’ cross-border payments.

U.S. GENIUS Act boosts stablecoin trading volume to $4.5 trillion in Q1

For many years, regulatory uncertainty has been the ceiling on institutional participation in stablecoins. The turning point came from the U.S. GENIUS Act establishing the first federal-level stablecoin issuance framework. a16z data shows that the adjusted stablecoin trading volume had been rising for several consecutive quarters before the bill passed, but after passage, growth accelerated noticeably, reaching about $4.5 trillion in Q1 2026.

Europe’s MiCA framework presents a different picture. After it fully took effect at the end of 2024, several major exchanges delisted USDT for compliance reasons, causing non-USD stablecoin activity to spike temporarily by more than $40 billion. After the volatility ended, monthly trading volume stabilized at a new baseline of $15 billion to $25 billion—far higher than the levels before MiCA was implemented. In other words, regulation did not suppress non-USD stablecoins; instead, it created a “normal” market that previously hardly existed.

Commercial activity is growing fastest: C2B up 128% year over year

The structurally meaningful shift lies in the usage scenarios themselves. Throughout 2025, C2C (consumer-to-consumer) transfer counts of 789.5 million remain the absolute mainstay, but the fastest-growing category is C2B (consumer-to-business). It surged from 124.9 million transfers in 2024 to 284.6 million, up 128% year over year.

Infrastructure data for stablecoin payments supports this trend. The monthly collateral deposit amounts for the stablecoin card program supported by Rain (including Etherfi Cash, Kast, Wallbit, etc.) grew from nearly zero in November 2024 to more than $300 million per month in early 2026. Even though this is still collateral outstanding rather than direct payment volume, the trajectory is unmistakable: stablecoin business usage is expanding rapidly.

Currency velocity doubles: from 2.6x to 6x

The turnover frequency of stablecoin supply per unit is accelerating. The stablecoin velocity indicator calculated by a16z—i.e., the ratio of adjusted monthly transfer amounts to circulating supply—has nearly doubled since early 2024, rising from 2.6x to 6x.

An increase in velocity means the market’s demand for stablecoin trading is growing faster than the rate of new issuance; existing supply is being “used” more frequently rather than merely “held.” This is a hallmark of real payment networks: money is “used,” not just “possessed.”

Stablecoin pure payment scale reaches $350 billion to $550 billion

After stripping out “financial-like” flows such as trading, transfers of institutional treasury funds, and exchange operating mechanisms, the estimated pure payment scale of stablecoins across different counterparties in 2025 falls between $350 billion and $550 billion.

Structurally, B2B (business-to-business) remains the largest segment, but the growth rate of direct C2C transfers and merchant-related receive-and-pay activities is also striking.

Highly concentrated geography: Asia accounts for nearly two-thirds

Geographic data shows that stablecoin payment activity is not evenly distributed. The Asia market contributes nearly two-thirds of payment volume, mainly driven by Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. North America accounts for about one-quarter, Europe about 13%, and combined Latin America and Africa total less than $1 billion.

This distribution has direct implications for fintech players in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The real growth engine of stablecoin payments is concentrating in the Asia time zone—meaning the target customer base, counterparties, and regulatory arbitrage space for related companies are not the same market as the U.S.-based fintech ecosystem.

The cross-border narrative is overturned: in-country transaction share jumps to nearly three-quarters

The most counterintuitive chart in the report challenges the mainstream narrative that “stablecoins are equal to cross-border remittance tools.” In reality, cross-border activity’s share of total payment volume has been declining rather than rising. The proportion of payment volume from in-country transactions grew from about half in early 2024 to nearly three-quarters by early 2026.

Brazil is a clear example. In Brazil, the BRLA stablecoin anchored to the Brazilian real saw its monthly transfer volume rise from near zero in early 2023 to about $400 million per month in early 2026, with integration with the local instant payment network PIX being the main driver.

a16z’s interpretation is that stablecoins are finding new positioning: not just remittance or foreign-exchange tools, but “a local payment medium running on top of global infrastructure.” This shift in positioning will have far-reaching effects on the competitive landscape among banks, payment institutions, and stablecoin issuers.

This article Stablecoins aren’t just for cross-border payments—they’re being localized too! a16z latest report: Asia supports two-thirds of trading volume First appeared in Lian News ABMedia.