Editor's Note
At the critical stage of transitioning from "concept" to "industry" in the crypto market, stablecoins will be a key link connecting on-chain and off-chain financial worlds.
The Artemis team's report 'The Future of Stablecoins' provides us with profound insights by systematically reviewing the development history, current application status, and future prospects of stablecoins.
This report focuses on the transformation of the stablecoin ecosystem: from early issuance-centric approach to today's distribution and usage.
Usage of stablecoins outweighs supply: The report emphasizes that understanding the actual application scenarios of stablecoins is more important than simply focusing on total supply. Stablecoins have expanded from a single trading tool to diverse uses such as payments, savings, cross-border remittances, and DeFi collateral.
Power shifts from issuers to distributors: As the threshold for stablecoin issuance lowers, distributors (such as wallets, exchanges, and fintech platforms) are gradually becoming the dominant force in value capture. They not only integrate stablecoins but also shape market influence through user relationships and experience.
Rise of new infrastructure: To adapt to diverse use cases, new infrastructure is developing to support programmability, compliance, and value sharing. Stablecoins are no longer simple digital assets but dynamic financial primitives that can adapt to different scenario needs.
Data insights: The report provides detailed data analysis showing that stablecoin supply and trading volume are mainly concentrated in centralized exchanges (CEX), DeFi protocols, and MEV infrastructure. Unattributed wallets also occupy a significant share, representing the growth potential of grassroots users and emerging use cases.
Special Statement: All articles by DePINone Labs are for information and knowledge purposes only and do not constitute any investment advice.
This report is compiled by DePINone Labs, please contact us for reprinting.
——Following is the original report——
(The translation continues in the same manner for the entire document, maintaining the specified translations for specific terms.)Tether and Circle dominate not only because they were early entrants, but also because they are among the few issuers capable of consistently managing issuance, redemption, reserve management, bank partner integration, and surviving market pressures.
By monetizing reserves (primarily short-term US Treasury bills and cash equivalents), even modest interest rates translate into massive income. Early success was doubled: exchanges, wallets, and DeFi protocols were built around USDT and USDC, reinforcing network effects of distribution and liquidity.
Distribution as a Value Layer
Trusted custody, liquidity, and redemption are no longer differentiating factors—they are expectations. As more issuers enter the market with similar capabilities, the importance of the issuers themselves diminishes. What matters is what users can do with stablecoins.
Therefore, power is shifting from issuers to distributors. Wallets, exchanges, and applications that integrate stablecoins into real-world use cases now hold influence and leverage. They own user relationships, shape experiences, and increasingly determine which stablecoins gain traction.
And they are monetizing this position. Circle's recent IPO filing shows that in 2023, they paid nearly $900 million to partners like Coinbase—over half of their total revenue—for integration and promotion of USDC.
The current situation is that issuers are paying distributors, not the other way around.
Many distributors are moving further upstream. PayPal launched PYUSD. Telegram partnered with Ethena. Meta is again exploring stablecoin tracks. Financial technology platforms like Stripe, Robinhood, and Revolut are directly embedding stablecoins into payment, savings, and trading functions.
Issuers are not standing still. Tether is building wallets and payment tracks. Circle is comprehensively developing through payment APIs, developer tools, and infrastructure acquisitions. But the dynamic is clear: distribution is now the strategic high ground.
Built for Programmability and Precision
As stablecoin adoption expands, new infrastructure is emerging—built for programmability, compliance, and value sharing. Mere issuance is no longer sufficient to compete. Stablecoins must adapt to platform demands driving usage.
Next-generation stablecoins include programmable features like hooks, compliance rules, and conditional transfers. These features make stablecoins application-aware assets that automatically route value to merchants, developers, liquidity providers, or associated parties without off-chain protocols.
Each use case has a unique context. Remittances prioritize speed and conversion, DeFi requires composability and collateral flexibility, fintech integration needs compliance and auditability. The emerging infrastructure stack aims to serve these diverse needs, enabling the stablecoin layer to dynamically adapt to its context, rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution.
Critically, this infrastructure transformation makes value capture more precise. Programmable flow means value can be shared across the stack—not just hoarded by issuers. Stablecoins are becoming dynamic financial primitives, shaped by the incentives and architecture of the ecosystem that moves them.
Focus on Use Cases
As stablecoin value capture shifts downstream, distributors define their actual use. Wallets, exchanges, fintech applications, payment platforms, and DeFi protocols determine which stablecoins users can see, how they interact with them, and where they create utility. These platforms shape user experience and control the demand side of the stablecoin economy.
Analyzing stablecoins' actual usage in areas like payments, savings, trading, DeFi, and remittances can reveal who creates value, where friction points exist, and which distribution channels are effective. By tracking stablecoin flows on wallets and platforms, we can gain insights into the infrastructure and incentives influencing their application.
Since most activities occur off-chain, it is difficult to obtain specific data on how centralized exchanges (CEX) use stablecoins. Funds are typically concentrated, and specific uses are rarely disclosed. This opacity makes it extremely challenging to assess the comprehensiveness of stablecoin usage within centralized exchanges (CEX).
The stablecoin trading volume attributed to centralized exchanges (CEX) reflects on-chain activities related to deposits, withdrawals, inter-exchange transfers, and liquidity operations, rather than internal transactions, margin collateral, or fee settlements. Therefore, it is best viewed as an indicator of user interaction with exchanges, not a measure of total trading activity.
DeFi
Stablecoin Supply Share: 11%
Stablecoin Trading Volume Share: 21% (Last 30 Days)
Reserve Income: $1.1 Billion (Assuming Fixed Floating Annual Yield)
Main Categories of DeFi Stablecoin Holdings
DeFi stablecoin supply comes from collateral, liquidity providers (LP) assets, and settlement layers of lending markets, decentralized exchanges (DEX), and derivative protocols. Over the past 6 months, the supply of CDP, lending, perpetual contracts, and staking has nearly doubled.
The DEX supply share has significantly decreased, not due to reduced DEX usage, but because of higher capital efficiency.
With Hyperliquid's rising popularity, the supply locked in perpetual contracts has recently increased dramatically.
Main Categories of DeFi Stablecoin Trading Volume
Over the past 6 months, DeFi monthly stablecoin trading volume has grown from around $10 billion to over $60 billion, primarily driven by massive growth in DEX, lending, and CDP.
In the DeFi realm, stablecoins are deployed in the following key areas:
DEX Pools
Lending Markets
Collateralized Debt Positions
Others (including perpetual debt, bridge bonds, and staking)
These market segments use stablecoins in different ways—whether as liquidity, collateral, or payment—shaping user behavior and protocol-level economics.
[Translation continues in the same manner for the entire text]Meanwhile, wallets with a balance below $10,000 - over 99% of unmarked wallets - collectively hold $9 billion, less than 4% of the total stablecoin supply.
Most wallets are small in scale, but the majority of unmarked stablecoin supply is held by a few high-value groups. This distribution reflects the dual nature of stablecoin usage: one end is widespread grassroots access, and the other is significant institutional or large-holder concentration.
Conclusion
The stablecoin ecosystem has entered a new phase where value will increasingly flow to developers building applications and infrastructure.
This marks a key market maturity; its focus will shift from the currency itself to the programmable system that makes the currency function.
As regulatory frameworks are refined and user-friendly applications proliferate, stablecoins will experience exponential growth. They combine the stability of fiat currency with blockchain's programmability, making them the foundational building blocks for constructing the global financial future.
The future of stablecoins belongs to developers who create applications, infrastructure, and experiences that unlock their full potential. As this transformation accelerates, we can expect more innovations in how value is created, distributed, and acquired throughout the ecosystem.
The future will not be defined by stablecoins alone, but by the ecosystem that forms around them.
