Stablecoins have already crossed an important threshold: they are no longer just a crypto trading tool; they are becoming real financial infrastructure. The IMF estimates stablecoin trading volume reached $23 trillion in 2024, suggesting this is no longer a niche settlement layer inside crypto. It is becoming part of the way digital dollars move globally.
That is a genuine breakthrough. Stablecoins succeeded by solving a real problem: how to move dollars faster, around the clock, across platforms and borders.
But solving payments is not the same as deciding what digital dollars should become when they are held.
Today, stablecoins work extremely well in motion. They are used for transfers, settlement, liquidity management, and preserving dollar exposure. But when those balances come to rest, most still behave like digital cash: stable, liquid, portable, and largely idle.
That creates a familiar capital-allocation question.
In traditional finance, not all dollars are treated the same. Some are held for payments. Some are held as reserves. Some sit in savings products. Others are deployed into yield-generating instruments. Crypto has built a strong version of internet-native cash. What has not yet been resolved is whether stablecoins remain purely transactional instruments or evolve into something broader.
That question now matters far beyond crypto-native users.
In high-inflation markets, stablecoins are already used to preserve purchasing power and hold working capital in dollar terms. In developed markets, savers and businesses increasingly want dollar-based products that are global, digital, and more useful than a static bank balance. So the next phase of the category is not really about whether people want to use digital dollars; it is about what they expect digital dollars to do once they stop moving.
This is where the story becomes more complicated.
In the US, policymakers are actively trying to draw a boundary around stablecoins. The GENIUS Act prohibits payment stablecoin issuers from paying holders any form of interest or yield solely for holding, using, or retaining the token. The CLARITY Act, still working its way through the Senate, has partly centred on whether rewards tied to idle balances should be more broadly constrained. Reuters has reported that one possible compromise would restrict yield on idle balances while allowing narrower peer-to-peer rewards.
In other words, the question is no longer just what stablecoins can do technically. It is the role policymakers are prepared to let them play financially.
But even if the US attempts to keep stablecoins firmly in the payments lane, that does not mean broader market demand disappears.
We have already seen how strong that demand can be. Ethena’s October 2025 governance update reported that USDe supply reached roughly $14.8 billion at its peak before retracing. That does not prove the final structure of the category has been found, nor that every yield-bearing dollar model is durable. But it does show something important: once digital dollars offer more than static storage of value, adoption can accelerate quickly.
Even if you exclude the US and EU, that still represents a significant global demand signal.
That is why I think the next phase of stablecoins is not simply “payments plus yield.” It is a deeper question about whether digital dollars remain in the payments lane or evolve into a broader layer of savings and treasury infrastructure.
My view is that this shift is inevitable at the level of market demand. Once individuals and businesses begin holding meaningful balances in digital dollars, they will expect more than transferability alone. They will expect utility while capital is at rest.
The open question is not whether that demand exists. It is how products, regulation, and market structure evolve to meet it.
The winners in this next stage will not just be the stablecoins that move dollars efficiently. They will be the ones that make digital dollars more useful while preserving the qualities that made stablecoins important in the first place: stability, liquidity, and usability.
The first generation of stablecoins gave the market digital cash.
The next generation will be defined by what digital dollars are allowed to become when they stop moving.
[1] IMF, How Stablecoins Can Improve Payments and Global Finance, 2024
[2] U.S. Code, 12 U.S.C. § 5903, Requirements for Issuing Payment Stablecoins, 2025
[3] Reuters, Bessent Urges Congress to Pass Crypto Regulation Bill, 2025