While we are still paying attention to Bitcoin price fluctuations, a deeper transformation is already brewing behind the scenes—stablecoins are moving from the periphery to the center.

Numbers speak the loudest. By 2025, the market capitalization of stablecoins will surpass $310 billion. This number may not seem very intuitive at first glance, but from a different perspective, it becomes clear: the average daily settlement volume has already begun to rival traditional payment giants like Visa and PayPal. Even more astonishing, in the past year, the total transaction volume processed by stablecoins reached $46 trillion, a 106% increase year-over-year. That’s three times the scale of Visa transactions and even approaching the entire US ACH bank settlement network.

There is another detail worth noting: currently, over 1% of the global US dollar exists on public blockchains in the form of tokens. What does this mean? Stablecoins are no longer just a supporting role in crypto trading; they have upgraded to become the infrastructure for global capital flows.

The real turning point comes with the embrace of traditional finance. Payment giant Visa officially announced that US-based banks can settle directly using USDC, breaking the T+3 and T+5 settlement cycle curse in traditional financial systems. Once considered an aggressive experiment, stablecoin applications are now officially entering the mainstream financial system.

Looking ahead to 2026, a clear signal is emerging: the crypto market, which was driven by retail investor sentiment and cyclical trends, is evolving into an era dominated by institutions focused on compliance, real value, and long-term capital. The latest reports from top institutions point in the same direction. Standard Chartered has revised its year-end Bitcoin price forecast from $200,000 to $100,000, and this shift in attitude itself reflects the evolution of market sentiment.

Segregation or synchronization? 2026 will provide the answer.