Stablecoin Processes $35 Trillion But Only $390 Billion for Real Payments, Far From Quadrillion in Global Market Potential

Latest data from McKinsey and Artemis Analytics reveal a striking contrast within the stablecoin ecosystem: although transaction volume reached $35 trillion last year, only about 1% of that figure reflects real-world payments. These findings highlight a significant discrepancy between reported blockchain activity and the utilization of stablecoins for practical purposes.

The research from these two institutions estimates that actual stablecoin payments—covering business-to-vendor transactions, payroll payments, remittances, and securities settlement—total only around $390 billion. This figure is far lower than the expectations often associated with the rapid growth of stablecoins in recent years.

Dramatic Gap Between Transaction Volume and Substantial Payments

The contradiction between $35 trillion in transaction movement and $390 billion in real payments reveals an important reality about the composition of stablecoin activity. The majority of this volume consists of speculative trading between crypto users, internal transfers between the same wallets, and technical functions at the protocol level that do not involve end-users as payers or payees.

The McKinsey and Artemis reports note that actual stablecoin payments account for only about 0.02% of the total global payment volume, which exceeds $2 quadrillion per year. While this appears small in the context of the global payment quadrillions market, the growth potential remains significant given the still suboptimal adoption.

Competition in the stablecoin-based payment space is heating up with traditional players like Visa and Stripe entering the scene, alongside crypto companies such as Circle and Tether marketing their tokens as alternatives to slow and costly international transfer systems. However, the reality shows that adoption is still far from the massive levels envisioned.

Three Pillars of Stablecoin Utility Today: B2B, Remittances, and Capital Markets

To understand where stablecoins are truly used, the research identifies three main user segments:

Business-to-Business (B2B) transactions form the backbone, with an annual volume of $226 billion, including inter-company payments, contract settlements, and international trade operations. This segment shows the strongest appeal due to cost efficiency and cross-border transaction speed.

Global Payroll and Remittances reach a total of $90 billion, reflecting individual use for sending money to family abroad or receiving salaries in digital currency. Although growth in this area is steady, penetration remains limited to certain tech-savvy demographics.

Capital Market Activities such as automated fund settlements in securities transactions amounted to $8 billion last year, representing the most specific and institutional application within the current stablecoin ecosystem.

Long Road to Mass Adoption in the Quadrillion Payment Market

Analysts emphasize that the fact that actual stablecoin payments are far lower than general expectations does not eliminate the long-term potential of this technology. Instead, this data lays a more realistic foundation for evaluating the current stablecoin market position and identifying barriers to overcome.

Most narratives comparing stablecoin volume to Visa or Mastercard transaction volume overlook an important nuance: the majority of stablecoin activity is internal to the crypto ecosystem and does not involve broad consumer payment adoption. Until clear regulations are established, off-ramp infrastructure is strengthened, and consumer trust in stable tokens increases, real payment growth will remain limited.

This research is valuable not only for industry players but also for policymakers to understand where stablecoins truly create value and where they merely represent account shifts within the crypto ecosystem. With the global payment market valued in the quadrillions of dollars and continuously expanding, a recent important question is how large a share stablecoins will ultimately hold in the coming decades.