A recent stablecoin survey of banks, fintechs, and crypto-native firms found that speed of execution was the single largest benefit of stablecoin payments, trumping cost savings. Fireblocks, the crypto custody, wallet and infrastructure provider, conducted a stablecoin survey of almost 300 firms in March. The company’s CEO also revealed that payment firms were its largest growing segment, and their activity outstrips that of crypto native clients.
Forty-nine percent of the respondents to the stablecoin survey are already using stablecoins, with 41% planning or piloting their usage. The two most notable takeaways from the survey were the motivations and regional differences.
The graphic above shows that revenue opportunities are the largest source of demand, often enabling expansion into new markets or to respond to customer demand. We have no idea whether Stripe has a relationship with Fireblocks, but it is a perfect example of entering new markets. When Stripe launched its stablecoin accounts, we observed that many of the 101 jurisdictions in which the accounts are available represent untapped regions for the payments firm. While Stripe maintains a high profile, its operations have primarily focused on North America, Europe, and select larger economies elsewhere, showing minimal overlap with their new stablecoin offerings.
Survey respondents from Latin America showed the highest rate of adoption for real world usage. Their primary use case is cross border payments (71%), higher than their counterparts in Europe (58%), Asia (53%) and North America (39%). While customer demand (54%) might be the number one driver, half of respondents from Latin America expect to achieve lower costs, more than other regions.
In Asia the top motivation (49%) for stablecoin adoption is entering new markets, with liquidity (41%) cited as a key benefit. North America’s results were a little surprising, showing expansion into mainstream payments such as payment acceptance (22%). Europeans now have the most regulatory certainty with MiCAR, and cited competitive pressures (37%) as the top driver for stablecoin adoption.
Fireblocks insights from its clients
Beyond the survey data, Fireblocks’ operational insights provide further evidence of stablecoin adoption. During a Consensus interview, Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov shared real transaction volumes reinforcing these trends. He said that stablecoins made up about a quarter of transactions flowing through its platform in 2021, and now accounts for 45-55%. The company supported the movement of $1.2 trillion in crypto in the last 90 days, with stablecoins making up $520 billion.
While historically Fireblocks catered to crypto firms, during the last two years payment companies have become the fastest growing customer segment. They now account for 10% of Fireblock’s customers but 15% of the volumes, so around $80 billion in transactions during the past 90 days. He also observed that many of its traditional crypto clients, including OTC trading desks, have expanded to serve the stablecoin sector and 70 of them have pivoted to mainly offer stablecoin services.
Shaulov asserted that the infrastructure for stablecoins needs to be five or ten times better than the infrastructure provided by large banks or credit card firms. Traditional payments take time to settle, providing an opportunity for recourse if something goes wrong, but stablecoins clear within a second on faster chains. Plus, digital currencies are a major target for criminals. This raises the bar for security requirements for wallets and the rails. There’s also a need for scale, given Fireblocks does about 60 million transactions per month.
Shaulov’s transaction data combined with the survey results demonstrate the accelerating adoption of stablecoins across multiple sectors. This growth drives both regulatory urgency in the US and significant business innovation, from strategic partnerships and acquisitions to new product launches like Coinbase’s x402 protocol and the Circle Payment Network—all competing to capitalize on the speed advantage that initially attracted users to stablecoin payments.
