From crypto assets to global payment infrastructure services: stablecoins of commercial entities

Stablecoins are no longer just a cryptocurrency product. According to the latest analysis from Allium Labs on payment infrastructure, stablecoins are rapidly transforming from a store of value into an essential payment service for economic entities—from individual consumers to businesses. This is not just a growth figure; it’s a fundamental shift in how stablecoins are used in practice.

Most current policy discussions still view stablecoins mainly as financial tools—similar to savings accounts or bond-linked products. However, real-world data tells a different story. The nature of stablecoin transactions is gradually shifting from value storage to regular payments, from experimental use to sustainable commercial applications.

Asymmetric Growth Rate: When Transaction Volume Outpaces Circulating Supply

Since the start of 2024, the circulating supply of stablecoins has doubled, but transaction volume has nearly tripled. This divergence is more meaningful than the impressive numbers suggest. During any asset accumulation phase, supply usually grows faster than usage. As assets mature, this curve reverses—demand begins to outpace supply as holders use them more actively.

What’s happening here is this: transaction volume is increasing significantly faster than circulating supply. This indicates that stablecoins are gradually evolving from a store of value into a more ideal medium of exchange—an efficient tool for moving value quickly.

The velocity of stablecoins—defined as transaction volume divided by circulating supply—has increased nearly 2.3 times over the past two years, from 2.6 times to over 6 times. To put this in perspective, compare it to traditional payment systems: this velocity shows stablecoins are beginning to operate like real payment channels.

Another key indicator, the number of transactions, also reveals something important. When transaction count grows faster than transaction volume, it suggests the average value per transaction is decreasing. This is a typical sign of a maturing payment system—not just a trading platform experiment, but an infrastructure with millions of smaller, more practical transactions.

Shifting Payment Channels: From Peer-to-Peer to Commercial Transactions

Who is paying for all these transactions, and for what purpose? This question leads us to discoveries that challenge previous assumptions.

C2C (consumer-to-consumer) transactions—transfers between friends and family—remain the largest channel. But its growth rate is the slowest. This is actually a positive sign, not a negative one. C2C is the simplest application of stablecoins: no merchant integration, no invoicing tools, no APIs. Most new payment technologies start here.

Recall when India launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ten years ago. Initially, individual users participated because of cashback programs—Google Pay (then called Tez in India) offered $1 cashback per transfer. But UPI didn’t really take off until business tools—payment reports, voice confirmations, bill management—were introduced. That’s when stores and merchants started to join.

A similar pattern is happening with stablecoins. The consumer-to-business (C2B) segment increased by 131%, far surpassing the overall payment growth of 76%. Business-to-business (B2B) grew by 87%. Both channels outpace the overall growth rate, indicating that commercial entities—shops, suppliers, companies—are increasingly viewing stablecoins as a legitimate payment method.

When combining the rising C2B transaction volume with the fact that the average C2B transaction value has decreased from $456 to $256, the picture becomes clearer: consumers are using stablecoins for regular, small, recurring payments.

Market Share Changes: Signs of Maturity

C2C’s market share once temporarily exceeded 60% of total payments. But since falling below 50% in Q1 2025, it has never regained that level. The world is gradually moving away from the experimental phase—less frequent, lower-risk transactions among friends. Instead, we are entering an era of structured, regular payments for real economic activities.

Allium’s payment trace data shows that at any given time, about 75% of stablecoin transactions occur domestically. This is a crucial piece of the story.

Why Stablecoins Compete with ACH Instead of SWIFT

When I first started tracking stablecoin development, one of the main arguments was that they would revolutionize cross-border remittances. Imagine an Asian worker receiving money from family in Dubai on bank holidays without paying the 7-8% intermediary fee—that was an attractive story.

But the data tells a different story. Over the past year, cross-border transaction share has dropped from 44% to 25-29%. Regionally, 84% of transactions still occur within the same geographic area. Clearly, stablecoins are not competing with SWIFT on the international payment stage.

Conversely, B2B domestic indicators tell a different story. Stablecoins dominate 74% of domestic B2B payments. The average transaction size is decreasing. Salary applications are rising. Invoice volumes are expanding. Together, these indicators suggest stablecoins are competing with domestic payment channels like ACH—the Automated Clearing House system in the U.S.

To put this in context: last year, B2B ACH payments increased by about 10%. During the same period, B2B stablecoin payments grew by 87%. Of course, we can’t compare absolute numbers directly—stablecoins are still much smaller than ACH by a factor of dozens. But this growth momentum cannot be ignored. It indicates that a new technology is penetrating the domestic payment infrastructure, where ACH has long been the dominant player.

The New Payment Tribe: From Experiment to Infrastructure

The cross-border remittance story remains, but it is no longer the focus. What’s truly exciting is the quiet rise of domestic payment services. The C2C market share has not returned to 50% in over a year, but this event is rarely discussed in crypto circles.

This disappearance of C2C from the dominant position is a real dividing line. It shows stablecoins are transitioning from an experimental crypto product to a foundational financial infrastructure supporting commerce: from consumers to businesses, from business to business, from one entity to another.

It’s important to note that Allium’s payment analysis is based only on wallets they can identify and label. While this analysis indicates that payments account for only 2-3% of the total adjusted stablecoin volume, these figures are likely the minimum. Many other wallets may not be within Allium’s scope, meaning the actual payment activity could be much larger.

Looking Ahead

In the coming quarters, key indicators to watch are whether C2B and B2B growth continues, and whether the decreasing transaction size trend persists—even during a crypto market downturn. If both trends hold, it will be evidence that stablecoin infrastructure is gradually detaching from speculative crypto trading.

At that point, stablecoins will truly become what their name suggests: stable money, a reliable payment service for all entities, from individuals to corporations. It’s no longer just a financial product. It’s infrastructure.