In-depth Analysis of the Stablecoin Ecosystem

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks are facing a comprehensive challenge from stablecoins due to outdated infrastructure, lengthy settlement cycles, and high costs. These digital assets are revolutionizing the way cross-border value flows, corporate transactions, and access to personal financial services are conducted.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become an important underlying infrastructure for global payments. Large fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are integrating stablecoins into consumer-facing applications and enterprise cash flow. At the same time, emerging financial tools ranging from payment gateways to deposit and withdrawal channels, and programmable yield products have greatly enhanced the usability of stablecoins.

This report provides a deep analysis of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and commercial perspectives, examining the key players, core infrastructure, and dynamic factors driving demand in this field. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins are giving rise to new financial applications and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economy.

1. Why choose stablecoin payments?

To understand the influence of stablecoins, we must first examine traditional payment solutions. These traditional systems encompass cash, checks, debit cards, credit cards, international wire transfers ( SWIFT ), Automated Clearing House ( ACH ), and peer-to-peer payments, among others. Although they have become integrated into daily life, many payment channels ( such as ACH and SWIFT ) have had their infrastructure in place since the 1970s. Most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods suffer from high costs, high friction, long processing times, inability to settle around the clock, and complex back-end processes. Additionally, they often require extra fees for bundling unnecessary services such as identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and bank integration.

Stablecoin payments are effectively addressing these pain points. Compared to traditional payment methods, using blockchain for payment settlement greatly simplifies the payment process, reduces intermediaries, and allows for real-time visibility of cash flow, not only shortening settlement time but also lowering costs.

The main advantages of stablecoin payments include:

• Real-time settlement: transactions are completed almost instantaneously, eliminating delays in traditional banking systems.
• Safe and Reliable: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures transaction security and transparency, providing protection for users.
• Cost reduction: Eliminating intermediaries significantly lowers transaction fees, saving expenses for users.
• Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets that are underserved by traditional financial services (, including unbanked populations ), achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of the Stablecoin Payment Industry

The stablecoin payment industry can be subdivided into four technical stack levels:

1. First Layer: Application Layer

The application layer is mainly composed of various payment service providers ( PSP ), which integrate multiple independent deposit and withdrawal payment institutions into a unified aggregation platform. These platforms provide users with convenient stablecoin access methods, offer tools for developers working on the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

The payment gateway is a service that securely processes payments and facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers.

Notable companies innovating in this field include:

• A payment company: Traditional payment providers will integrate stablecoins like USDC for global payments.
• A certain cryptocurrency wallet: does not provide direct fiat currency exchange functionality, users can perform deposit and withdrawal operations through integration with its third-party services.
• A certain payment company: 450,000 active wallets and 6,000 merchants. With the help of a certain payment plugin, millions of e-commerce merchants can settle payments in cryptocurrency and instantly convert USDY into other stablecoins, such as USDC, EURC, and PYUSD.
• Certain mobile payments, certain payment companies, certain payment applications, certain fintech companies, and other Web2 payment applications also allow users to complete payments using stablecoins, further expanding the application scenarios for stablecoins.

The domain of payment gateway providers can be clearly divided into two categories ( with certain overlaps ):

1. developer-focused payment gateway; 2) consumer-focused payment gateway. Most payment gateway providers tend to focus more on one category, thereby shaping their core products, user experience, and target market.

The payment gateway aimed at developers is designed to serve enterprises, fintech companies, and businesses that need to integrate stablecoin infrastructure into their workflows. They typically offer application programming interfaces (API), software development kits (SDK), and developer tools to integrate into existing payment systems, enabling features such as automated payments, stablecoin wallets, virtual accounts, and real-time settlement. Some emerging projects focusing on providing such developer tools include:

• A payment infrastructure: provides enterprise-level payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. The company offers API solutions for seamless processes, has a payment platform for cross-border commercial payments, and allows businesses to hold and trade various stablecoins and fiat currencies through enterprise accounts, as well as merchant services providing the necessary tools for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. Processing over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a growth rate of 200%, valued at $750 million, clients include emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
• A payment company ( is testing ): providing APIs to seamlessly integrate stablecoin trading into its existing business. It offers businesses global deposit and withdrawal channels, stablecoin payment infrastructure, wallets, and virtual accounts, supporting customized payment workflows ( including recurring payments, invoicing, or on-demand payments ).
• A payment company: offers a range of corporate payment, salary distribution, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including Nigerian Naira (NGN), Canadian Dollar (CAD), US Dollar (USD), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC). Primarily targeting the African market, with no operational data available yet.

Consumer-focused payment gateways prioritize the user, offering an easy-to-use interface that facilitates stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects that focus on providing users with this simple payment experience include:

• A certain payment company: On-chain banking platform, enabling personal consumption, remittances, and stablecoin transactions in over 184 countries; the company collaborates with local channels in Latin America, including a certain cross-border remittance company, to achieve nearly zero withdrawal fees, with over 10,000 South American users and high ratings among certain public chain developers.
• A certain payment company: Deposit and withdrawal solutions, directly integrated with merchants, allowing users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoin with minimal friction. The company also supports a certain mobile payment to purchase USDC, simplifying the process for consumers to obtain stablecoin.
• A payment application: The stablecoin wallet feature of this application utilizes stablecoin technology, but its functionality is integrated into its existing consumer payment application, allowing users to easily send, receive, and use digital dollars without directly interacting with the blockchain infrastructure.

b. U Card

Cryptocurrency cards are payment cards that allow users to spend cryptocurrency or stablecoin at traditional merchants. These cards are typically integrated with traditional credit card networks (, such as a certain credit card company or another credit card company ), enabling seamless transactions by automatically converting cryptocurrency assets to fiat currency at the point of sale.

The project includes:

• A certain card issuer: Asian card issuer, clients include a certain payment company, a certain payment company, a certain payment company, a certain payment company, a certain payment company and more than 40 other enterprises, selling white-label solutions, mainly relying on transaction volume commissions ( like a certain payment company 85%-a certain card issuer 15% ) cooperating with certain regional banks, can cover most areas outside a certain country, can support multi-chain deposits; by July 2024, the transaction volume reached $30M.
• A certain card issuer: American card issuer, supports card issuance for multiple companies including a certain public chain, a certain payment company, and another payment company, with the main feature being the ability to serve users in the United States and Latin America. Issued a USDC corporate card using on-chain asset ( to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business expenses.
• A certain card issuing company: European card issuer + web3 bank, the business model is similar to the above two, supporting card issuance for companies like a certain payment company, another payment company, etc.; licensed in a certain country, mainly serving European + Asian users, currently does not support full-chain transactions, only allows deposits to a certain public chain. Growth is slow with a total of 20,000 users and a monthly income of $100K-150K.
• A payment company: The U card, which has been growing rapidly on a certain public chain, has currently issued more than 10,000 cards, with 5-6k monthly active users, and a trading volume of $7m and revenue of $200k by December 2024.
• A payment company: stablecoin ecosystem, recently launched a credit card that supports stablecoins and provides a software development kit to facilitate L1 and L2 integration, with no data available in the testing phase.

There are many cryptocurrency card providers, which mainly differ in terms of service areas and supported currencies, and they usually offer low fee services to end users to enhance the enthusiasm for using cryptocurrency cards.

) 2. Second Layer: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin technology stack, payment processors are the backbone of payment channels, primarily covering two categories: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They serve as a critical intermediary layer in the payment lifecycle, connecting Web3 payments with the traditional financial system.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

• A payment company: supports over 80 cryptocurrencies, provides various deposit and withdrawal methods, and token swap services to meet users' diverse cryptocurrency trading needs.
• A payment company: covering over 150 countries, providing deposit and withdrawal services for more than 90 types of crypto assets. The network handles all KYC### identity verification(, AML) anti-money laundering(, and compliance requirements, ensuring the compliance and security of deposit and withdrawal services.
• A certain payment company: a hybrid payment gateway solution that supports bidirectional exchange and payments between fiat currencies and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination of Processors

• A payment company: The company's core products include a coordination API and an issuance API. The former helps enterprises integrate various stablecoin payments and exchanges, while the latter supports enterprises in quickly issuing stablecoins. The platform is currently licensed in the United States and Europe and has established important partnerships with the U.S. State Department and Treasury, possessing strong compliance operational capabilities and resource advantages.
• A certain payment company ) is in testing (: Similar to certain payment company products, it is a regulated stablecoin issuance platform that provides stablecoin coordination and reserve management APIs. It has compliance licenses in various states across the United States, and partner enterprises need to go through KYB ) business identity verification (, while users need to set up an account with the company for KYC. The company's clients are mostly on-chain OGs ) such as: certain payment company, certain payment company, etc. ( Compared to certain payment company, the investment backing and BD are slightly weaker.
• A payment company ) is testing (: This company's platform lowers the issuance threshold for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide concentrated liquidity in a single pool. The platform employs a "central hub-radiating" model, where USD* serves as the central reserve asset, acting as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism allows for the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of multiple stablecoins linked to various assets or jurisdictions, with each stablecoin connecting to USD* as a similar "spoke." Through this system structure, the platform ensures deep liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as smaller stablecoins can interoperate via USD* without the need for separate liquidity pools for each trading pair. The ultimate design goal of the system is not only to enhance price stability and reduce slippage, but also to achieve seamless conversion between stablecoins.

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) 3. Level Three: Asset Issuer

Asset issuance