Stablecoin Usage Expands Rapidly Amid Regulatory Concerns

(16 June 2025 – Global) Stablecoin digital asset usage is growing rapidly yet concerns regarding supervision and their broader impact on financial markets stability continue to mount just as quickly.

Until recently, stablecoins’ ease of use and anonymity made them a de facto currency reserve for crypto traders and a conduit for crime including drug trafficking and money laundering. But, hastened by the return of President Donald Trump to the White House, stablecoins are becoming increasingly mainstream, a development that could have profound implications for the global financial system Philip Stafford reports for FT.

The stablecoin tokens, a form of cryptocurrency that acts like cash, account for 90 per cent of business activities at the trade payments group Mansa, which supports SMEs in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. Payments to customers and her team are made using tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, and Mansa received its fundraising the same way.

Stablecoins represent one thing above all – ready access to a proxy for US dollars. Stablecoins track the value of the currency one-for-one but the money is transferred online, outside the banking system. That makes them highly attractive in countries impacted by high inflation, weak or volatile currencies, unstable banks or capital controls.

Despite concerns and a US regulatory clampdown on the industry after the 2022 market crash, the Stablecoin market has continued to grow rapidly. Stripping out automated crypto markets trading, transaction volumes in stablecoins rose to US$752 billion in May 2025, up from US$409 billion year-on-year (YOY) according to recent Visa data. The number of wallets that regularly send and receive payments hit a record average of 46 million last month, up from 27 million YOY.

“People are trying to hedge risk you know, you’re trying to just not go down with the economy. The dollar is still the dollar, whether we like it or not. And it is still the most desired currency to hold because of how much trade is done in the US dollar” commented Mansa Co-Founder and COO, Nkiru Uwaje.

“Stablecoins are far superior to the network of correspondent banks that handle most of the world’s cross-border transactions which take longer, charge more and occasionally make mistakes” Uwaje, a former executive at Swift, added.

“A stablecoin “has all the benefits of not having to move cash, coins or interact with the banking system for payments. Without regulation, it also has all the costs of no oversight, regulation or money laundering controls. The open question is whether tokenised money will still be more efficient, safer and quicker once regulated” stated ClearToken CEO Ben Santos-Stephens.