New York, October 26, 2025 — Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading desks and into everyday business payments, but the promise of cheaper, faster transactions is proving more complicated in practice.
A new report from Artemis, a New York-based blockchain analytics firm, reveals that stablecoin usage across real-world payment channels has skyrocketed — even as transaction costs often rival or exceed those in traditional finance.
$136 Billion in Stablecoin Payments — Mostly B2B
Between January 2023 and August 2025, Artemis tracked $136 billion in stablecoin payments from 33 companies, with business-to-business (B2B) transactions leading the charge at $76 billion annually.
Other categories included:
- Peer-to-peer (P2P): $19 billion
- Card-linked: $18 billion
- Business-to-consumer (B2C): $3.3 billion
- Prefunding operations: $3.6 billion
At the current pace, total volume is on track to reach an annualized run rate of $122 billion.
Artemis found that Tether’s USDT continues to dominate the space, commanding 85% of all stablecoin transaction volume, largely via the Tron blockchain. USDC, issued by Circle, ranks second, operating across Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon.
From Trading Floors to Payment Networks
Artemis co-founder Anthony Yim and data scientist Andrew Van Aken noted that stablecoins have evolved far beyond speculative trading instruments. Today, global payment giants like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe are integrating stablecoin rails into their networks — signaling the asset class’s steady march into mainstream financial infrastructure.
The Artemis dataset, encompassing 33 firms, is being described as the most comprehensive snapshot yet of the emerging stablecoin payments economy.
The Cost Problem: Fees Still Bite
Despite the growth, cost efficiency remains a sticking point. On efficient blockchains like Solana, peer-to-peer transfers can cost just fractions of a cent. But once transactions involve exchanges, network transfers, or foreign exchange spreads, those savings can quickly disappear.
Investor and “Shark Tank” host Kevin O’Leary illustrated the issue in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), noting that Ethereum network congestion pushed transaction fees over $1,000 for small transfers:
“That’s like paying a thousand-dollar toll to drive on a one-lane highway,” O’Leary said. “It proves what I’ve been saying for years — when real traffic hits the system, it cracks under pressure.”
He added:
“For over a decade we’ve talked about going on-chain, and now that real-world adoption is happening, the cracks are showing. Innovation isn’t about hype — it’s about infrastructure that can handle scale.”
Regulation and Political Entanglements
The report comes just months after President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act, the first comprehensive U.S. framework for stablecoin regulation.
However, critics argue the law lacks clear consumer protection measures and fails to resolve conflicts of interest — particularly as the Trump family controls roughly 60% of World Liberty Financial, the issuer of a new stablecoin called USD1.
USD1 has gained traction following a $2 billion investment by a UAE-based fund, which used the token to acquire a stake in Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
In a related development, Trump recently pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had served prison time for failing to prevent illicit financial flows through his platform.
Like other stablecoins, USD1 is pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by Treasury bonds and other reserve assets, generating profits for issuers through interest income.
A Fast-Growing but Small System
While the numbers are impressive, stablecoin payments remain tiny compared to global banking networks, which process tens of trillions of dollars daily.
Still, Artemis’ findings point to a clear trajectory: stablecoins are no longer confined to the crypto ecosystem. They’re becoming an increasingly important — if still experimental — layer of the global financial system, one that blends speed and flexibility with the growing pains of scalability and regulation.
