Yesterday, Coinbase published a report that takes stock of the situation on the crypto market, focusing mainly on stablecoins. In fact, the first sentence of the article with which they announced it reads as follows:
“Sixteen years after the launch of Bitcoin, it is clear that the future of money is here and at its center: stablecoins”.
The report di Coinbase
The report is the June 2025 issue of the so-called The State of Crypto by Coinbase. This issue has been titled The Future of Money Is Here.
It gathers various data and information particularly from three sources.
The first is the Fortune 100 Initiatives, which is an analysis of the activities of Web3-related initiatives by companies included in the Fortune 100 index, from the first quarter of 2020 until the beginning of April 2025. The activities analyzed include any internal corporate project related to digital assets and/or blockchain, thus including investments, partnerships, product and service launches, and other similar initiatives.
This analysis was conducted by The Block Pro Research, using keywords such as “crypto,” “blockchain,” “tokenizzazione,” “NFT,” “metaverso” and “digital assets,” on news sites, corporate documents, press releases, and announcements.
The second source is a survey regarding the adoption of Web3 conducted by GLG on behalf of Coinbase, from April 10 to 22, 2025, on 100 executives from Fortune 500 companies, at managerial level and above, who are familiar with criptovalute and blockchain.
The third source is another survey on small and medium-sized enterprises, conducted by NRG on behalf of Coinbase, from April 14 to 16, 2025, on 251 financial decision-makers of U.S. companies with fewer than 500 employees, who are familiar with cryptocurrencies.
The importance of stablecoin
The most striking data emerging from the Coinbase report is the 54% annual growth in the global supply of stablecoins.
Note that in the previous twelve months the increase had been from 128 to 192 billion dollars overall (+50%), while in the last twelve months the overall capitalization of stablecoins has jumped to 250 billion dollars. So in reality, it has been two years that stablecoins have been growing at a sustained pace.
In May 2022, however, before the implosion of the Terra/Luna crypto ecosystem, they had already reached 187 billion, so that of 2023 was more of a rebound after the 2022 crash.
In total, an estimated 161 million stablecoin holders have been identified globally, which is more than the combined population of the 10 largest cities in the world put together.
Despite this, 9 out of 10 executives from Fortune 500 companies state that clear regulation is necessary in the USA to support this innovation, even though it seems that Congress is almost ready to release one.
Furthermore, 1 executive out of 5 states that on-chain is now a fundamental strategic focus, with a 47% year-on-year growth from this point of view.
Tokenized real-world assets (RWA) have also grown significantly in the last twelve months, rising to over 21 billion dollars in total. It is therefore not surprising that 1 small business out of 3 already uses cryptocurrencies (double compared to 2024), nor that 6 out of 10 F500 companies declare they are working on blockchain initiatives.
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The scenario
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The fact is that 2024 marked a real turning point for cryptocurrencies, driven by the surge in the adoption of digital assets, the tokenization of real-world assets, and the growing involvement of institutions and small businesses.
Stablecoins are simply at the center of all this, because they constitute the dominant force that fuels on-chain utility and real-time global payments.
In fact, the organic volume of stablecoin transfers has reached unprecedented levels, with the two highest monthly volume transfers in history occurring in the last 12 months: 719 billion dollars in December 2024, and 717.1 billion dollars in April 2025.
Even in 2024, the annual volume of total stablecoin transfers reached 27.6 trillion dollars, surpassing the combined volume of Visa and Mastercard by over 7.68%.
Stablecoins are recognized as a key solution to address various financial difficulties, such as cross-border transactions, payment processing fees, efficiency in payroll management, protection from inflation, and the payment gap for underbanked and unbanked individuals.
To all this, it should be added that according to 82% of SMEs, cryptocurrencies can help solve at least one of the problems of their business, a percentage that has increased significantly compared to 68% a year ago.
The problem of regulatory clarity remains, especially in the USA, where the bill on stablecoins (GENIUS Act) is on the way and is expected to mark an important turning point for the crypto sector.
