Building the Infrastructure for the $2 Trillion Stablecoin Economy

Updated Nov 14, 2025, 2:15 p.m. Published Nov 14, 2025, 2:13 p.m.

Stablecoins have moved from the fringes of crypto finance to the center of our modern financial system. As blockchain adoption increases and the crypto industry matures, so has the opinion of policymakers, leading to the drafting and adoption of clear and transparent frameworks for stablecoin usage.

With a surge in stablecoin usage entering traditional finance aided by regulatory clarity, industry leaders have begun treating regulation as rails – building products alongside regulation rather than reactively adapting to them. As the path is getting clearer for stablecoins, they are becoming the invisible infrastructure of the new global economy.

Macro trends: Stablecoins on a $2 trillion trajectory

Though stablecoins are becoming the invisible infrastructure powering a modern financial system, their rise in adoption has been far from unseen. Total stablecoin market capitalization reached roughly $300 billion in 2025, and is forecasted to approach $2 trillion valuation as adoption accelerates. Even at its current size, stablecoins remain a small slice of the global payments market, processing less than 1% of daily transfer volumes.

This growth reflects genuine demand for faster, cheaper, borderless transactions. By leveraging blockchain networks, stablecoins allow value to move across borders 24/7 in seconds, bypassing the multi-day, intermediary-laden process of legacy banking rails. Financial institutions believe that 5 to 10% of global payments could be conducted via stablecoins by 2030, up from essentially zero a few years ago.

Crucially, stablecoin adoption is broadening into real economy uses. By late 2025, roughly 3% of the world’s $200 trillion in cross-border payments (like remittances) were already flowing through stablecoins. Stablecoins are also beginning to penetrate capital markets and e-commerce payments. Credit card networks Visa and Mastercard have also developed rails for transactions funded by stablecoins. Meanwhile, big companies are launching their own stablecoins – for example, Western Union’s USDPT and PayPal’s PYUSD, aiming to integrate frictionless digital cash into global commerce.

Regulatory approaches: U.S., Europe and Asia

After years of ambiguity, stablecoins are finally gaining clear legal status. The United States passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation in U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS Act), the first federal framework for stablecoins. The law requires full backing by high-quality liquid assets such as U.S. dollars or Treasury bills, along with monthly reserve attestations. It also prohibits interest payments to consumers, effectively treating major stablecoins like bank-issued money. This clarity is expected to accelerate institutional adoption by removing legal uncertainty.

Europe’s MiCA framework set licensing and reserve standards for all issuers, while the U.K. moved to classify stablecoins as regulated digital settlement assets.

In Asia-Pacific, regulators were among the earliest to act. Japan defines stablecoins as digital money, limited to issuance by licensed banks, trust companies or registered agents, with the recent launch of its first regulated stablecoin, JPYC. Japanese investors' crypto assets surpassed a record 5 trillion yen ($33.16 billion) at the end of July, up 25% from a month earlier. Singapore’s framework, finalized in 2023, demands 100% reserve backing, monthly audits and strict prudential standards. Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Ordinance, enacted in 2025, requires issuers to obtain approval from the HKMA and maintain capital and disclosure standards on par with traditional financial institutions.

Across these markets, the pattern is clear: full reserve transparency, AML controls and prudential licensing are becoming the baseline. This convergence raises the bar for entry, but also builds trust. For institutional investors and treasurers, it signals that stablecoins are finally becoming part of the regulated financial mainstream.

Why now: The convergence moment

Every major shift in finance has come from a convergence of three forces: structural demand, technological maturity and regulatory clarity. For stablecoins, that moment is now.

The current cross-border payment system, dominated by SWIFT, facilitates $2.8 trillion in transactions, but with settlement times of 18 hours and fees reaching $25 to $50. It’s infrastructure designed for a pre-digital era. For multinationals, that means liquidity stuck in transit; for SMEs, exclusion altogether. The system that once defined trust has become its bottleneck.

Stablecoins directly address that structural pain, offering instant, programmable settlement with cost savings of 10% or more, while maintaining traceability and compliance.

A while ago, the idea of running large-scale financial operations on public blockchains was unthinkable. Today, that’s changed. Stablecoin ecosystems are now built on high-throughput, audited and enterprise-grade networks such as Stellar, Polygon and Ethereum. Transaction monitoring, KYC integration and reserve attestations have become standard practice. APIs now let banks and fintechs plug into blockchain rails as reliably as legacy wires.

After years of fragmented oversight, regulators are now aligned. These three forces – broken traditional rails, mature digital infrastructure and regulatory endorsement – are converging into a once-in-a-generation opening.

For the first time, trust, efficiency and technology are moving in the same direction. The financial internet is being rebuilt from the ground up, and the companies invested early in compliance, integration and interoperability are poised to build its foundation.

OwlTing’s competitive moat: Compliance, connectivity and early-mover advantage

A key case study in using regulation as rails and building alongside compliance is OwlTing. Founded in 2010 as an e-commerce and hospitality platform, OwlTing has grown to become the first Asian fintech company to be directly listed on Nasdaq, under the ticker OWLS. OwlTing built its advantage in stablecoin infrastructure by focusing early on regulation and technical integration. The company’s story began far from finance.

The company spent years working with global suppliers and partners, and saw firsthand how slow, expensive and fragmented the money system had become.

Those pain points led to the creation of OwlPay, a platform built to make moving money as simple as sending a message. OwlTing recognized early that stablecoins would become the foundation of a more open, compliant financial system, bridging fiat and digital economies under one regulated framework. Years ago, the company was preparing for this moment.

Today, OwlTing’s footprint spans 40 U.S. states, along with VASP registration in Europe and regulatory approval in Japan, one of the broadest footprints in its category. At the same time, it’s continuing to expand licensing efforts in Singapore, Hong Kong and Latin America.

This foundation enables the platform to facilitate compliant cross-border payments in over 190 countries and 41 currencies, in collaboration with global players such as Visa, MoneyGram, Stellar Development Foundation, Circle and Coinbase, strengthening OwlPay’s capability to bridge traditional finance with digital assets.

Founder and CEO Darren Wang emphasizes that this global coverage was intentional.

“To handle money across borders, you need licensing and compliance built into your foundation. Clients and partners won’t trust a company with their funds unless it’s regulated and accountable.” Wang added, “In the past ten years, we’ve processed hundreds of millions in payments for hospitality and e-commerce suppliers, without a single incident. That’s the moral standard we hold ourselves to. If you’re handling other people’s money, even one loss is unacceptable.”

Foresight in a fast-moving market

The race to power a $2 trillion stablecoin economy will be won by credibility and foresight. Stablecoins can only scale globally if their infrastructure blends the trust and compliance of traditional finance with the speed and programmability of blockchain.

Institutions are ready, regulators are setting clear frameworks and technology is bridging old and new systems. In this shift, companies that built for regulation from day one – securing licenses, embedding transparency and connecting across networks – are already ahead.

OwlTing’s path shows how a compliance-centric strategy, coupled with interoperable design, can form a durable moat in a rapidly evolving market. Building the rails for stablecoins is much like building the early internet: The real transformation starts with infrastructure. The groundwork laid today will enable the trillions in digital value exchange that will define tomorrow’s financial system.