Every month, we’re diving deep into the state of stablecoins. In this edition, we explore updates to the GENIUS and Clarity Act, Circle’s use cases for internal treasury transfers, the launch of Tempo, and Mastercard’s acquisition of BVNK.
New here? Subscribe to get updates straight to your inbox.
Top Stablecoin Stats
Total market cap: $300.33B (+0.32%)
Monthly transfer volume: $10.14T (+8.33%)
Monthly active addresses: 53.2M (+9.1%)
Total holders: 242.5M (+3.8%)
USDT: $185.74B (+0.34%)
USDC: $75B (-0.24%)
USDS: $7.6B (+0.98%)
USDe: $5.9B (-0.61%)
DAI: $4.75B (+10.88%)
The metrics are accurate at the time of publication. The percentage change is over a 30-day period.
What Caught Our Eye
The U.S. Treasury issued a notice for the GENIUS Act, opening a 60-day public comment period on how it will evaluate whether state-level stablecoin regulatory regimes qualify as "substantially similar" to the federal framework. Stablecoin issuers with under $10B in outstanding supply can opt into state regulation.
Circle used its USDC stablecoin to facilitate $68M in internal treasury transfers. This was designed to stress test how blockchain technology can be used in replacement of bank wires, settling intercompany payments on the same day.
Stripe and Paradigm launched the Tempo mainnet on March 18, designed to handle high volumes of low-cost stablecoin transactions, alongside its Machine Payments Protocol that lets software and AI agents pay for services autonomously without human approval at each step.
Mastercard announced a $1.8B acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, including $300M in contingent payments, expanding its capabilities to support interoperability between fiat and stablecoins, tokenized deposits and assets.
The Clarity Act's stablecoin yieldtext release was delayed, as crypto and banking industry representatives met with Senate staffers to further review revised compromise language a week after first viewing the draft. The original compromise banned passive yield while permitting activity-based rewards, but was reassessed due to wording concerns.
Quote of the Month
“If you look globally, the adoption of stablecoins is nothing new. In emerging countries, products are denominated in USDT, showcasing its use case for retail purposes. The shift is that now, institutional level players are now participating, in large part from 10/10,” which saw $19.1B in crypto liquidations. - Parker Edwards, partner at Framework Ventures, said on the Talking Tokens podcast.
Listen to the full episode here to learn more about Sky’s USDS growth into the third largest stablecoin by market cap and Obex’s plans to deploy $2.5B to bring institutional-grade yield onchain.
A Chart Worth Checking Out:
March was Ethereum''s most transaction month of all-time, facilitating $3.080T in stablecoin volume.
Source: Token Relations Dashboard
10 Stablecoin Developments From March
Coinbase received conditional OCC approval to operate as a national trust bank, giving it federal authority to move, hold, and settle money under a single regulator
Deloitte independent reports:
Tether’s USAT holdings consist of $17.6M in reserve assets, backing over 17.5M stablecoins Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is fully backed with $1.57B in liquid reserves against 1.49B circulating units, with holdings in short-term U.S. Treasuries, government money-market funds, and cash deposits
Stablecoin payments company KAST raised $80M in a Series A on March 9 to expand across North America, Latin America, and the Middle East; invest in licensing and compliance; and launch payroll and cross-border spending systems
PayPal expanded access for its PYUSD stablecoin to 70 new countries across Latin America, South America, African, and Asia
Mastercard’s new Crypto Partner Program launches with dozens of crypto-native participants including Anchorage Digital, Aptos, Ava Labs, Binance, BitGo, Circle, Fireblocks, Gemini, MoonPay, Optimism, Paxos, Polygon, Ripple, and Solana
Kraken Financial received a Federal Reserve master account, so it can complete settlements between fiat and crypto assets and provide institutional-grade cash management without relying on intermediary correspondent banks
Injective integrated Circle’s USDC stablecoin and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, providing native stablecoin issuance on the network
South Korea's KB Kookmin Card announced it will build a hybrid stablecoin payment system with Avalanche, allowing customers to use stablecoins on their existing credit cards
Want to learn more?
Listen to the latest The Market Runup podcast to hear from John D’Agostino, head of strategy at Coinbase Institutional, explain how crypto and stablecoins shift how markets operate
Dan Mottice, head of stablecoins at Modern Treasury and founder of Beam, went on Talking Tokens to share how he thinks 24/7 liquidity will transform cross-border and domestic payments, and why the layer between fiat and crypto is the real bottleneck
Polymarket to Launch Stablecoin, Order Book Overhaul in Prediction Market Upgrade - (Decrypt)
IMF Warns Tokenized Finance, Stablecoins Could Amplify Financial Crises - (Decrypt)
BitGo launches stablecoin minting and redemption for institutions - (The Block)
Stablecoin card issuing infrastructure platform Kulipa raises $6.2 million seed round - (The Block)
Hong Kong hasn’t issued a single HKD stablecoin license after March target - (CoinDesk)
This is the State of Stablecoins. March Edition.
This product was built by Token Relations.
This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.
To get this newsletter delivered to your inbox, subscribe here.
