Stablecoins are only starting to gain everyday traction in the US and Europe. In much of the rest of the world they already do real work, according to Maya Caddle, payments lead at the Solana
Stablecoins are only starting to gain everyday traction in the US and Europe. In much of the rest of the world they already do real work, according to Maya Caddle, payments lead at the Solana Foundation.
Speaking with TheStreet Roundtable at Money20/20, Caddle said the West is in early stages but is starting to see real domestic utility. Emerging markets are further along.
A stablecoin is a digital token pegged to a currency, usually the US dollar, so its value stays steady instead of swinging like Bitcoin. Issuers back each token with reserves such as cash and short-term US Treasuries.
Why does that matter abroad? Goldman estimates that about 66% of the roughly $290 billion in stablecoins in circulation is held by individuals in emerging markets.
In many of those countries, local currencies lose value quickly and US dollars are hard to get. A stablecoin gives anyone with a smartphone a way to hold dollars, even without a US bank account.
Solana is one of the networks where this happens. It holds about $15 billion in stablecoins right now, according to DefiLlama.
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For companies with suppliers or staff abroad, Caddle said the first draw is access to markets with volatile currencies, where it can be hard to move money in, not just out.
The second is pre-funding.
“Whereas before you’d have to pre-fund, I don’t know, a $100 million position for a weekend because Friday or whatever time, 5 p.m., the banks close in the U.S.,” she said.
That money would sit idle, without earning interest, and holding a local currency adds foreign exchange (FX) risk as well.
With stablecoins, firms can fund payouts just in time. Card networks are moving the same way.
Visa said on Oct. 15 that its stablecoin funding option for Visa Direct is moving from pilot to commercial use. Businesses that run cross-border payouts through Visa Direct can now prefund them with USDC in near real time, rather than relying only on traditional funding windows.
The numbers show the shift. Chainalysis found cross-border stablecoin transfers rose 77.5%, from $124.2 billion to $220.3 billion, between the 12-month periods ending in June 2025 and June 2026.
Those payments average about $3,000. That is too small to be institutional and fits everyday uses such as paying a supplier or sending money home, Chainalysis said. It also warns the real total is likely higher, because it only counts transfers where both ends can be placed in a country.
On the consumer side, Caddle pointed to a simpler problem. For years, users in emerging markets often can’t get a card to pay for dollar-priced services like Spotify, Netflix or AWS. Stablecoin cards made it easier to hold and spend US dollars.
That spending is growing. Paymentscan, which tracks crypto card programs, counts $13.64 billion in total volume since March 2023. Some of that is self-reported by card issuers and not verified by Paymentscan.
Caddle said payments companies are now using stablecoins to deepen their relationship with customers. A remittance app whose user once just received funds and withdrew them can now offer “a non-custodial wallet… a way which you could earn yield… a card that you can use to spend.”
Remittances are money immigrants send home to family. Goldman puts the global total at an estimated $892 billion. Traditional channels can take several days and charge 5% to 10% in fees, while stablecoins can move money almost instantly.
Remittance giants are moving onto these rails too. Western Union launched its USDPT stablecoin on Solana on May 4. The token is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank.
“That’s really what we’re seeing in emerging markets now,” she said.
Most stablecoin activity is still not everyday spending. Goldman says about 88% of stablecoin transactions are people moving money in and out of other crypto, and retail payments are around 0.5% of use cases.
There are risks, too. Goldman warns that if people move savings out of local banks and into stablecoins, banks could see money leave, and central banks could lose some control over their own money supply.
