Stablecoins Evolve from Trading Tools to Financial Infrastructure for Payments, FX and the Agentic Economy

The $33 trillion in stablecoin transactions processed in 2025 – almost double 2024 – is often taken as a sign that stablecoins have arrived as financial infrastructure, but a panel at EBC12 noted that much of that volume is still market making, not payments. Fireblocks, which processed 6.5 trillion of that total, reported that about 40% was stablecoin activity, yet its clients' real payment use cases are B2B transfers, remittances and asset-based settlement 3. “We discussed the story of 33 trillion. I think we need to clean up this data a bit from DeFi activity, but it would still be a significant amount of trillions,” the panel said, adding that actual payments volume last year was probably around $400 billion 3. The trend, however, is doubling year-on-year.

Multi-currency FX automation is a key growth area. Deutsche Bank’s Magus Alix said stablecoins are “a natural addition to the portfolio of services we offer our clients,” while Jan Sell argued that programmability is a key advantage, adding that on-chain FX could create “a very, very powerful tool for moving money and moving collateral around the world” 1. Commerce Bank’s Andre Berny said corporate clients are “pragmatic,” asking “whether the stable coin infrastructure can solve a concrete problem better than the existing payment infrastructure” 4. Schuman Financial reported doing €150 million in euro stablecoin payment volume in August 2025, growing toward €200 million in September, primarily for B2B transfers to Africa and Latin America 4.

The most novel use case is the agentic economy – software paying software. At Boston Blockchain Week, Amanda from Coinbase reported 165 million transactions on the X402 protocol since spring 2025, averaging 30 cents each. “The main use case right now is machine-to-machine payments and micro-payments which are quite tricky to do with our like normal payment rails,” she said 7. Circle’s chief commercial officer said agents “looks for speed, cost, and instant finality,” and that 99% of agentic commerce is in USDC 8. But KYC remains a hurdle: “Software is not a person. … You can't have a bank account, you can't have a credit card … an agent can have a crypto wallet,” said Amanda 7. MoonPay’s Tom Hook added that currently “there's a human in the loop” for regulated transactions, though pre-authorization models are being explored 7.

In emerging economies, stablecoins are a lifeline, not a luxury. Ajayi Matthew described a stable coin as “a digital dollar that moves like a text message” at Web3LagosCon 9. He noted 1.3 billion people globally are locked out of financial assets, and stablecoins offer instant, borderless value transfer. “While the west might see it as a luxury because they have a good system that works fine already, this is a lifeline for us” 9. In Argentina, people turned to dollar-denominated stablecoins to hedge against inflation that hit 200% in 2023, said Donald Murray at Common S3nse 10. He called stablecoins “the best or the clearest use case for the everyday person to have come out of web 3 so far” 10.

Banks and regulators are adapting. Paul at the Bank of England explained that systemic stablecoins are being designed to “meet the same standards as commercial bank money today,” while CBDCs and tokenized deposits each have different issuer balance sheets 5. ING’s Monica Turney said settlement in Europe is “not broken,” but cross-border payments face friction; only 55% of such payments reached recipients within an hour in 2025, below G20 targets 5. Tokenized deposits, she argued, are “just a deposit” – the challenge is integrating new rails into treasury systems 5. At EBC12, the panel stressed that different forms of digital money must be exchangeable at face value with legal certainty and without fragmented liquidity 2.

Remaining infrastructure gaps include weekend settlement – Adessic’s Zach Robert noted that users want to settle on weekends but cannot because banks are closed 6 – and fragmented compliance. Almond Fintech’s Adam Schwarzba compared cross-border money movement to navigation: “optimizing across all available venues, blockchains, and tokens” is what’s missing 6. The “stablecoin sandwich” model, where wallets sit at the core and fiat plugs in at the edges, is emerging as a design pattern to hide blockchain complexity from end users, said Jorge Selva of Altitude 11. “Banking hours to be a relic of the past” is the goal, he added, pointing out that 12% of Altitude’s volumes settle on weekends 11.

• Stablecoins and FX Automation for a Multi-Currency World 1 – Bank and fintech perspectives on on-chain FX and programmability.
• Can Stablecoins, CBDCs and Tokenised Deposits Coexist 2 – Clear regulatory and bank treasury views on how different digital monies interact.
• Stablecoins as Financial Infrastructure — the $33T Story 3 – Critically examines the headline volume and real payment use cases.
• Stablecoins, Payments & the Agentic Economy 7 – Deep dive into machine-to-machine payments, KYC, and what agents demand.