The release of our State of Stablecoins report coincided with my time in Toronto for Consensus 2025, and I could not have asked for better timing.
Stablecoins were everywhere: on-stage, in hallway conversations, across the expo floor. This wasn’t just crypto-native energy. It was banks, fintechs, regulators, and payment providers all coming to the same conclusion: stablecoins are no longer theory. They’re infrastructure.
As Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov noted in his fireside chat at Consensus 2025, stablecoins are no longer emerging—they’re embedded. In just the last 90 days, they’ve made up roughly 50% of total volume across our platform.
Our report confirms this: 49% of institutions globally are already using stablecoins for payments today, and another 41% are in the piloting or planning stages. This is not theoretical interest. It’s tangible progress. The industry is vibrant and building, laying down the infrastructure for the future of financial services.
In this blog, I take a closer look at the report’s findings specific to North America. The progress being made here is set to influence the pace and scope of global adoption in the months and years ahead.
North America’s Edge: Use Case Breadth
While Latin America is leading on live usage and Asia is scaling liquidity, North America stands out for its integrated approach.
Institutions here are rolling out stablecoin flows across a variety of areas, including:
- Cross-border payments (39%)
- Payments acceptance (22%)
- Merchant settlement (18%)
- Internal treasury (12%)
- B2B invoicing (9%)
Stablecoins bring value to more than cross-border payments, as the North American results show. For example, our clients often highlight how stablecoins offer a superior experience over traditional rails, especially when managing yield-bearing assets like BUIDL, BlackRock’s first tokenized money market fund. Using USDC or other regulated stablecoins, organizations can subscribe to or redeem BUIDL shares instantly, bypassing banking hours and international wire delays—cutting both time and cost. This unlocks on-demand treasury operations, replacing the need to pre-fund or forecast flows. All of this happens on-chain, ensuring full transparency—and yes, it’s available 24/7.
Stablecoins embraced across the industry
It’s not just crypto-native firms driving this change. Traditional financial institutions and PSPs are actively embedding stablecoins into their existing payment infrastructure.
Take Conduit, for example. Their CEO attributes the company’s success in B2B cross-border payments to one simple fact: “the stablecoin sandwich actually works” for the traditional import/export and e-commerce businesses they serve. These clients aren’t looking to speculate on crypto—they’re using stablecoins to move value quickly, efficiently, and reliably.
At the other end of the use case spectrum is ALT 5 Sigma, a Nasdaq-listed B2B crypto payments processor, which serves high-volume businesses like gaming platforms. In 2020, they processed $39 million in volume. In 2024, that number surged to more than $2 billion. It’s a clear sign: when the infrastructure is ready, adoption scales quickly.
Regulation: From Barrier to Catalyst
Regulation has long been the wildcard in stablecoin adoption—especially in the U.S. But our research shows the tide is turning.
88% of North American respondents view upcoming stablecoin regulation positively. They’re optimistic that clearer rules will enable, not stifle, innovation. The industry is certainly watching closely and with anticipation as the GENIUS Act moves through Congress at impressive speed.
And while some still cite regulatory uncertainty as a concern, even more are focused on the challenges of banking and liquidity (38%) and security (31%). That shift suggests something important: regulation is becoming a catalyst.
This change is already reflected in execution timelines:
- 27% of respondents plan to complete stablecoin implementation in the next six months
- 37% expect to be live by Q1 2026
The market isn’t waiting for final legislation. It’s building now—on the assumption that stablecoins will be part of the financial core.
Conclusion
As regulation evolves at unheard-of speeds, the biggest names in banking, payments, and fintech are quietly (and increasingly, not so quietly) laying the foundational groundwork for stablecoin rails to go mainstream—with scale, compliance, and resilience built in.
This is not just going to have an impact in this region—it’s going to embed stablecoins even deeper into the global financial infrastructure. As our SVP of Payments and Network Goldi says, it’s a reset in payments infrastructure. If you’re curious about how Fireblocks is powering this shift—or thinking through how stablecoins could fit into your infrastructure—we’d be happy to share what we’re seeing firsthand. Let’s connect— Schedule a demo.
