Key Takeaways
- Stablecoins gained significant traction in 2025.
- Boosted by regulatory progress, they are no longer viewed as a crypto niche.
- Who are the biggest winners and losers of stablecoin adoption in 2025?
In 2025, the total market capitalization of all stablecoins jumped by around $100 billion, reaching beyond crypto for the first time to capture mainstream attention.
But for all the positive milestones, it was also a year of setbacks and uncertainty.
From the GENIUS Act to TUSD’s ongoing legal troubles, it has been a turbulent year for stablecoins marked by victories and losses for some of the key players.
Regulatory Milestones
Progress on stablecoin regulation has undoubtedly been one of the most important crypto narratives of 2025.
While credit for the first operational regime goes to Hong Kong, Washington really set the tone with the GENIUS Act in June.
After years of procrastination, the legislation galvanized other nations into action.
From London to Seoul, conversations that previously moved at a snail’s pace were injected with a new sense of urgency overnight.
Despite significant divergences, new and emerging regimes share a common thread.
To varying degrees, they all introduce guardrails to protect the integrity of stablecoin reserves.
TUSD Crisis Recalls Stablecoins’ Darkest Hour
In a sector that has been roiled by multiple crises, liquid and transparent reserves are viewed as critical for widespread adoption.
But an ongoing legal dispute over nearly $500 million worth of TUSD reserve assets threatens to undermine hard-won credibility.
The stablecoin only avoided losing its dollar peg thanks to a half-billion-dollar cash injection from Justin Sun.
Although the strategy worked, it recalls the Luna Foundation’s desperate attempts to stabilize TerraUSD (UST) before its collapse in 2022.
With issuer Techteryx battling to regain control of its reserve assets, TUSD is a poor contender to bring stablecoins into the mainstream, but neither is there an obvious champion for the cause.
USDT Still King For Now
Ever since it launched USDT more than a decade ago, Tether has dominated the global stablecoin market.
As long as crypto trading accounts for the bulk of stablecoin activity, other issuers will struggle to eat into Tether’s market share, which rarely falls below 60%.
However, with alternative use cases on the rise, USDT’s continued dominance isn’t guaranteed.
Circle and Paxos, which stepped up to challenge USDT in 2018, have long positioned their respective coins as more compliant and less risky.
Although this argument failed to resonate with crypto traders, it may have more standing with institutional users, who are expected to drive significant adoption going forward.
Post-GENIUS Act, Tether is looking to avoid the situation it faces in the EU, where many exchanges delisted USDT earlier this year over compliance concerns.
To ward off a similar fate in the U.S., Tether established a dedicated strategy in July focused on institutional adoption.
Is Tether a winner or loser in 2025? With more than $185 billion in circulation, USDT retains a significant lead over its closest rival, USDC.
But in the end, both face the prospect of increased competition from new entrants to the space.
Banks Prepare to Enter Stablecoin Race in 2026
As banks and large corporations build out their stablecoin infrastructure, there are more profitable models than existing solutions.
In 2025, some of the largest banks in the world started exploring issuing their own.
Meanwhile, there is rising interest in revenue-sharing schemes like Paxos Global Dollar Network that grant participants a share in the profits generated by stablecoin reserves.
Whether they go down the self-issuance route or participate in revenue-sharing schemes, large institutions are unlikely to let someone else make all the money.
However, many bankers acknowledge that stablecoins can never be as profitable as tokenized deposits, which could emerge as the long-term prize for banks seeking both scale and profitability.
Heading into 2026, the question may shift from who issues the token to where the underlying balance sheet ultimately sits.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
