Stablecoins have quietly become crypto’s killer app. But the infrastructure they rely on is broken. Ethereum is too expensive. Tron is too centralized and expensive. Neither was built for the scale of stablecoin adoption we’re seeing, or the global financial shift it signals.

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In 2024, stablecoins moved $32.8 trillion. That’s more than Visa. This isn’t a niche trend anymore. It’s the beginning of a new era of money. Plasma exists to power that future, a blockchain purpose-built for stablecoins. Our goal is simple: to become the global settlement and issuance layer for digital dollars.

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Here’s why the trillion-dollar opportunity is real, and how we plan to capture it.

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State of Stablecoins Today

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Stablecoins have become the dominant product in crypto. In 2020, they made up ~3% of onchain transactions; today, they account for over 50%. Total stablecoin volume reached $32.8 trillion in 2024 across more than 1 billion transfers and nearly 200 million addresses, more than double Visa’s transaction volume in the same period. Tether’s USD₮ alone has been used by over 400 million users, comparable to PayPal. Stablecoins are crypto’s killer use-case: non-speculative digital dollars used daily.

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USD₮ leads the market, representing two-thirds of stablecoin value. With a $142 billion supply, it is the primary trading pair and core liquidity source. Total stablecoin supply has grown to $235 billion, about 1.1% of the U.S. M2 money supply, settling trillions monthly. Stablecoins are now systemically important to crypto and increasingly global finance.

Yet most activity remains bottlenecked on Ethereum and Tron. As of early 2025, Ethereum hosts ~$130B in stablecoins, and Tron ~$66B. Ethereum pioneered stablecoins but suffers from congestion and high fees. A simple USDC transfer can cost dollars in gas, making it unfit for high-volume, low-value payments.

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Tron dominates USD₮ flows, processing $5.4 trillion in 2024 and hosting over 69% of USD₮ activity. Its initially low fees and fast blocks attracted exchanges and arbitrageurs, but at the cost of decentralization. Tron is run by a small validator set controlled by one entity, undermining neutrality. It’s also no longer cheap, transfers average ~$3. Gasless transfers have been promised for years, but remain elusive.

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Stablecoins move immense value, but face a tradeoff: Ethereum’s high fees or Tron’s centralization. Neither chain was built for stablecoins. The result is high costs, congestion, and no infrastructure tailored to stablecoin needs. This status quo limits adoption and opens a trillion-dollar opportunity.

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The Trillion-Dollar Opportunity

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Stablecoins’ growth to date is just the beginning. We stand at the cusp of stablecoins expansion as they become woven the fabric of global finance, unlocking use cases worth trillions of dollars. This “stablecoin supercycle” is driven by demand far beyond crypto-native trading or DeFi yields:

• Onchain Eurodollar Markets: Stablecoins function like Eurodollars, digital dollars outside the U.S. banking system. The offshore USD market is ~$13T. 80% of global trade is in dollars, yet many lack banking access. Stablecoins provide 24/7 access, instant settlement, and internet-native rails. They can power a more efficient onchain eurodollar system with a market in the tens of trillions.
• International Trade Financing: Stablecoins are starting to transform commodity trade and export finance. A recent example: Tether funded a $45M crude oil deal in the Middle East using USD₮. The deal, involving a top trader and major producer, settled entirely in stablecoins given they cut costs, remove intermediaries, and improve capital efficiency.
• Cross-Border USD Access for Emerging Markets: In emerging countries like Turkey, Argentina, Nigeria, Brazil, and Thailand, stablecoins are a lifeline. Chainalysis ranks them top in stablecoin use by GDP. BVNK reports an average premium of ~4.7%, reaching 30% in Argentina. In 2024, users in 17 countries paid $4.7B in premiums to access stablecoins - projected to reach $25B by 2027. With ~$850B in remittances and ~$40T in B2B cross-border flows, even small shifts represent hundreds of billions.
• Stablecoin-Based Export Credit & Settlement: MUFG is piloting stablecoin-based trade settlement with emerging markets, replicating letters-of-credit using public blockchains. Importers pay in stablecoins, exporters get fast, guaranteed settlement. Lenders are issuing stablecoin-based loans, forming the beginnings of onchain credit markets.

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All signs point to the same conclusion: stablecoins are breaking out of crypto and solving real financial problems. They offer better, faster, cheaper payments, and deliver 10x value over traditional rails. Forecasts project stablecoin market cap in the trillions by 2030, with annual volume in the hundreds of trillions. This is the multi-hundred-billion, and eventually deca-trillion, dollar opportunity Plasma was built to capture.

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The Role of Plasma – Purpose-Built to Win Stablecoins

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Plasma exists because no existing blockchain was built for today’s stablecoin scale. Plasma is the first blockchain purpose-built to be the ultimate stablecoin settlement layer, engineered to address the core pain points and unlock the stablecoin supercycle. Key elements of Plasma’s approach:

• Zero-Fee USD₮ Transfers: Plasma enables gasless stablecoin transfers for basic payments. Users pay $0 instead of $5 or more on Ethereum or Tron. Feelessness unlocks global micro transactions at scale, digital cash as it was meant to be.
• Custom Gas Tokens (Pay Fees in Stablecoins): Plasma allows users to pay gas in USD₮ or BTC. This removes the UX friction of needing a native token just to use stablecoins, and facilitates onboarding the next billion crypto users. This functionality is achieved via an automated swap mechanism. It also aligns incentives: costs stay dollar-based and issuers can sponsor fees. This stablecoin-first gas model is a powerful feature that general-purpose chains lack.
• Ultra-Low Latency PlasmaBFT Consensus: PlasmaBFT, a leader-based BFT consensus inspired by Fast HotStuff, finalizes blocks in under 1 second with throughput in the thousands, essential for point-of-sale and high-frequency, global stablecoin transfers. Block production and finalization are pipelined to minimize latency. PlasmaBFT maintains strong security, tolerating f < 1/3 Byzantine nodes. This speed and safety enables Visa-scale volume with modern responsiveness.
• Bitcoin-Anchored Security (Bitcoin Sidechain): Plasma checkpoints its state to Bitcoin via a trust-minimized bridge. Once embedded, history can’t be altered without rewriting Bitcoin itself. This gives Plasma stronger censorship resistance and finality than typical sidechains, solving Tron’s trust problem. Institutions can rely on Bitcoin’s proof-of-work as a neutral, sound base. Stablecoins may be fiat-linked, but their settlement should be on infrastructure as censorship-resistant and globally neutral as Bitcoin.
• Full EVM Compatibility (Powered by Reth): Plasma is fully Ethereum-compatible, built on the high-performance Reth client in Rust. If it runs on Ethereum, it runs on Plasma. Plasma preserves the maturity of Ethereum’s battle-tested stack while improving performance. It uses the same formats, making integration trivial, and supports the full range of stablecoin use-cases without requiring code changes.

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The Crypto Payment Stack and How We Win

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To realize our vision, we must not only build superior tech but also position Plasma as the home of a thriving and expanding payment ecosystem, the multi-layer stack from stablecoin issuer down to the end-user’s wallet. Let’s clarify this stack and where Plasma sits:

Stablecoin Payment Stack (Simplified): At the bottom are issuers like Tether and Circle, backed by reserves. Above them sits the settlement layer, today Ethereum and Tron, tomorrow Plasma. Then come liquidity providers and exchanges (market makers, bridges, OTC desks) that move value between platforms. On top of that are fintech platforms and payment processors integrating stablecoins into products like remittances, payroll, and lending. At the top are end-users, individuals and businesses using wallets, exchanges, or apps to send and store stablecoins. Every layer matters, but the settlement layer dictates cost, speed, and reliability. That’s where Plasma comes in.

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Plasma’s role is to be the high-throughput, low-fee settlement and execution layer for stablecoins. Whether it’s a $100 remittance or a $100M trade finance deal, it should settle on Plasma. By excelling here, we unlock all layers above. Plasma doesn’t compete with issuers or apps, it enables them. Like VisaNet or Fedwire, it’s the backend infrastructure for global value transfer.

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To achieve dominance as the settlement layer, we must execute a focused go-to-market strategy, integrating key players in the stack. Our priorities include:

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1. Dollar-Backed Issuers: We’re working with major issuers, starting with Tether (USD₮), and expanding to others like Ethena’s USDe. When the largest stablecoins live on Plasma with full support, adoption follows. We’re also onboarding regulated on/off-ramps, banks and fintechs issuing or redeeming stablecoins, to support Plasma directly.
2. Exchanges, Liquidity Providers and OTC Desks: Major firms like DRW, FlowTraders, imc, Amber, and Bybit are partners and/or investors. They ensure Plasma’s stablecoins are liquid and tradable across chains. These players will support AMMs, routing, and cross-chain swaps from day one.
3. Payment Aggregators and Fintech APIs: From remittance apps in Africa to merchant tools in Asia, hundreds of platforms already move stablecoins. We’re aligning with aggregators and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) providers to make Plasma their default settlement layer. If they use Tron or Stellar today, we demonstrate how zero fees and higher throughput improve margins. Once integrated, they route stablecoin volume across many services.
4. Wallets and User Interfaces: We’re ensuring major wallets will support Plasma. With EVM compatibility, integration is seamless. We’re also working with fintech apps and neobanks offering stablecoin accounts, settling on Plasma in the background. Users won’t even notice they are using Plasma, their USD₮ just moves instantly and freely. Integration here creates stickiness and opens up grassroots growth in high-inflation markets via existing wallets. Education, outreach and regional growth efforts in geographies like Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia will help accelerate adoption.

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The easier we make it for the end-user to access Plasma’s benefits, the faster network effects will grow.

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Plasma’s strategy is laser-focused on stablecoin use cases and partnerships. Technology alone doesn’t win, integration does. Backed by core stablecoin players (including USD₮0/Bitfinex), Plasma is prioritizing direct integrations with issuers, on/off-ramps, wallets, BaaS providers, fintech APIs, and liquidity providers from day one. This is not a general “build it and they will come” ecosystem, Plasma is being built hand-in-hand with the stablecoin ecosystem.

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Our Vision

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By executing on this strategy, we place Plasma at the heart of the stablecoin stack. Ethereum powers DeFi. Tron supports arbitrage and emerging market flows. Plasma is designed to replace and supersede both.

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Our ambition is clear: Plasma will be to stablecoins what Linux is to servers or Swift is to international wires - invisible infrastructure moving global value. Internally, we align around one fact: stablecoins are the largest opportunity in crypto and one of the most important in global finance. By staying focused, Plasma is positioned to capture the lion’s share of the trillions in volume migrating to the next generation of payment rails.

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The outcome is a future where a farmer in Brazil, a trader in Hong Kong, and a corporation in Dubai all use stablecoins, and Plasma is the invisible highway moving their dollars with zero friction.