Stablecoins Changed Crypto Users — And Most Platforms Missed It

We’ve been talking about crypto users wrong for a decade.

The industry still sorts people into holders, traders, and degens. But that taxonomy died somewhere in 2023 — and stablecoins just wrote the obituary.

Stablecoins hit $250 billion in circulation. Volumes reached $18.4 trillion in 2024, exceeding Visa and Mastercard combined. This isn’t speculation. It’s infrastructure.

“This isn’t speculation. It’s infrastructure.”

Over half of new users now get their first crypto exposure through mobile banking apps like Revolut that they already use daily — not exchanges. These users never chose crypto. They chose convenience or cross-border payments. Crypto was simply the rails.

Privy now powers 180 million transactions through embedded wallets. Magic Labs supports 50 million wallets. Coinbase launched embedded wallets powering millions of accounts. Users log in with email, a wallet appears behind the scenes, and the blockchain stays invisible.

The Market Split Isn’t Risk — It’s Use Case

The divide is no longer about risk appetite. It’s about use case and geography, with stablecoins as the fault line.

Vietnam accounts for 9% of global wallet users but just 0.1% of capital. Nigeria and India show similar patterns. These users aren’t speculating. They’re using Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC for remittances, inflation protection, and running businesses that need dollar access without dollar banks.

Stablecoin remittances now represent 3% of the $200 trillion global cross-border payments market. The GENIUS Act introduced federal frameworks. Stripe, Mastercard, and Visa all launched stablecoin spending products.

Neobanks like KAST and Wirex enable users to spend stablecoins via Visa cards at 80+ million merchants globally. Wirex alone serves 7 million customers, settling payments in USDC and EURC on Stellar.

“Crypto adoption is increasingly invisible — and powered by stablecoins.”

The Real Segmentation

💰 Infrastructure optimisers
Using crypto because it solves specific problems better: cross-border payments, programmable money, faster settlement. They care about fees, uptime, and finality.

💰 Embedded users
Interacting with crypto without knowing it. The fastest-growing segment, driven by stablecoins and embedded wallets.

💰 System hedgers
Argentina, Turkey, Nigeria, Venezuela. Preserving purchasing power. USDT and USDC dominate. PayPal’s PYUSD grew from $785M to $4.8B.

💰 Active allocators
Traders and DeFi users. The most visible segment — and no longer the majority.

Most platforms still design for allocators, then wonder why conversion stalls.

Where Platforms Are Actually Winning

Infrastructure players understood the shift first. Dynamic, Alchemy, and Fireblocks focused on abstraction, not ideology. Fireblocks reported stablecoins accounted for half of platform transactions in 2024.

Wallets like MetaMask, Ledger, and Phantom still dominate mindshare. But real UX breakthroughs are happening in teams building for segments legacy products ignore.

McKinsey & Company forecasts $2 trillion in stablecoin circulation by 2028. Citi projects $1.9 trillion by 2030.

“If you’re designing for ‘crypto users’ as a monolith, you’re solving the wrong problem.”

The market already split. Stablecoins rewrote the rules for three segments. The companies winning in 2026 recognised that shift twelve months ago.