Wall Street is reassessing stablecoins — not merely as tools for lowering transaction costs, but as critical growth infrastructure for the next era of digital finance. Circle has surged 600%, reaching a $45 billion valuation that now represents roughly 70% of USDC’s market cap, signaling investor confidence in regulated, scalable stablecoin models.

The race is attracting new entrants, with JD.com unveiling plans for a global stablecoin. Meanwhile, the GENIUS Act is clearing the regulatory path for compliant issuers like Circle, while increasing pressure on less transparent competitors such as Tether.

The industry’s narrative has shifted: stablecoins are no longer framed purely as operational efficiency tools — they’re now seen as strategic growth drivers at the center of programmable, borderless financial infrastructure.

By the Numbers: Stablecoin Market Snapshot

The total stablecoin market cap has reached $251.752B, growing by $835.49M week-over-week. USDT continues to dominate with 62.23% market share, followed by USDC at 24.24% ($61.03B).

Fastest-Growing Networks: Story leads with +72.91% growth (USDC dominance: 100%), followed by TON (+31.24%) and Scroll (+20.50%).

Blockchain Leaders: Ethereum ($125.747B), Tron ($79.175B), and Solana ($10.614B) continue to dominate total stablecoin value.

JD's Stablecoin Revenge Play

JD completely botched China's mobile payments war. While WeChat Pay and Alipay carved up 90% of the market, JD Pay got stuck with scraps. Liu Qiangdong called it his "biggest mistake"—losing control of the payment rails that power commerce.

Now he's betting stablecoins can give him a second shot.

The Crossborder Opening

Here's the thing: crossborder payments are still broken. China's CIPS system processed ¥175 trillion in 2024 but it's slow and expensive. Third-party solutions still rely on legacy banking rails. Stablecoins sidestep all of this—blockchain-native, real-time, peer-to-peer value transfer without the correspondent banking mess.

Liu's pitch is ambitious: stablecoin licenses in every major currency zone, cutting crossborder B2B costs by 90% and settlement times to under 10 seconds.

The Hong Kong Foothold

JD Blockchain Technology (Hong Kong) just entered the HKMA's stablecoin sandbox in July 2024. That's their regulatory beachhead.

The strategy is classic JD: use their existing supply chain as the first customer to solve the cold start problem. Every local JD operation—Japan, Europe, wherever—gets its own local currency stablecoin for frictionless settlement.

The Endgame

Start with internal B2B rails, evolve into an open "international stablecoin settlement hub." Multiple compliant stablecoins creating an on-chain FX market that bypasses traditional banking entirely.

Cobo's Take: It's either brilliant positioning or expensive revenge fantasy. But after missing payments 1.0, JD isn't taking any chances with 2.0. The supply chain angle is smart—they've got real transaction volume to bootstrap liquidity and prove the model works before opening it up to competitors.

GENIUS Act Reshapes Stablecoin Power Dynamics

The GENIUS Act just passed the U.S. Senate with a 68-30 vote, setting the first formal legislative framework for stablecoins. More than a regulatory milestone, it's a rewriting of the game—one that directly impacts Tether, Circle, and the U.S. banking sector.

Tether faces a ticking clock. The Act mandates U.S.-style audits and reserves, and gives centralized platforms three years to phase out non-compliant stablecoins. That puts USDT on track for an "orderly exit" from the U.S. unless Tether pivots—perhaps toward compliant offerings, global south markets, or a foreign issuer exemption.

For Circle, it's a greenlight. USDC's reserve structure gets legislative validation, and its position as a cash-equivalent payment token is now locked in. With Coinbase as its distribution backbone, Circle is positioned to capture outsized regulatory and market momentum.

The Act draws a firm line: compliant stablecoins can't offer interest. But tokenized bank deposits like JPMD can. This splits the field into two lanes:

• USDC: open-access, non-interest-bearing digital cash

• JPMD: closed-loop, interest-bearing digital liabilities

Interestingly, JPMorgan has launched assets on Coinbase's Base network, not on a private chain—signaling that even the biggest banks can't ignore the gravity of open ecosystems.

Cobo's Take: Beneath it all is a deeper play: exporting U.S. regulatory standards through stablecoin frameworks. But while USD stablecoins can be tools of soft power, they don't solve FX risk for non-dollar users—highlighting the rising demand for localized stablecoins and on-chain forex markets.

New Launches: The Infrastructure Buildout Accelerates

• Coinbase Payments on Base: Coinbase launched Coinbase Payments on Base, letting merchants accept USDC directly—starting with Shopify integration that sent COIN up 16%. The genius move is building on their own L2: they capture sequencer fees from transactions while offering gas-less payments to users.

• Paxos Labs: Paxos launched "Issuance-as-a-Service" for white-label stablecoins, letting fintechs and exchanges slap their brand on Paxos's regulated infrastructure. It's the stablecoin equivalent of Shopify—turning regulatory moats into commoditized services.

• Fellow's Payment Routing: Fellow launched a payment routing platform that lets you instantly move money between any wallet, bank, or app using just a text message. They use stablecoins for settlement to achieve instant finality, eliminating multi-day waits between different payment rails.

• X Trading Features: X is launching investment and trading features "soon" according to CEO Linda Yaccarino, accelerating Elon Musk's vision of transforming the platform into a financial super app. Given Musk's crypto enthusiasm and Tesla's $1.2B Bitcoin position, the industry expects significant digital asset integration.

• Alchemy Pay Blockchain: Alchemy Pay is launching its own blockchain in Q4 2025 with a native stablecoin, designed as a central hub for frictionless stablecoin swaps between global tokens like USDT and regional ones like EURC.

• Revolut Stablecoin: Financial giant Revolut is reportedly exploring its own stablecoin launch, joining Amazon and Walmart in eyeing the $251 billion market as new regulations like the GENIUS Act create compliant pathways.

Cobo's Take: These launches show the infrastructure buildout hitting critical mass. From payment routing to white-label issuance to social platform integration, every layer of the financial stack is being rebuilt with stablecoins as the foundation. The race isn't about who issues the best stablecoin anymore—it's about who builds the most useful ecosystem around them.

Capital Moves: The Infrastructure Investment Wave

• Lakala's Hong Kong IPO: Chinese payment giant Lakala announced plans for a Hong Kong IPO to fund its push into digital currency cross-border payments, as domestic digital currency stocks surge on stablecoin momentum. The timing is perfect as Hong Kong's formal Stablecoin Ordinance launches August 1st.

• XFX Seed Round: XFX raised a seed round to solve stablecoins' biggest problem: the "crypto in seconds, fiat in days" mismatch. Founded by three ex-Bitso executives and backed by Haun Ventures, they're building a crypto-native FX layer that combines on-chain transfers with proprietary liquidity.

• Ubyx Raises $10M: Ubyx raised $10M from Galaxy Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Founders Fund to build a universal clearing network for stablecoins. Their platform connects multiple stablecoin issuers with traditional banks, letting businesses redeem any stablecoin for fiat at 1:1 directly into their existing accounts.

• Ramp's $200M at $16B: Ramp bagged $200M at a $16B valuation, tripling from $7.6B last April as payment volume hit $80B annually. The standout move is their Stripe partnership launching stablecoin-backed corporate cards for smoother cross-border payments.

Cobo's Take: This isn't crypto speculation capital—it's infrastructure investment. From FX layers to clearing networks to corporate cards, investors are backing the plumbing that makes stablecoins work in the real economy. The "picks and shovels" phase is in full swing, and the valuations reflect it.

Market Adoption: Traditional Finance Embraces Stablecoins

• Circle x Matera Banking Integration: Circle is embedding USDC directly into traditional banking apps through a partnership with fintech Matera. Banks can now offer USDC accounts alongside regular fiat using Matera's "Digital Twin" ledger, letting stablecoin settlements flow through local rails like Brazil's Pix.

• JPMorgan's JPMD on Base: JPMorgan went full public blockchain, launching JPMD on Coinbase's Base for institutional clients. It's basically a stablecoin but backed by actual FDIC-insured deposits instead of Treasury bonds—giving it regulatory advantages that pure stablecoins can't touch.

• Visa's Global Expansion: Visa is doubling down on stablecoins with a new Yellow Card partnership in Africa and a bold prediction that "every institution that moves money will need a stablecoin strategy" in 2025. They've already processed $225M in USDC settlements.

• Animoca's HKD Stablecoin: Animoca Brands is launching a HKD-pegged stablecoin with Standard Chartered and HKT, perfectly timed for Hong Kong's new stablecoin regulations taking effect August 1st. The token targets gaming ecosystems, cross-border trade, and serves as a bridge for mainland Chinese assets.

Cobo's Take: When JPMorgan launches on Coinbase's public blockchain instead of their private chain, you know the gravity has shifted. Traditional finance isn't just experimenting with stablecoins—they're building core infrastructure around them. The race is on to capture the rails of the next internet's money layer.

Big Picture: The Valuation Game Gets Serious

Analyst Jon Ma values Circle at $55 billion, implying extreme multiples of 58.1x gross profit and 163.7x net profit based on 2025 projections. His model forecasts Circle hitting $9 billion revenue by 2029, driven by the new Circle Payment Network and USDC maintaining 28.5% market share in a $1.2 trillion stablecoin market.

The sky-high valuation multiples suggest investors have already priced in substantial growth from both CPN adoption and stablecoin market expansion. Ma's analysis implies Circle's current $55 billion valuation may have already captured its future upside, leaving limited room for further appreciation.

Cobo's Take: These valuations reveal how the market sees stablecoins: not as crypto experiments, but as core financial infrastructure. Circle isn't being valued like a fintech company—it's being valued like the Federal Reserve of digital money. When Wall Street prices in trillion-dollar stablecoin markets, you know the infrastructure thesis has won.

Final Word from Cobo

The stablecoin infrastructure race is entering its final phase. The GENIUS Act cleared the regulatory path. Wall Street embraced the growth narrative. Traditional finance is building on public blockchains. Even JD.com is making revenge plays with supply chain stablecoins.

What started as a crypto workaround is now shaping up to be the monetary layer of the next internet. The winners won't be the companies with the best stablecoins—they'll be the platforms that make programmable money so embedded in existing workflows that it becomes invisible infrastructure.

Whether you're building the next generation of financial rails, integrating stablecoins into business operations, or navigating the new compliance landscape—we've got the infrastructure to power your vision.

The future isn't just digital money. It's programmable money that works so well, it disappears into the background of everything we do online.