"Stablecoins are a trillion dollar opportunity." According to a research report published by Pantera Capital partners Ryan Barney and Mason Nystrom, stablecoins represent a trillion-dollar opportunity, which is no exaggeration. As a cryptocurrency asset pegged 1:1 to fiat currency and maintained by algorithms or reserves, stablecoins have increased their share in blockchain transactions from 3% in 2020 to over 50% now due to their non-speculative nature.
Development history of the stablecoin market in the past two years
2024: A Year of Breakthrough
This year, stablecoins have achieved significant breakthroughs, with an annual total trading volume reaching 5 trillion USD, and nearly 200 million accounts generating over 1 billion transactions. Unlike the previous bull market, the application of stablecoins has surpassed the limitations of the DeFi ecosystem, showcasing strong potential in cross-border payment fields, especially in emerging markets where demand for USD is high, achieving significant growth. Currently, both the supply and trading volume of on-chain stablecoins have reached historical highs.
Traditional financial technology giants are increasingly布局:
Stripe acquired Bridge platform for 1.1 billion USD, praising stablecoins as "the superconductor of financial services."
PayPal launched its own stablecoin PYUSD in 2023.
Robinhood announced a partnership with a cryptocurrency company to prepare a global stablecoin network.
The market size for US Treasury RWA has nearly reached 3 billion USD, growing 30 times since the beginning of 2023, including: • USYC, in collaboration with Copper, reached 880 million USD • BlackRock's BUIDL reached 560 million USD.
2025: Scale will further expand
Asset management giant Bitwise previously stated in its "Top 10 Predictions for the Crypto Market in 2025" that with the passage of US stablecoin legislation and the entry of institutional funds, the market cap of stablecoins is expected to double to 400 billion USD, while the market size for tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is expected to reach 50 billion USD. ParaFi predicts that by 2030, the tokenized RWA market could reach 2 trillion USD, and the Global Financial Markets Association has even forecasted it could exceed 16 trillion USD.
Global financial giants actively布局:
Goldman Sachs: Digital asset platform launched, assisting the European Investment Bank in issuing 100 million euros of digital bonds, and plans to build a private chain.
Siemens: First to issue 60 million euros of digital bonds on-chain.
HSBC, JPMorgan, Citigroup: Exploring debt tokenization business.
Next, let's take a look at some important segments of RWA projects:
RWA Track
Ondo Finance (ONDO)
ONDO Finance is an RWA project focused on bringing traditional financial tools into DeFi. By collaborating with traditional financial institutions, it acquires US Treasury assets. Then it issues tokenized securities through smart contracts, breaking down ownership of these treasury bonds into smaller shares that investors can purchase, thus indirectly holding US Treasury bonds. The value of its tokens is closely tied to the value of the represented US Treasury bonds. Due to the important position and stability of US Treasury bonds in the global financial market, ONDO attracts many investors seeking stable returns and hedging. During periods of high market volatility, its token prices remain relatively stable, and trading volumes show a steady growth trend. As more investors seek the digitization of traditional financial assets, ONDO is expected to further expand its market share, particularly among institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.
Circulating Market Cap: 2,407,391,199
Ranking: #51
Synthetix (SNX)
Synthetix is a protocol for constructing synthetic assets, allowing users to generate various synthetic assets pegged to real-world assets by collateralizing SNX tokens. The value of these assets is linked to stocks, commodities, currencies, etc., in the real world. For example, users can create synthetic assets linked to the stock price of Apple Inc., and the platform uses oracle to obtain price information of external assets, reflecting the price fluctuations of Apple stocks in traditional markets. SNX provides investors with a convenient way to invest in traditional market assets without directly holding these assets, thus broadening investment channels. However, the transparency, liquidity of synthetic assets, and regulatory policies are crucial for their long-term development, and they also face risks from price feeding mechanisms (Oracles) and market manipulation.
Circulating Market Cap: 760,095,061
Ranking: #117
Plume Network
Plume Network is an emerging platform focused on the financialization of real assets (RWAfi), aiming to simplify the issuance, trading, and management of real assets through blockchain technology. It provides an infrastructure that allows enterprises and asset management institutions to easily move traditional assets on-chain. The platform has various functions, including asset tokenization, trading matching, and liquidity provision. Its advantages lie in strong compatibility, supporting various types of traditional assets such as real estate, bonds, and equity. This offers enterprises more efficient financing channels, but how to achieve effective docking with traditional financial institutions and regulatory compliance remains its main challenge.
Stablecoin Track
Currently, among the top 10 stablecoins by market cap, USDT leads with a total market cap of 142.7 billion USD, far outpacing the supply of other stablecoins. USDC ranks second with a market cap of 41.9 billion USD, but on-chain trading data shows that USDC's usage actually exceeds that of USDT, with its total trading volume in the past month being nearly twice that of USDT. This month, USDe's market cap reached 6 billion USD, surpassing DAI (4.5 billion USD) to become the third largest stablecoin by market cap.
According to the CMC market cap ranking, we observe that the market cap of USD 0 has reached 1.5 billion USD, growing 77.17% in the past 7 days, and its ranking has jumped to 9th place. It is an innovative stablecoin protocol issued by Usual, a project launched on Binance Launchpool, integrating BlackRock, Ondo, Mountain Protocol, M0, and Hashnote into a permissionless, on-chain verifiable, and composable stablecoin. Recently, it provided users with an extremely generous airdrop, and its platform token USUAL has also shown strong price performance lately. The following sections will share some stablecoin projects worth participating in.
Usual (USUAL)
Usual is a secure and decentralized fiat stablecoin issuer that ensures its stablecoin USUAL can be exchanged for USD at a 1:1 ratio by holding USD reserves. At the same time, Usual allocates ownership and governance rights of the platform through its platform token USUAL. As a multi-chain infrastructure, Usual integrates the growing tokenized real-world assets (RWA) of institutions such as BlackRock, Ondo, Mountain Protocol, M0, and Hashnote into a permissionless, on-chain verifiable, and composable stablecoin USD 0. USD 0 is its first liquid deposit token (LDT), supported by real-world assets at a 1:1 ultra-short term, with high stability and security. Users can easily deposit RWA or indirectly mint USD 0 through USDC/USDT, achieving convenient and diversified operational methods.
Circulating Market Cap: 634,268,673
Ranking: #133
Ethena (ENA)
Ethena is often regarded as the decentralized stablecoin USDe project and Ethereum's synthetic dollar protocol, providing crypto-native currency solutions and "internet bonds," aimed at addressing the issues of autonomous currency issuance and basic pricing in the web3 world, returning the right to issue currency to the web3 space. In 2023, on-chain trading settlements for stablecoins exceeded 12 trillion USD, and AllianceBernstein predicts that by 2028, the stablecoin market size could reach 2.8 trillion USD, with ENA having immense value potential if recognized by the market. However, ENA also faces various risks. In terms of financing risks, although it can benefit from financing, there may be costs, but negative yields are not long-lasting and are supported by reserve funds to protect users; in terms of liquidation risks, derivative trading leverage is not high, and there are multiple ways to ensure risk control; custody risks depend on "off-exchange settlement" providers, reducing risks through bankruptcy isolation trusts and multiple partners; the risk of exchange bankruptcy can be diversified and mitigated through cooperation with multiple exchanges and retaining asset control; collateral risks, while supporting assets that differ from the underlying assets, have minimal impact due to low leverage and small collateral discounts. Overall, the ENA project presents both opportunities and challenges, warranting attention for its future development.
Circulating Market Cap: 3,030,206,926
Ranking: #42
Frax (FXS)
FRAX is the first partially collateralized and partially algorithmic stablecoin protocol, combining the advantages of traditional fiat collateral and algorithmic control. Through smart contracts, FRAX achieves a dynamic balance between stablecoin supply and market demand. The innovation of FRAX lies in its elastic collateral mechanism, allowing users to mint FRAX stablecoins by depositing USD or other cryptocurrencies. The protocol also introduces FRAX Share (FXS) as a governance token, allowing holders to participate in platform governance and share in profits. The protocol has three applications. Fraxswap is an automatic market maker with built-in TWAMM for long-cycle bulk trading. Fraxlend is a lending platform that can create ERC-20 token lending markets, supporting various functions, and can also create customized terms for over-the-counter debt markets. Fraxferry is a cross-chain bridge that can securely transfer locally issued Frax protocol tokens without bridging or third-party applications, with funds arriving within 24-48 hours. Frax Finance builds a feature-rich DeFi ecosystem through stablecoins and applications, providing users with diverse services and choices in different scenarios.
Circulating Market Cap: 355,706,115
Ranking: #194
Lista DAO (LISTA)
Lista DAO is a liquid staking and LSDFi project based on the BNB chain, formerly known as Helio Protocol, which merged with Synclub after receiving investment from Binance Labs. It aims to provide yield for collateralized crypto assets and support decentralized stablecoin LISUSD. The core mechanisms include stablecoin lending, liquid staking, and innovative collateral. Stablecoin lending operates through an over-collateralization model, LISUSD is a decentralized stablecoin that does not fully rely on being pegged to fiat currency, supports various collateral assets, and introduces new staking assets in the innovative zone. In terms of liquid staking, users stake crypto assets to receive liquidity tokens, such as staking BNB to get sLISBNB, which can be operated on multiple platforms while earning staking rewards, and can also use sLISBNB as collateral to borrow LISUSD, with the current borrowing interest set at 0%. Overall, Lista DAO has great potential in the DeFi space and is expected to establish a foothold through its services and innovations.
Circulating Market Cap: 85,255,603
Ranking: #475
Summary
In summary, the RWA and stablecoin tracks demonstrate the immense potential of combining blockchain technology with traditional finance. As technology advances and regulations gradually clarify, these projects are expected to mature further, becoming an important bridge connecting traditional finance and the blockchain world. These projects reduce the threshold for financial participation through innovative mechanisms, enhance asset liquidity and transparency, and are attracting more institutional and individual investors. For investors, deeply understanding the operational models and potential risks of these projects will help seize opportunities in this field. However, the rapid development of this area also comes with risks, including market volatility, uncertainties in regulatory policies, and issues of technological security.
One important point to note is that while RWA and stablecoin projects provide investors with unprecedented opportunities, they also pose potential risks related to compliance and transparency. Therefore, investors should fully understand the associated risks when participating in such projects, carefully assess investment returns and their own risk tolerance. This report is for information sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice. In the future, as regulatory policies gradually clarify and technology continues to optimize, the RWA and stablecoin tracks are expected to achieve broader applications and more profound impacts globally.
