"Stablecoins are a trillion-dollar opportunity."
According to a research report released by Pantera Capital partners Ryan Barney and Mason Nystrom, stablecoins represent a trillion-dollar opportunity, which is not an exaggeration. As crypto assets pegged 1:1 to fiat currencies and maintained their price through algorithms or reserves, stablecoins have increased their share of blockchain transactions from 3% in 2020 to over 50% currently.
Development of the stablecoin market over the past two years
2024: A breakthrough year
This year, stablecoins have achieved important breakthroughs, with a total annual transaction volume reaching $5 trillion, generating over 1 billion transactions across nearly 200 million accounts. Unlike the previous bull market, the application of stablecoins has exceeded the confines of the DeFi ecosystem, demonstrating strong potential in cross-border payments, particularly showing significant growth in emerging markets with high demand for U.S. dollars. Currently, both the supply and transaction volume of on-chain stablecoins have reached historical highs.
Traditional fintech giants are actively positioning themselves:
• Stripe acquired Bridge platform for $1.1 billion, calling stablecoins 'the superconductor of financial services'
• PayPal launched its own stablecoin PYUSD in 2023
• Robinhood announced collaboration with cryptocurrency companies to prepare a global stablecoin network
• The U.S. Treasury RWA market size has approached $3 billion, growing 30 times since the beginning of 2023, including:
• USYC, a collaboration between Hashnote and Copper, reached $880 million
• BlackRock's BUIDL reached $560 million
2025: The scale will further expand
Asset management giant Bitwise previously stated in its (2025 Top 10 Predictions for the Crypto Market) that with the passage of U.S. stablecoin legislation and the entry of institutional funds, the stablecoin market cap is expected to double to $400 billion, and the market size for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) is projected to reach $50 billion. ParaFi predicts that the tokenized RWA market could reach $2 trillion by 2030, while the Global Financial Markets Association predicts it could exceed $16 trillion.
Global financial giants actively positioning themselves:
• Goldman Sachs: Digital asset platform launched, assisting European investment banks in issuing 100 million euros in digital bonds, and plans to build a private chain
• Siemens: First to issue 60 million euros in on-chain digital bonds
• HSBC, JPMorgan, Citigroup: Exploring treasury tokenization business
Next, let's take a look at some important sub-tracks of RWA projects:
RWA Track
Ondo Finance (ONDO)
ONDO Finance is an RWA project focused on bringing traditional financial instruments into DeFi by collaborating with traditional financial institutions to acquire U.S. Treasury assets. It then issues tokenized securities through smart contracts, dividing ownership of these treasuries into smaller shares that investors can purchase, thereby indirectly holding U.S. Treasuries. The value of its tokens is closely tied to the value of the represented U.S. Treasuries. Due to the importance and stability of U.S. Treasuries in the global financial market, ONDO has attracted many investors seeking stable returns and hedging options. During significant market fluctuations, its token price remains relatively stable, and trading volume shows a steady growth trend. As more investors increase their demand for the digitization of traditional financial assets, ONDO is expected to further expand its market share, especially among institutional and high-net-worth individual investors.
Circulating Market Cap: 2,407,391,199
Rank: #51
Synthetix (SNX)
Synthetix is a protocol for building synthetic assets, allowing users to generate various synthetic assets linked to real-world assets by collateralizing SNX tokens. The value of these assets is tied to stocks, commodities, currencies, etc., in the real world. For example, users can create a synthetic asset linked to the stock price of Apple Inc. The platform uses oracle mechanisms to obtain price information of external assets, and the price fluctuations will reflect the performance 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, and regulatory policies of synthetic assets are crucial for their long-term development, while facing risks from oracle mechanisms and market manipulation.
Circulating Market Cap: 760,095,061
Rank: #117
Plume Network
Plume Network is an emerging platform focused on the financialization of real-world assets (RWAfi), aiming to simplify the issuance, trading, and management of real assets through blockchain technology. It provides an infrastructure that allows businesses and asset management institutions to easily bring traditional assets on-chain. The platform has various features, including asset tokenization, trade matching, and liquidity provision. Its advantage lies in strong compatibility, supporting various types of traditional assets, such as real estate, bonds, equities, etc. This offers businesses more efficient financing channels, but effectively connecting and ensuring regulatory compliance with traditional financial institutions is its main challenge.
Stablecoin Track
Currently, among the top 10 stablecoins by market capitalization, USDT leads with a total market cap of $142.7 billion, significantly outpacing other stablecoins in supply. USDC ranks second, with a current market cap of $41.9 billion, but on-chain transaction data shows that the usage rate of USDC actually exceeds that of USDT, with a total transaction volume over the past month nearly twice that of USDT. In this month, USDe's market cap reached $6 billion, surpassing DAI ($4.5 billion) to become the third-largest stablecoin by market cap.
According to CMC market capitalization rankings, we observe that USD0's market cap has also reached $1.5 billion, growing by 77.17% over the past 7 days, and its rank has risen to 9th place. It is an innovative stablecoin protocol issued by the Usual project launched on Binance Launchpool, integrating BlackRock, Ondo, Mountain Protocol, M0, Hashnote, transforming them into permissionless, on-chain verifiable, and composable stablecoins, and recently provided users with very generous airdrops, with the price performance of its platform token USUAL also being very strong. The following chapters will share some stablecoin projects worth participating in.
Usual (USUAL)
Usual is a secure and decentralized issuer of fiat stablecoins, ensuring that its stablecoin USUAL can be exchanged for U.S. dollars at a 1:1 ratio by holding dollar reserves. At the same time, Usual distributes 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) from institutions like BlackRock, Ondo, Mountain Protocol, M0, Hashnote, etc., transforming them into permissionless, on-chain verifiable, and composable stablecoin USD0. USD0 is its first liquidity deposit token (LDT), fully backed by real-world assets at a 1:1 ratio, offering high stability and security. Users can mint USD0 either by directly depositing RWA or indirectly through USDC/USDT, allowing for convenient and diverse operations.
Circulating Market Cap: 634,268,673
Rank: #133
Ethena (ENA)
Ethena is often regarded as a decentralized stablecoin USDe project and an Ethereum synthetic dollar protocol, providing crypto-native currency solutions and 'internet bonds,' aiming to solve the issues of self-issue of currency and foundational pricing in the web3 world, reclaiming the right to issue currency back to the web3 world. In 2023, on-chain transaction settlements for stablecoins exceeded $12 trillion, with AllianceBernstein predicting that by 2028, the stablecoin market could reach $2.8 trillion, and if ENA gains market recognition, the value space could be immense. However, ENA also faces various risks. In terms of financing risks, although it can benefit from financing, there may be costs involved; however, negative yields are not persistent, and reserve funds protect users; regarding liquidation risks, derivative trading has low leverage, and there are various ways to ensure risk is controllable; custodial risks depend on 'off-chain settlement' providers, reducing risk through bankruptcy isolation trusts and multiple partnerships; the risk of exchanges going bankrupt can be mitigated through cooperation with multiple exchanges and retaining asset control; collateral risks, while supporting assets different 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 to its subsequent developments.
Circulating Market Cap: 3,030,206,926
Rank: #42
Frax (FXS)
FRAX is the first partially collateralized, partially algorithmic stablecoin protocol, combining the advantages of traditional fiat collateral and algorithmic regulation. Through smart contracts, FRAX achieves a dynamic balance between stablecoin supply and market demand. Its innovation lies in its elastic collateral mechanism, allowing users to mint FRAX stablecoins by depositing U.S. dollars or other cryptocurrencies. The protocol also introduces FRAX Share (FXS) as a governance token, enabling holders to participate in platform governance and share in the profits. The protocol features three applications. Fraxswap is an automated market maker with built-in TWAMM for large trades over long periods. Fraxlend is a lending platform that can create ERC-20 token lending markets, supporting various functionalities, and can even create an OTC debt market with customized terms. 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
Rank: #194
Lista DAO (LISTA)
Lista DAO is a liquidity 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 returns on staked crypto assets and supports decentralized lending of the stablecoin LISUSD. Its core mechanisms include stablecoin lending, liquidity staking, and innovative collateral. Stablecoin lending operates through an over-collateralization model, with LISUSD being a decentralized stablecoin not entirely reliant on fiat currency pegs, supporting various collateral assets and introducing new staking assets in innovative zones. In terms of liquidity staking, users stake crypto assets to receive liquidity tokens, such as staking BNB to get sLISBNB, which can be operated on multiple platforms, earning staking rewards, and can also be used as collateral to borrow LISUSD, with the current borrowing interest at 0%. Overall, Lista DAO has significant potential in the DeFi space and is expected to establish a foothold based on its services and innovations.
Circulating Market Cap: 85,255,603
Rank: #475
Summary
In summary, the RWA and stablecoin tracks demonstrate the enormous potential of integrating blockchain technology with traditional finance. In the future, with technological advancements and the gradual clarification of regulations, they are expected to mature further, becoming an important bridge connecting traditional finance with the blockchain world. These projects have reduced the barriers to financial participation through innovative mechanisms, enhancing the liquidity and transparency of assets, and are attracting an increasing number of institutional and individual investors. For investors, understanding the operational models and potential risks of these projects will help seize opportunities in this field. However, the rapid development of this sector also comes with risks, including market volatility, regulatory policy uncertainties, and technical security issues.
One particularly noteworthy point is that while RWA and stablecoin projects provide investors with unprecedented opportunities, they also pose potential risks related to compliance and lack of transparency. Therefore, investors should be fully aware of the associated risks and carefully assess investment returns and their own risk tolerance before participating in such projects. This report is for information sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice. In the future, with the gradual clarification of regulatory policies and continuous optimization of technology, RWA and stablecoin tracks are expected to achieve broader application and more profound impact globally.
