In the spring of 2025, the crypto market was chilly, with Bitcoin price dropping from $109,000 at the beginning of the year to a low of $75,000.

Trading volume was sluggish, accompanied by market volatility, with various tracks losing momentum and sector effects disappearing, with only sporadic Token movements capturing short-term market attention.

However, in this downturn, the stablecoin market presented a completely different scenario: According to Artemis data, by April 2025, the total market value of stablecoins had reached $231.6 billion, a significant 51% growth compared to $152.6 billion in the same period of 2024.

While the overall crypto asset market was weak, stablecoins continued to expand. The question arises: With continuously issued stablecoins not flowing into crypto investments, where are they actually going?

Beyond Crypto, Stablecoins Rapidly Taking Root in the Real World

As infrastructure in the blockchain world, stablecoins not only dominate on-chain transactions but are also the core tool for crypto users to exchange Tokens, perform DeFi operations, and transfer funds.

However, their influence has long since transcended crypto boundaries and is taking root in the real world.

In terms of market value, stablecoins directly occupy 5% of the total crypto market value. If including stablecoin management companies and blockchain platforms primarily focused on stablecoins (such as TRON), this proportion reaches 8%.

Notably, mainstream stablecoin issuers have adopted an operational model similar to MasterCard, reaching end-users through crypto exchanges, payment service providers, and other intermediary institutions.

Take Argentina as an example. Although local crypto exchanges like LemonCash, Bitso, and Rippio are not globally well-known, their user base reaches an astonishing 20 million, equivalent to half of Coinbase's user group, while Argentina's population is only one-seventh of the United States. LemonCash alone created about $5 billion in transaction volume last year, primarily concentrated in stablecoin-related transactions.

More thought-provoking is that according to Artemis data, of the $206.78 billion stablecoin circulation as of March 2025, traditional CEX and DeFi crypto scenarios actually occupy a small portion. As much as 67% ($138.6 billion) of stablecoins flow into the "unclassified application" domain.

Most stablecoins circulate in data blind spots that cannot be clearly tracked, with their secrets hidden in a black box outside of crypto.

In Black and Gray Markets, Stablecoins Are "Stabilizing" Circulation

This phenomenon is particularly prevalent in the Southeast Asian gambling industry. According to a report by UNODC and Slow Fog Technology, the region currently has over 340 licensed and illegal casinos, mainly distributed in the lower Mekong River border areas.

The relationship between casinos and underground banks can be best described as "mutually beneficial symbiosis".

Casinos in Southeast Asia hide fund sources by "safeguarding" transactions and "investing", forming complex money laundering chains. The anonymity and non-face-to-face transaction characteristics of online gambling platforms further increase the difficulty of tracking funds.

Gambling intermediaries occupy a pivotal position in the entire money laundering chain. The founders of the world's two largest gambling intermediaries - Sun City and De Jin - were sentenced to 18 and 14 years respectively for money laundering and organized crime. They processed over $100 billion through casinos, online gambling platforms, and underground banks. These intermediaries use stablecoins to transfer funds, circumvent capital controls, and rely on unregulated payment companies to complete transactions.

Huione Group, a financial entity in Cambodia, provides fund transfer services for Southeast Asian online gambling and fraud through guarantee businesses, with its payment platform Huione Pay deeply involved in money laundering activities.

In July 2024, Tether froze TRON wallets related to Huione, involving 29.62 million USDT. Despite the account freezing, they continue to operate through new addresses.

Due to insufficient regional regulation and the proliferation of unauthorized virtual asset service providers (VASP), underground bank activities continue to expand, resulting in estimated economic losses from network fraud in East and Southeast Asia ranging from $1.8 billion to $3.7 billion in 2023.

Stablecoins in Geopolitical Context

Stablecoins are playing an increasingly important role in geopolitical conflicts.

Since Western sanctions cut off Russia's SWIFT channel in 2022, cryptocurrencies, especially stablecoins, have become an important alternative channel for cross-border settlements. Russian enterprises pay overseas suppliers by converting rubles to USDT, thereby bypassing the US dollar settlement system.

To adapt to this situation, the Russian government has taken proactive measures, deciding to allow digital currencies in cross-border transactions from September 1, 2024, and beginning to legalize crypto mining in November, enabling legal entities and individual entrepreneurs registered with the Russian Federal Digital Development Department to legally engage in crypto mining.

Meanwhile, many Russian wealthy individuals choose to transfer assets in the UAE, which has not joined Western sanctions, cashing out or directly purchasing properties through cryptocurrencies in Dubai.

However, the United States has also taken corresponding countermeasures. The Russian crypto exchange Garantex is a typical case: despite being sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in April 2022, the exchange's daily trading volume not only did not decrease but soared from approximately $11 million in March 2022 to $121.6 million in March 2025, an increase of over 1000%.

The good times did not last long. With increased regulatory efforts, the EU issued its 16th round of sanctions against Russia in February 2025, listing Garantex on the sanctions list.

On March 6, Tether directly froze approximately $28 million in USDT, involving multiple Garantex-related wallets, forcing the exchange to suspend all trading and withdrawal activities and issue an asset risk warning to Russian users.

Stablecoins have stepped onto the stage of international geopolitical games.

A Safe Haven for High Inflation in Latin America

In Latin America, stablecoins are becoming an important safe haven against high inflation and currency depreciation.

According to the "LATAM Market Report" by Aiying Compliance, political instability and economic crises in the region have driven cryptocurrency adoption, especially in countries like Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil. In 2024, the total cryptocurrency transaction volume in Latin America reached $16.2 billion, with USDT-related transactions accounting for over 40%.

Cryptocurrency transactions in Latin America continue to grow, with stablecoins showing particularly significant increases

Source: "LATAM Market Report" by Aiying Compliance

Taking Argentina as an example, the inflation rate in 2024 exceeded 200%, with the peso continuously depreciating. "Yesterday's peso cannot buy today's goods" has become the daily reality under economic crisis.

A Chainalysis report indicates that to cope with the economic crisis, some Argentinians have begun turning to the black market to purchase foreign currencies, most commonly US dollars (USD).

These so-called "blue dollars" are traded at informal parallel exchange rates, typically obtained at underground exchange points called "cuevas" spread across the country.

Additionally, stablecoins pegged to the US dollar have become a choice for Argentine residents to preserve assets and combat inflation.

Argentina's stablecoin market leads in Latin America, with stablecoin transaction proportions at 61.8%, slightly higher than Brazil's 59.8% and far above the global average of 44.7%. Between January and May 2024, Argentina's cryptocurrency transaction volume grew by over 400%.

Argentina's cryptocurrency transaction volume grew 400% from January to May 2024

Source: "LATAM Market Report" by Aiying Compliance

The proliferation of stablecoins not only provides a solution to combat inflation but also opens new economic channels for millions of unbanked people in Latin America.

In Latin America, tens of millions of people without bank accounts rely on smartphones and USDT wallets for transactions. Mexico's largest exchange, Bitso, occupies 99.5% of the local crypto market share. In Latin Americans' daily savings and transfers, USDT transaction volume steadily grows.

An Intertwined Future

The continuously expanding stablecoins flow through the light and dark sides of the global financial system.

On the surface, stablecoins shoulder the task of crypto asset trading and circulation, providing users with a calm beyond asset volatility; in the dark, stablecoins build more covert channels for interest transfer in black and gray industries.

Stablecoins are independently penetrating every crevice of the global economy.

In 2025, the total market value of stablecoins is approaching $250 billion. Behind this number lies a multi-layered game between crypto and reality, order and violation, freedom and regulation.

Perhaps stablecoins have not yet delivered as direct an impact as Bitcoin, but they are undoubtedly changing the rules of fund flow in a more subtle and meticulous way, becoming an unavoidable component of the global financial system.

On one hand, they provide a stable value anchor for the digital economy, serving a vast user group including millions of unbanked people in developing countries; on the other hand, their anonymity also provides more covert channels for cross-border fund flows, continuously drawing global regulators' attention.

While providing users with price stability, "stablecoins" are also quietly shaking the foundations of the traditional financial system. This seemingly contradictory yet unified characteristic might be a new key to understanding the new pattern of the future financial world.