In the spring of 2025, the crypto market was chilly, with Bit prices 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 picture: According to Artemis data, by April 2025, the total market value of stablecoins had reached $231.6 billion, a significant 51% increase from $152.6 billion in the same period of 2024.
While the overall crypto asset market was weak, stablecoins continued to expand. So the question arises: Where are the continuously issued stablecoins going if not into crypto investments?
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 broken through crypto boundaries and is taking root in the real world.
In terms of market value, stablecoins directly account for 5% of the total crypto market value, and this proportion reaches 8% when including stablecoin management companies and blockchain platforms primarily focused on stablecoins (such as TRON).
It's worth noting that mainstream stablecoin issuers have adopted an operational model similar to MasterCard, reaching end-users through intermediaries like crypto exchanges and payment service providers.
Take Argentina as an example. Although local crypto exchanges like LemonCash, Bitso, and Rippio are not globally well-known, their user base is surprisingly large at 20 million, about 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, mainly concentrated in stablecoin-related transactions.
More thought-provoking is that according to Artemis data, of the $206.78 billion in stablecoin circulation as of March 2025, traditional CEX and DeFi crypto scenarios actually occupy a small portion, with as much as 67% ($138.6 billion) flowing 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.
Criminals typically convert illegal proceeds into USDT through over-the-counter markets, then convert them to cash or deposit into cold wallets to anonymize and transfer funds across borders.
This phenomenon is particularly prevalent in the Southeast Asian gambling industry. According to a SlowMist UNODC report, 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 is best described as "symbiotic".
Southeast Asian casinos hide fund sources through "custody" transactions and "investments", forming complex money laundering chains. The anonymity and non-face-to-face nature 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. Its payment platform Huione Pay is deeply involved in money laundering activities.
In July 2024, Tether froze TRON wallets related to Huione, involving 29.62 million USDT. Despite having their accounts frozen, 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, causing estimated economic losses from online fraud in East and Southeast Asia between $1.8 billion and $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 cross-border settlement channel. 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, using cryptocurrencies to cash out in Dubai or directly purchase real estate.
However, the US has also taken corresponding countermeasures. The Russian crypto exchange Garantex is a typical case: despite being sanctioned by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in April 2022, the exchange's daily trading volume not only did not decrease but soared from about $11 million in March 2022 to $121.6 million in March 2025, an increase of over 1000%.
Good times don't last long. With increasing regulatory efforts, the EU issued its 16th round of sanctions against Russia in February 2025, listing Garantex in 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 operations 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 growth
Source: "LATAM Market Report" by Aiying Compliance
Take Argentina as an example. In 2024, Argentina's inflation rate exceeded 200%, with the peso continuously depreciating. "Yesterday's peso can't buy today's things" 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 buy 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 volumes accounting for 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% in January-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 the region.
In Latin America, tens of millions of people without bank accounts rely on smartphones and USDT wallets for transactions. Bitso, Mexico's largest exchange, occupies 99.5% of the local crypto market. In Latin Americans' daily savings and transfers, USDT transaction volume is steadily growing.
An Intertwined Future
The continuously expanding stablecoins reveal the bright and dark sides of the world's financial system.
On the surface, stablecoins shoulder the task of crypto asset trading and circulation, providing users with a sense of stability beyond asset volatility. In the shadows, 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 stablecoin market value is approaching $250 billion. Behind this number lies a multi-layered game between crypto and reality, order and violation, freedom and regulation.
Perhaps stablecoins haven't yet delivered as direct an impact as Bitcoin, but they are undoubtedly changing fund flow rules 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 traditional financial systems. This seemingly contradictory yet unified characteristic might be a new key to understanding the future financial world's new landscape.
