Stablecoins are moving beyond cryptocurrency exchanges into real-world payments—but convenience comes at a price.

New data from New York-based blockchain analytics firm Artemis shows rapid growth in stablecoin payments across sectors, even as fees often match or exceed those in traditional finance.

Artemis surveyed 22 stablecoin payments firms and supplemented estimates from 11 others, indicating stablecoin transaction value reached $136 billion between January 2023 and August 2025, with an annualized run rate of $122 billion. In terms of activity:

B2B payments lead the pack ($76 billion annually)
Peer-to-peer ($19 billion)
Card-linked ($18 billion)
B2C ($3.3 billion)
Pre-finance ($3.6 billion)

Tether's USDT dominates 85% of the volume, followed by Circle's USDC, primarily on Tron, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon.

 

The Evolution of Stablecoins

Artemis co-founder Anthony Yim and data scientist Andrew Van Aken noted that stablecoins have evolved from trading instruments to a popular payment method. Major companies like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe are integrating them.

The dataset is being touted as the most comprehensive to date, covering 33 companies and representing the majority of emerging stablecoin payment volume.

But the growth has a downside: While peer-to-peer transfers on efficient blockchains like Solana can cost fractions of a cent, exchange and transfer fees—including trading fees, network transfers, and exchange rate spreads—can quickly erode this advantage.

Kevin O'Reilly, a Shark Tank judge, recently highlighted a pain point at X: Ethereum network congestion has pushed fees above $1,000 for small transactions, highlighting the ongoing cost challenges.

He said, "This is like paying a thousand dollars in tolls on a single-lane highway. It proves what I've been saying for years: When traffic overwhelms the system, it collapses under the pressure."

O'Reilly added,

For over a decade, we've talked about moving to blockchain, and now that it's practically implemented, the vulnerabilities are starting to show. Innovation isn't just about hype or speculation; it's about building an infrastructure capable of accommodating expansion.

 

Stablecoin Regulation, Conflicts of Interest

The report comes months after President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act, which established a federal framework for stablecoin issuers. Critics say it did not adequately address consumer protections or conflicts of interest.

For example, Trump and his family control approximately 60% of World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company that launched its own stablecoin, USD1. The company recently gained traction when a $2 billion UAE-based investment fund used USD1 to acquire a stake in Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

This week, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served time in prison after failing to prevent criminal money transfer activities on his platform.

Like other stablecoins, USD1 is pegged to a fixed asset, such as the US dollar, allowing issuers to generate profits by collecting interest on the treasuries and other reserves that back the token.

However, Artemis' results show that stablecoin payments are seeing significant growth across business and consumer channels, although they remain relatively small compared to traditional systems.