Stablecoins Moved ₱1.98 quadrillion ($33 trillion) in 2025, Doubling Visa's Volume

Stablecoins moved ₱1.98 quadrillion ($33 trillion) in 2025, roughly double Visa's annual payment volume.

Visa's ₱209.73 billion ($3.5 billion) USDC settlement marks a clear shift: traditional payment giants now treat blockchain settlement as operational infrastructure. That shift ends correspondent banking as the default for institutional cross-border transfers, which historically took one to three days and shut down on weekends. Stablecoin settlement runs 24/7, settles in seconds, and eliminates the multi-bank relay that added cost and opacity to every transaction.

JP Morgan and other Wall Street institutions have moved beyond pilot programs. Circle completed its IPO in June 2025, positioning USDC as the regulation-first stablecoin for institutional users. The company obtained a MiCA license in 2024, enabling EU operations under the regulatory framework that took effect in June of that year. In the US, the GENIUS Act passed Congress in July 2025, allowing non-banks and state-chartered entities to issue stablecoins through state or federal pathways.

USDC operates as a fiat-backed stablecoin issued at 1:1 parity with off-chain reserves held in deposits and Treasuries, with primary minting restricted to approved institutional customers. Tether dominates with over $173 billion in circulation and roughly 60% market share, favored for liquidity in Asia and emerging markets. But USDC's regulatory positioning gives it an edge with Western institutions that prioritize compliance over raw liquidity.

Solana has emerged as a preferred settlement layer for high-frequency stablecoin transfers, handling a growing share of institutional USDC flows. The blockchain's low fees and sub-second finality make it more practical than Ethereum for payment-style settlement, especially when volume scales into the billions daily, with institutional USDC flows now dominating Solana's transaction volume by April 2026.