Study: Stabilizing currency 35 trillion years of trade, how much is actually paid
Author:Stablecoin Insider / McKinseyxArtemis
: Deep tide TechFlow
Deep tide guides:The McKenzie and Artemis joint report did a little bit of work in the industry: unloading the transaction data on the stable currency. The conclusion is that only about $3900 billion (about 1 per cent) of the approximately $35 trillion in chain transactions per year are real payments, of which 58 per cent are business-to-business financial operations, with an annual increase of 733 per cent. The consumer-end stabilization currency is almost negligible, and it is not an accident — the article sums up five structural causes and explains why the gap between institutions and individuals is not just temporary。
The text reads as follows:
The stabilization of the currency sector has a headline dimension。
On the one hand, the raw chain data show that hundreds of trillions of dollars flow through the chain each year, a number that gives rise to endless comparisons with Visa, Mastercard, and projections that SWIFT will be replaced。
On the other hand, a landmark report published in February 2026 by McKenzie and Artemis Analytics strips all of this and asks a more direct question: How many of these are real payments
The answer is about 1%。
Of the approximately $35 trillion in stable annual currency transactions, only about $3900 billion was paid on behalf of genuine end-users, such as supplier invoices, cross-border remittances, payroll payments and billboard consumption. The rest are transactions, internal funds transfers, arbitrage and automated smart contract cycles。
The report concludes that the exaggerated heading figure should be "the starting point of the analysis, not the proxy indicator for measuring the use of payments"。
But within this real $390 billion baseline, there is a story that deserves in-depth scrutiny, and it almost entirely revolves around business finances, not consumer wallets。
B2B LEAD THE SCENE: WHAT DOES THE DATA ACTUALLY MEAN
According to McKinsey/Artemis analysis (based on December 2025 activity data), business-to-business transactions accounted for $22.6 billion, or about 58 per cent, of all real and stable currency payments。
This figure represents an increase of 733 per cent over the same period, driven mainly by supply chain payments, cross-border vendor settlements and financial liquidity management. Asia is leading in geographical activities, but adoption is also accelerating in Latin America and Europe。
The rest of the real payment area is distributed among wage distribution and remittances ($90 billion), capital market settlements ($8 billion) and associated card consumption ($4.5 billion)。
ACCORDING TO MCKENZIE, THE AMOUNT OF SWIPE CARDS ASSOCIATED WITH STABLE CURRENCY INCREASED BY AN ALARMING 673 PER CENT OVER THE YEAR, BUT IN ABSOLUTE TERMS IT REMAINS ONLY A FRACTION OF B2B FLOWS。
AS A REFERENCE: THIS TOTAL OF $390 BILLION REPRESENTS ONLY 0.02 PER CENT OF MCKINSEY ' S ESTIMATED GLOBAL DISBURSEMENTS OF MORE THAN $20 BILLION PER YEAR. B2B IN PARTICULAR, STABLE CURRENCY FLOWS ACCOUNTED FOR ABOUT 0.01 PER CENT OF THE GLOBAL $16 TRILLION B2B PAYMENT MARKET。
These figures are large in terms of currency stabilization, but they remain minimal in the context of the global financial system。
The monthly rate of operation is more visible. According to BVNK, citing the McKinsey/Artemis report, in January 2024, the monthly payments in stable currencies amounted to only $5 billion; by the beginning of 2026, that figure had exceeded $30 billion — a sixfold increase in less than two years, with the steepest acceleration occurring in the second half of 2025。
The annualized rate is now over $390 billion。
" The fact that real stable currency payments are far below conventional estimates does not diminish the long-term potential of stable currency as a payment track, but rather establishes a clearer baseline against which to assess the market position. — McKinsey/Artemis Analytics, February 2026
Why there is a gap: the five structural forces that exclude retailing
IT IS NOT A COINCIDENCE THAT B2B HAS ADOPTED AN EXPLOSIVE APPROACH THAT DEPARTS FROM THE NEGLIGIBLE AMOUNT OF CONSUMER USE, BUT RATHER A PRODUCT OF STRUCTURAL ASYMMETRIES THAT SYSTEMATICALLY FAVOUR BUSINESS USE RATHER THAN RETAIL USE。
The five main forces driving the institutional gap are:
1) Financial efficiency defeats consumer convenience
CORPORATE FINANCE OFFICERS ARE DRIVEN BY SPECIFIC, QUANTIFIABLE PAIN POINTS: THE SWIFT PROXY LINE, WHICH TAKES BETWEEN ONE AND FIVE WORKING DAYS TO SETTLE, THE CURRENCY-EXCHANGE WINDOW OF THE CURRENT FUNDS, AND THE INTERMEDIARY FEES ADDED TO EACH TRANSACTION。
The stabilization currency addresses these three problems simultaneously. For a company that pays its suppliers in 15 countries, the economic account is clear; for a consumer who buys coffee, it is not. Enterprise-level switching incentives are larger than individual users。
2) Unequal value of programmability at the retail end
THE B2B OUTBREAK IS PARTLY A PROGRAMMABLE PAYMENT STORY. SMART CONTRACTS HAVE ACHIEVED THE LOGIC OF CONDITIONS — INVOICING TRIGGERS, CONFIRMATION OF DELIVERY, HOSTING RELEASE — WHICH ALLOW THE ENTIRE ACCOUNTS PAYABLE PROCESS TO BE AUTOMATED ON A SCALE。
This is naturally appropriate for the financial operations of enterprises, as high-value, structured and repetitive payment processes benefit greatly from automation. Retail payments lack similar trigger applications on any scale。
Consumers do not need programmable conditions to buy food, and they need something to use as a brush. The cognitive complexity of block chain payments remains a barrier at the retail end, and programmability does not help。
3) Regulatory framework is biased towards institutions
FOLLOWING THE GENIUS ACT, INSTITUTIONAL OPERATORS HAVE COMPLETED THE FIT OF COMPLIANCE STRUCTURES SUCH AS AML/CFT, TRAVEL RULES, LICENSING REQUIREMENTS AND HAVE ESTABLISHED A LEGAL INFRASTRUCTURE THAT CAN OPERATE CONFIDENTLY。
The corporate finance team has a dedicated compliance function that allows for friction in the income field; this is not possible for individual consumers. As a result, in most jurisdictions, money-stable entry routes remain operationally complex for retail users, while the gap in business acceptance persists globally。
TODAY, EVERY B2B PAYMENT WITHOUT FRICTION IS THE DATA POINT USED BY THE AGENCY TO JUSTIFY FURTHER INVESTMENT, WHILE THE CONSUMER ECOSYSTEM IS WAITING FOR AN ENTRY POINT FOR COMPLIANCE AND USER EXPERIENCE THAT HAS NOT YET EMERGED ON A LARGE SCALE。
4) Closed circulation advantage
B2B STABILIZATION CURRENCY PAYMENTS HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL PRECISELY BECAUSE THEY ARE CLOSED-CYCLE: BUSINESSES ARE SENT TO BUSINESSES, BOTH HAVE WALLETS, HAVE COMPLIANCE INFRASTRUCTURE, AND NO UNIVERSAL BUSINESS NETWORK IS REQUIRED。
Consumers pay for the classic chicken and egg problems: Businesses do not invest in stable currency acceptance infrastructure until they have a demand; and consumers do not use wallets until they are widely consumed。
By operating in a bilateral or coalition environment, the world of institutions has completely bypassed the problem without any open business networks。
5) Institutional Incentives point upstream
Business finance officers with stable currencies can gain, reduce foreign exchange exposure and improve liquidity management - these advantages accumulate internally, while downstream sharing can introduce complexity or competitive vulnerability。
The extension of stable currency use to suppliers, employees or end-users requires the construction of a network that benefits those downstream, which is not necessarily the benefit of the sponsor ' s financial team。
IN THE ABSENCE OF AN EXPLICIT ROI DRIVE THE NETWORK OUT OF THE COUNTRY, FIRMS HAVE REASONABLY CHOSEN TO CONSOLIDATE INTERNAL GAINS。
Market context
BVNK ' S OWN INFRASTRUCTURE DATA CONFIRM B2B ' S DOMINANCE FROM THE OPERATOR ' S PERSPECTIVE. THE COMPANY PROCESSED $30 BILLION IN ANNUAL STABILIZATION CURRENCY PAYMENTS IN 2025, WHICH WAS 2.3 TIMES THE SAME INCREASE, ONE THIRD OF WHICH CAME FROM THE UNITED STATES MARKET。
Its customer lists (Worldpay, Deel, Flywire, Rapyd, Thunes) are excellent in the area of cross-border B2B and payroll infrastructure rather than consumer applications。
AS BVNK POINTED OUT IN HIS YEAR-END REVIEW OF 2025:
"REMITTANCES AND CONSUMER TRANSFERS WILL LEAD TO THE INITIAL ASSUMPTION OF STABLE CURRENCY GROWTH, NOT THE MAIN DRIVING FORCE; B2B HAS REPLACED IT WITH THIS ROLE."
When does the retail end catch up -- if possible
The McKinsey/Artemis baseline makes the status quo clear. It could not answer whether institutional gaps would narrow, widen or perpetuate。
Here are three possible scenarios for the next 18 months:
Recent 2026 - the gap widens
B2B HAS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN. THE OPERATIONAL RATE OF OVER $30 BILLION PER MONTH CONTINUES AS MORE ENTERPRISES USE THE STABLE CURRENCY TRACK FOR CROSS-BORDER ACCOUNTS PAYABLE AND FINANCIAL OPERATIONS. CONSUMERS HAVE STABILIZED SMALL INCREASES IN THE CONSUMPTION OF CURRENCY SEQUESTER CARDS, BUT ABSOLUTE VOLUMES REMAIN NEGLIGIBLE RELATIVE TO B2B FLOWS. EVEN THOUGH RETAIL ADOPTION RATES ARE SLOWLY ADVANCING IN PERCENTAGE TERMS, THE GAP IS WIDENING IN ABSOLUTE DOLLAR TERMS。
In the medium term, 2026 to 2027 -- turning points begin to appear
A number of catalysts may begin to bridge the gap: banks issue multi-currency stabilization coins that reduce the friction of retail imports; programmable functions are extended to consumer applications through AI Agent payments; and off-duty economic wages are stabilized, creating downstream consumption balances for employees。
The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicts that a stable currency supply could reach $3 trillion by 2030, a trajectory that implies consumer network effects eventually。
The reverse point of view: the retail side may never catch up, which is probably the point
The most honest interpretation of McKinsey's data is that the currency of stability may be evolving into something implicit in the report: the Internet reaches the programmable settlement layers of machines, financial departments and institutions, with consumers using an indirect, embedded benefit rather than a major use。
IF SUCH A FRAMEWORK IS IN PLACE, THE INSTITUTIONAL GAP IS NOT A FAILURE, BUT A CHARACTERISTIC OF THE NATURAL ARCHITECTURE OF TECHNOLOGY. BUSINESS WAGES IN STABLE CURRENCIES MAY EVENTUALLY GENERATE DOWNSTREAM CONSUMPTION SPENDING, BUT THE PATH FROM B2B INFRASTRUCTURE TO RETAIL WALLETS IS LONG AND DEPENDS ON A USER EXPERIENCE BREAKTHROUGH THAT HAS NOT YET OCCURRED ON A LARGE SCALE。
An honest baseline
McKenzie/Artemis reports that more valuable than recording the growth of a stable currency: It establishes an honest baseline that has been clearly absent from the industry。
Separating transactional noise, internal handling and automated smart contract cycles reveals a truly growing payment market - – Real payments doubled from 2024 to 2025 – it was highly concentrated at the institutional level in a structural, non-accidental manner。
THE 733 PER CENT INCREASE IN B2B IS NOT A DELAYED CONSUMER STORY, BUT A MATURE FINANCIAL STORY。
Businesses built today on a stable currency track are addressing real operational problems — cross-border friction, inefficient agency banks, delayed operating funds — that have nothing to do with whether consumers hold stable currency wallets. In any case, they will continue to build。
