How Stablecoins Are Changing Global Finance

The U.S. Senate has taken a major step toward regulating stablecoins by advancing the GENIUS Act—a bill that could reshape the digital finance landscape. Still under discussion, the legislation proposes strict reserve and transparency rules for issuers and signals growing government interest in crypto oversight.

Stablecoins are crypto tokens that are typically pegged to the U.S. dollar. They allow users to transact within blockchain ecosystems without the volatility of traditional cryptocurrencies. Today, two clear leaders dominate the market.

Yet, while Washington begins drafting policy, stablecoins have already found product-market fit in places far beyond Capitol Hill. The global use of stablecoins is growing steadily, regardless of whether the market is in a bull or bear phase. In Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and among crypto-native startups, they’ve quietly emerged as a preferred tool for payments, payroll, and preserving value in unstable economies.

So what does this bottom-up adoption mean for the future of global finance? Are stablecoins here to stay, or will they be replaced by central bank digital currencies? And if they are here to stay, how can retail investors and traders ride this trend?

Tether Vs. Circle: The Battle For Stablecoin Dominance

According to the analytics site DefiLlama, the current market capitalization of stablecoins is around $250 billion, which is still a small share of the global M2 money supply, approximately 1%. In other words, we’re still early. To understand where the growth might come from, it’s worth examining what stablecoins are used for—and why they’ve become so popular.