Author: Nianqing, ChainCatcher

Recently, the excitement surrounding CZ and BNB Chain may have caused everyone to overlook a significant event, namely the major progress of the first stablecoin bill in the United States.

On March 13 local time, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee indeed passed the "Guidance and Establishment of the U.S. Stablecoin National Innovation Act" (referred to as the "GENIUS Act") with a vote of 18 to 6. This bill needs to receive at least 60 votes in the full Senate before moving to the House of Representatives for review, and ultimately be signed by President Trump. Previous reports indicated that the Trump administration set August as the deadline for passing the stablecoin bill.

While the cryptocurrency market is experiencing another round of downturn, the total market capitalization of stablecoins continues to rise. According to DefiLlama data, in the past 7 days, the market cap of stablecoins increased by $1.91 billion, surpassing $229 billion for the first time. Additionally, stablecoin issuers accounted for over 70% of the total revenue of on-chain protocols in the past 30 days.

The implementation of U.S. stablecoin bills like GENIUS will have a significant impact on the current stablecoin landscape. This article will approach from the perspective of stablecoin regulation, outlining the major stablecoins issued in the U.S. and the core projects in the potentially beneficial stablecoin infrastructure sector.

Impact of the Bill on the Stablecoin Landscape: Circle's Counterattack Against Tether

The primary impact of the GENIUS Act is the increase in compliance costs, which will give an advantage to compliant issuers and traditional giants. Currently, the largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, has a market share of over 60% with an absolute dominant position, but it still has a long way to go in terms of compliance.

Tether is not a domestic U.S. project; its registration, legal entity, and core operations are all overseas. Earlier this year, Tether announced that after obtaining a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license in El Salvador, it would complete all procedures to relocate to El Salvador, establishing its headquarters there.

Meanwhile, the "Regulation of Crypto Asset Markets" (MiCA) will come into full effect on December 30, 2024. Tether has not been approved to exit the European market, while Circle, Crypto.com, and ten other institutions have been authorized to issue euro and dollar stablecoins.

Tether is about to face regulatory pressure from the U.S. GENIUS Act. Circle co-founder Jeremy Allaire advocates that all dollar-based stablecoin issuers should register in the U.S. to protect consumers and ensure fair competition in the cryptocurrency market. He stated, "Whether you are an offshore company or headquartered in Hong Kong, if you want to offer your dollar stablecoin in the U.S., you should register in the U.S. as we must do elsewhere."

This comment directly targets Tether. Although Circle is far smaller than Tether, it has steadfastly chosen the compliance path similar to Coinbase from the beginning. The dollar stablecoin (USDC) issued by Circle is regulated and issued in the U.S., and it was officially approved in 2024 as the first stablecoin compliant with MiCA regulations.

While competitors' business models should focus on creating better products and larger distribution networks, their true intention is to "eliminate Tether." Every business or political meeting they hold ultimately aims to achieve this goal. Although this may seem exaggerated, it is a fact.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino responded that competitors are trying to "eliminate Tether" through legal and political meetings, and Tether will not sit idly by.

The web of interests surrounding the Tether empire remains complex in the U.S. In addition to Paolo Ardoino's claim that "USDT is the most successful tool for dollar hegemony and emerging market distribution" (with a massive position in U.S. Treasury bonds), Tether's fund custody and banking services partially rely on domestic U.S. institutions. For example, its main partner, Cantor Fitzgerald, manages some of its assets. Cantor Fitzgerald's chairman and CEO, Howard Lutnick, was recently appointed by the Trump administration as the new Secretary of Commerce (he has since resigned from this position). Additionally, Tether has invested heavily ($775 million) in the video-sharing platform Rumble, which has close ties to Trump.

However, once legislation related to stablecoins is completed, Tether may need to sell some non-compliant assets, including Bitcoin, precious metals, corporate notes, and secured loans, to comply with the proposed U.S. stablecoin regulations. Will Tether choose to embrace U.S. compliance or maintain its current strategy? After all, this positioning as an "offshore dollar stablecoin" is also a significant advantage under the weak regulatory environment in cryptocurrency.

Existing Centralized Stablecoins in the U.S.

As early as the end of 2024, based on the new government's and Trump's friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies and expectations for stablecoin reserves and regulation, major institutions predicted that the stablecoin sector would see larger-scale explosions and growth opportunities. Coupled with Tether's projected high profits of $13 billion in 2024, more and more companies are rushing to enter the market to establish their stablecoin businesses and capture market share. For example:

• PayPal has long partnered with Paxos to launch its stablecoin PYUSD and plans to expand its promotion this year;
• BlackRock launched the tokenized fund BUIDL last year, and currently, Ethena's stablecoin USDtb and Frax's frxUSD both invest in BUIDL as reserve funds;
• Stripe acquired the stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge for $1.1 billion;
• Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD is set to launch before 2025;
• Visa has launched a tokenized asset platform allowing banks to issue stablecoins;
• Robinhood is collaborating with Paxos to create an open network for stablecoins;
• Bank of America plans to launch its own stablecoin once regulations are clarified;

The current legislative direction is more favorable to U.S.-based stablecoin issuers. Let's first take a look at the major existing U.S. stablecoins (with the screening criterion being that the issuing entity is registered in the U.S.).

Data source: DefiLlama, CoinmarketCap

It is worth mentioning that DefiLlama also categorizes BlackRock's USD BUIDL as a stablecoin. BUIDL is not a traditional centralized stablecoin but a tokenized investment fund, 100% invested in cash, U.S. Treasury bonds, and repurchase agreements, maintaining a stable value of $1 per token. It is primarily aimed at institutions. Franklin Templeton has also issued a fund similar to BUIDL called BENJI.

For comparison, we can further understand the overall landscape of the USD stablecoin sector. Currently circulating stablecoins can be roughly divided into centralized stablecoins (USDT, USDC), decentralized stablecoins (Ethena USDe, DAI, USDD), and RWA stablecoins (Ondo's USDY, Usual USD, Ethena's USDtb), among others. The following chart ranks the top 15 stablecoins by market cap on CoinmarketCap.

Comparison of the average supply of mainstream stablecoins in circulation, source: Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard

In addition to USDT and several U.S.-registered stablecoins, there are two other important players in the centralized stablecoin sector: First Digital (FUSD) and TrueUSD (TUSD).

First Digital USD (FDUSD)

• Market Cap: $2 billion
• Issuer: FD121 Limited, a subsidiary of First Digital Limited, headquartered in Hong Kong.
• Issuance Date: June 2023.
• Asset Backing: FDUSD is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, backed by cash and cash equivalents (such as short-term U.S. Treasury bonds), with reserves held by First Digital Trust Limited.
• Issuance Networks: Ethereum, Sui, Solana, BSC

FDUSD is regulated in Asia. In 2023, due to regulatory pressure from the SEC, Paxos chose to terminate its partnership with Binance regarding BUSD, and Binance also announced the delisting of BUSD. Subsequently, FDUSD became one of the main stablecoins on Binance.

TrueUSD (TUSD)

• Market Cap: $9.5 billion
• Issuer: Techteryx (formerly TrustToken), a company with an Asian background.
• Issuance Date: April 2018
• Asset Backing: TUSD is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, backed by U.S. dollar deposits, with reserves held in custodial accounts at multiple trust companies, subject to real-time on-chain verification.
• Issuance Networks: Ethereum, TRON, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Fantom, Polygon, etc.

TUSD is one of the earliest stablecoins on the market, even preceding USDC and USDP. At the end of 2020, an investment company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Techteryx Ltd., led the acquisition of TUSD. In September of last year, the SEC charged TrueCoin LLC and TrustToken Inc. for allegedly selling fraudulent and unregistered investment contracts related to TrueUSD (TUSD), which was later revealed that over 99% of its asset reserves were held at First Digital, with Sun Yuchen's team holding over 80% of the positions.

What Players Are in the Stablecoin Infrastructure?

Stripe's massive acquisition of the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge has sparked investor interest in stablecoin infrastructure. Stripe's $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge was driven by its development of stablecoin orchestration and issuance APIs, which allow any company or team to provide digital dollar-based services to their end consumers or businesses. Its clients include the U.S. government, Coinbase, and SpaceX.

In March, crypto payment giant MoonPay intensified its efforts by acquiring the API-first stablecoin infrastructure startup Iron. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Germany, Iron's core product is a suite of stablecoin payment APIs that allow companies to embed stablecoins into their payment and operational systems, providing virtual account functionality and supporting instant, low-cost cross-border transactions. It can be imagined that once U.S. stablecoin legislation is enacted, more capital-strong participants will urgently need projects that can directly provide technical solutions.

Stablecoin infrastructure typically refers to entities that provide underlying technology, services, or platforms for the issuance, management, trading, payment, or compliance of stablecoins. Further categorizing stablecoin infrastructure, we can roughly divide it into the following categories:

• Stablecoin as a Service: Infrastructure that provides APIs for the rapid issuance of stablecoins;
• Stablecoin Payment Services: Providing stablecoin payment services for banks, traditional payment companies, and other entities;
• Other, such as liquidity management platforms for stablecoins to address the fragmentation of the stablecoin ecosystem.

(Because potential acquisitions and mergers do not have strong regional characteristics, there were no strict location restrictions when screening stablecoin infrastructure, focusing mainly on the scale and influence of the projects.)

1. Stablecoin as a Service

Paxos

Paxos was founded in 2012 and offers "stablecoin as a service" through white-label services, customizing and issuing stablecoins for other companies (such as PayPal and Binance). This service includes token design, reserve management, compliance support, and technical integration.

Paxos has issued various stablecoins, including Pax Dollar (USDP) (2018), Binance USD (BUSD) (in partnership with Binance, now discontinued), PayPal USD (PYUSD) (issued for PayPal), and Global Dollar (USDG) (registered and issued in Singapore). Among these, BUSD was for a long time the third-largest stablecoin after USDT and USDC.

Paxos provides blockchain settlement services for securities and asset trading, supporting stablecoin payments, and offers APIs for minting, redeeming, and managing stablecoins, supporting multi-chain deployment. Additionally, Paxos provides reserve custody and transparency reports (verified by independent auditing firms), ensuring compliance for stablecoins.

Recently, Paxos also partnered with Robinhood to develop the Global Dollar Network, a stablecoin network aimed at accelerating the use of global stablecoins by sharing the returns on reserve assets with participants to incentivize the promotion and distribution of USDG.

Stably

Stably is a U.S.-based asset tokenization infrastructure provider. Stably collaborates with regulated financial institutions to launch white-label stablecoins or tokenized assets in a compliant manner. Stably allows organizations to issue stablecoins or native stablecoins for their communities or brands. Notably, Stably serves not only banks and institutions issuing compliant stablecoins but also emerging blockchains (i.e., issuing decentralized stablecoins).

In 2023, Stably launched the dollar stablecoin Stably USD on the Bitcoin network, symbol #USD. This is a BRC20 standard stablecoin created based on the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, with each #USD backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars held in collateral accounts managed by U.S.-regulated custodians, catering to the interests of token holders undergoing KYC/AML verification.

Quantoz Payments

Quantoz Payments is a payment technology company based in the Netherlands, founded in 2022, focusing on issuing and managing regulated electronic money tokens (EMTs) through blockchain technology. Quantoz Payments issues stablecoins (E-Money Tokens) pegged to fiat currencies and provides related payment and fund management services. Quantoz Payments holds an electronic money institution (EMI) license issued by the Dutch central bank and is subject to strict regulation.

Quantoz Payments has issued two euro stablecoins, EURD and EURQ, and one dollar stablecoin, USDQ. It has collaborated with companies such as Bitfinex, Kraken, Tether, NPEX, Dusk, Fabric Ventures, and Deloitte, playing a significant role in stablecoin listings, investment support, and technology integration, especially in promoting in the European market.

In November last year, Tether announced an investment in Quantoz Payments to launch stablecoins compliant with MiCAR standards.

Stablecoin Payment Services

Stablecoin payment services are actually an important branch of crypto payment business, and here we only organize some projects focused on stablecoins that serve centralized entities.

Zero Hash

Zero Hash is a U.S. company founded in 2017, providing B2B2C cryptocurrency and stablecoin infrastructure. Its core business is to provide seamless solutions for connecting fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, and stablecoins through APIs and embedded technology, including cross-border payments, commercial transactions, trading platforms, remittances, tokenization, wallets, and on/off-ramps. It supports multiple stablecoins and various blockchains.

For example, Zero Hash provides payment rail support for Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund BENJI, helping it achieve stablecoin settlements, and facilitates the international remittance process for WhatsApp's cross-border payment startup Felix. Additionally, Zero Hash has partnerships with payment companies such as MoonPay and Shift4.

In terms of financing, Zero Hash has received support from well-known investment institutions such as Point72 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and NYCA, with total funding exceeding $167 million.

BVNK

BVNK is a fintech company based in the UK, providing enterprise-level stablecoin payment infrastructure to help businesses send and receive stablecoin payments, convert currencies, and add crypto payments to their checkout processes. It integrates payment, conversion, and custody functions through a single API, making it easy to embed into existing enterprise systems.

In 2024, BVNK launched a self-custody infrastructure Layer1 for stablecoin payments. Both BVNK and Zero Hash offer API-driven stablecoin payment solutions, but BVNK emphasizes global bank integration and self-custody, while Zero Hash focuses on the U.S. market and trading support.

In December last year, BVNK raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and existing investor Tiger Global.

Coinflow

Coinflow Labs is a U.S. company focused on Web3 payment infrastructure, providing instant settlement payment solutions for businesses through its technology platform, particularly in the stablecoin payment sector. Coinflow uses stablecoins as a settlement medium, offering instant fund payment products that allow businesses to make immediate payments to users' bank accounts through real-time payment channels (such as Visa Direct, RTP through clearinghouses, and instant SEPA).

For example, Coinflow provides payment solutions for businesses in the Solana ecosystem, enabling users to purchase NFTs or tokens on the Solana chain with credit cards and instantly convert funds to USDC for payment to merchants.

Coinflow has completed $3.7 million in funding, with investors including Jump Crypto, Reciprocal Ventures, and CMT Digital.

Sphere

Sphere is a U.S.-based crypto payment company founded in 2022, self-described as "The Operating System for Stablecoins," supporting businesses in accepting stablecoin payments and achieving seamless conversion between fiat currencies and stablecoins through APIs, no-code tools, and embedded widgets. Sphere focuses on underserved emerging markets (such as Latin America and Oceania).

Sphere has provided stablecoin payment support for projects like Helium and Latitude.sh. Additionally, Sphere collaborates with non-crypto-native merchants in countries like Mexico, Chile, and Brazil to address high cross-border payment costs.

In December last year, Sphere completed a $5 million funding round led by Coinbase Ventures and Kraken Ventures, bringing its total funding to $7.8 million.

3. Stablecoin Liquidity Management Platforms

As more institutions issue different types of stablecoins, serious issues of liquidity fragmentation, user experience, and other problems have emerged. Therefore, stablecoin liquidity management will also become an important demand.

Perena

Perena is a company focused on stablecoin infrastructure, dedicated to solving liquidity dispersion and capital inefficiency issues in the stablecoin market through blockchain technology. Founder Anna Yuan previously managed stablecoin operations at the Solana Foundation.

Perena has launched a multi-asset stablecoin swap protocol called Numéraire. Its core feature is a multi-stablecoin liquidity pool that enhances capital efficiency and liquidity in the stablecoin market by integrating various stablecoins into a single interchangeable and liquid token (e.g., USD). USD is essentially an LP token of a stable pool (which can also be used as a stablecoin), composed of a basket of stablecoins, with the AMM pool including stablecoins like Tether, Circle, and PayPal USD. This aims to address the fragmentation issues in the stablecoin ecosystem and reduces the capital requirements for issuing new stablecoins.

In November last year, Perena completed approximately $3 million in a Pre-Seed funding round, led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Binance Labs, MitonC Fund, Maelstrom Fund, Breed VC, ABCDE Labs, and others.

Stablecoin Issuance Networks

The stablecoin issuance network can broadly be considered part of the stablecoin infrastructure, but stablecoins typically choose to expand to multiple networks to accelerate adoption. From the perspective of circulating market capitalization, Ethereum and Tron are currently the main public chains for stablecoin issuance, followed by BSC, Solana, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Polygon.

Comparison of mainstream stablecoin supply across public chains, source: Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard

Although Ethereum holds a leading advantage in TVL for stablecoins, its high transaction costs make it unfriendly for the issuance and trading of most stablecoins, and Ethereum's stablecoins are primarily used for DeFi interactions or yield generation. From the perspective of stablecoin value transfer (remittance), Tron, BNB Chain, Solana, and Polygon are used more frequently. For instance, approximately 96% of the transaction volume on the Tron network is related to stablecoins. Additionally, by region, besides Ethereum, Avalanche and Stellar have higher acceptance in the U.S. and South America, and both are considered U.S. concept projects.

In addition to these mainstream public networks, many networks focused on stablecoin payments have emerged. Compared to ordinary public chains, these networks are less known and serve more as underlying infrastructure, similar to Ripple's global payment network RippleNet, which connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges, and enterprises.

In 2023, Latin American cryptocurrency service provider Ripio collaborated with SenseiNode, Num Finance, Cedalio, and Buenbit to launch a Layer 1 blockchain focused on payments in Latin America. Ripio is a significant player in the crypto payment space in the region, offering cryptocurrency trading, digital wallets, payment solutions, stablecoin services, and enterprise-level blockchain products. As of 2024, it has over 10 million users across eight countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, the U.S., and Spain, with a monthly transaction volume exceeding $200 million.

In November 2024, seven project parties, including Galaxy Digital and Paxos, collaborated to launch the stablecoin network Global Dollar Network. Its goal is to promote the widespread use of stablecoins in global payments, trading, and financial services through collaboration and innovation, breaking down the inefficiencies and high-cost barriers of traditional finance. The core asset USDG is a regulated stablecoin issued by Paxos in Singapore.

In February 2025, the RWA asset tokenization platform Ondo Finance announced the launch of a new Layer 1 blockchain, Ondo Chain, and welcomed institutions such as Franklin Templeton, Wellington Management, and WisdomTree to join its ecosystem. The core objective is to accelerate the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs, such as U.S. Treasury bonds, stocks, bonds, ETFs, etc.) through blockchain technology. Stablecoin payments are also one of its important use cases.

Recently, the payment blockchain Keeta Network, which just conducted its TGE on the Base network, has garnered attention from many KOLs and communities due to the "value discovery" of its token price. Keeta Network claims to be "the best blockchain for custodial compliant stablecoins," aiming to bridge traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), particularly serving financial institutions. Keeta provides a built-in digital identity verification mechanism, issuing secure digital certificates through trusted KYC providers. These certificates can instantly verify user identities within the network while protecting privacy and meeting global financial regulatory requirements. The testnet is expected to launch by the end of March.

(This article does not constitute investment advice; feel free to engage with the author @jiayifan510.)

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