Harvey Li
7 min read
Today’s Crypto for Advisor newsletter is coming to you from Consensus Toronto. The energy is high as digital asset policy makers, leaders and influencers gather to talk about bitcoin, blockchain, regulation, AI and so much more!
Attending Consensus? Visit the CoinDesk booth, #2513. If you are interested in contributing to this newsletter, Kim Klemballa will be at the booth today, May 15, from 3-5 pm EST. You can also reply to this email directly.
In today’s Crypto for Advisors, Harvey Li from Tokenization Insights explains stablecoins, where they came from and their growth.
Then, Trevor Koverko from Sapien answers questions about the status of stablecoin regulations and adoption with regulations in Europe in Ask an Expert.
Thank you to our sponsor of this week's newsletter, Grayscale. For financial advisors near Chicago, Grayscale is hosting an exclusive event, Crypto Connect, on Thursday, May 22. Learn more.
Unknown block type "divider", specify a component for it in the `components.types` option
When major financial institutions — from Citi and Standard Chartered to Brevan Howard, McKinsey and BCG — rally around a once-niche innovation, it’s a good idea to take note, especially when the innovation is stablecoins, a tokenized representation of money on-chain.
What email was to the internet, stablecoin is to blockchain — instant and cost-effective value transfer at a global scale running 24/7. Stablecoin is blockchain’s first killer use case.
First introduced by Tether in 2015 and hailed as the first stablecoin, USDT offered early crypto users a way to hold and transfer a stable, dollar-denominated value on-chain. Until then, their only alternative was bitcoin.
Tether’s dollar-backed stablecoin made its debut on Bitfinex before rapidly spreading to major exchanges like Binance and OKX. It quickly became the default trading pair across the digital asset ecosystem.
As adoption grew, so did its utility. No longer just a trading tool, stablecoin emerged as the primary cash-equivalent for trading, cash management, and payments.
Below is the trajectory of stablecoin’s market size since inception, a reflection of its evolution from a crypto niche to a core pillar of digital finance.
The reason stablecoins have been a hot topic in finance is their rapid adoption and growth. According to Visa, stablecoin on-chain transaction volume exceeded $5.5 trillion in 2024. By comparison, Visa’s volume was $13.2 trillion while Mastercard transacted $9.7 trillion during the same period.
