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Stablecoins aren’t going anywhere. But they’re not really going everywhere either — not yet. A new World Trade Organization report puts the number bluntly: stablecoins account for just 3% of global payments, and the main thing holding them back isn’t the technology. It’s the rules. Or the lack of them.
Juan Marchetti, director of the trade in services and investment division at the WTO, made that point directly during a speech in Geneva at the launch of the WTO’s study on stablecoins in world trade. The constraint, he said, is regulatory, not technological. That’s a pretty significant distinction. It means the infrastructure to move money faster, cheaper, and more transparently across borders already exists in some meaningful form — the problem is that governments can’t agree on how to handle it.
The WTO report leans on data from the Financial Stability Board to make the case. An FSB report from October 2025 found that only 39% of 28 surveyed jurisdictions had actually finalized their stablecoin regulatory frameworks. That’s not a majority. That’s not even close. And it’s a big part of why adoption stays stuck in the single digits.
Five Friction Points, One Big Obstacle
The WTO study lays out five areas where stablecoins could genuinely move the needle in trade finance: high costs, slow transaction speeds, limited access to financial services, insufficient transparency, and foreign exchange constraints. Those are real problems. Anyone who’s tried to wire money internationally — especially from or to a developing economy — knows how painful the process can be.
But those benefits aren’t being fully captured. And probably won’t be, until the regulatory picture clears up.
What’s frustrating is the growth numbers are there. The WTO report tracked a 35-fold increase in stablecoin transactions used for cross-border payments between 2020 and mid-2024. Thirty-five times. That’s not a niche experiment anymore — that’s a market telling you something. People are using these instruments at scale, even without the regulatory clarity that would theoretically make it easier and safer to do so.
Developing economies sit at a strange crossroads here. They’d probably benefit the most from stablecoin adoption — lower remittance fees alone could free up meaningful amounts of household income in countries where those transfers represent a significant share of GDP. But those same countries often have the least developed regulatory infrastructure to support stablecoin integration. So the people who need it most are the least positioned to get it. That’s a hard loop to break.
Mastercard and Western Union Move Anyway
Major payment processors aren’t waiting around for regulators to sort it out globally. Mastercard partnered with Borderless in August to pilot cross-border stablecoin transfers using its Crypto Credential framework. The goal is to build trust and efficiency into the process — essentially trying to create a workable model even inside a fragmented regulatory environment. Earlier, in June, Mastercard had already announced plans to expand its settlement capabilities to include stablecoin-based settlements.
Western Union moved too. It partnered with Rain, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, also in August, to roll out a digital wallet and a Visa-branded card. The product lets users hold and spend US-dollar-backed stablecoins across 37 markets, with plans to push that number past 60 markets before the end of the year.
So there’s clearly appetite at the institutional level. These aren’t small players testing a fringe idea — Mastercard and Western Union are among the most established names in global payments. Their moves into stablecoin infrastructure carry weight, even if the broader regulatory environment hasn’t caught up.
The Regulatory Gap Nobody’s Fixed
The WTO’s core argument is that a coordinated global approach to stablecoin regulation could unlock a lot of what’s currently sitting dormant. It’s not a radical claim. It’s kind of obvious when you look at the numbers — 35-fold growth in usage, but still only 3% of global payments. Something’s not translating.
Part of the issue is that the jurisdictions most capable of building robust regulatory frameworks — wealthier, more developed economies — aren’t necessarily the ones with the most urgent need for stablecoin solutions. And the ones that need it most, the developing economies where remittance costs are crushing and banking access is limited, are starting from a weaker regulatory base.
That disparity doesn’t fix itself. It probably needs active coordination, the kind the WTO is nudging toward with this study.
And it’s worth being clear about what the WTO report isn’t saying. It’s not saying stablecoins are failing. The 35-fold transaction growth between 2020 and mid-2024 is hard to describe as failure. But growth without a coherent regulatory backbone creates risk — for users, for institutions, and for the broader financial system that trade finance sits inside.
Marchetti’s speech in Geneva landed against that backdrop. The message was clear enough: the technology works, the demand is there, and the bottleneck is a policy problem. Western Union’s Rain partnership covers 37 markets right now.
Frequently Asked Questions
What share of global payments do stablecoins currently represent?
Per the WTO report, stablecoins account for just 3% of global payments, largely because regulatory frameworks remain fragmented across most jurisdictions.
How much have stablecoin cross-border transactions grown in recent years?
The WTO tracked a 35-fold increase in stablecoin transactions used for cross-border payments between 2020 and mid-2024.
What are Mastercard and Western Union doing with stablecoins?
Mastercard partnered with Borderless in August to pilot cross-border stablecoin transfers via its Crypto Credential framework, while Western Union teamed up with Rain to launch a digital wallet and Visa-branded card supporting US-dollar-backed stablecoins in 37 markets.
Why It Matters
The limited adoption of stablecoins in global payments highlights the significant impact of regulatory uncertainty on the cryptocurrency market's growth potential. As governments and regulators grapple with how to effectively oversee digital currencies, the slow pace of establishing a coherent framework could hinder innovation and prevent stablecoins from reaching their full utility in facilitating cross-border transactions. This situation underscores the need for harmonized regulations to bolster confidence among users and businesses, which could ultimately drive wider acceptance and integration of stablecoins into the global financial system.
