stable coins
By Maheen Hernandez
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Why Stablecoins Changed Everything for Onchain Gambling. It's pretty much the same story you hear across DeFi right now — stablecoins are quietly doing a…
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Regulators Are Watching, But the Rules Aren't Written Yet. Here's the uncomfortable part. Fifty-one billion dollars moving through onchain gambling platforms…
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Fifty-one billion dollars. That's what onchain gambling pulled in during 2025, per TRM Labs, even as the broader crypto market was getting hammered.
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The number is striking on its own. But what makes it weirder is the timing. Crypto had a rough stretch in 2025 — prices fell, sentiment soured, retail participation thinned out…
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It's pretty much the same story you hear across DeFi right now — stablecoins are quietly doing a lot of heavy lifting. In gambling specifically, they've become the default rail.
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TRM Labs' report didn't break down which stablecoins dominated the flows or which chains carried the most volume. No platform-by-platform breakdown either.
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What TRM Labs did say is that repeat users were central to maintaining activity levels. That's actually a meaningful data point.
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Here's the uncomfortable part. Fifty-one billion dollars moving through onchain gambling platforms in a single year is a lot of money to be operating in a regulatory gray zone.
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More context: AI Trading Tools Grab Market Share as Crypto Runs 24/7 in 2026
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What's clear is that policymakers are paying attention. Onchain gambling sits at the intersection of three things regulators already find difficult: crypto assets, gambling…
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That regulatory uncertainty cuts both ways. It's kept some institutional money out, sure. But it's also kept a lot of compliance costs low for operators, which may partly explain…
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Repeat users seem unbothered by the ambiguity. They're gambling onchain because it's fast, it's permissionless, and stablecoins make it feel more like real-money gambling than…
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The TRM Labs report didn't speculate on where the sector goes from here. No forward guidance, no scenario modeling, no commentary on specific platforms that might be positioned…
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See also: Warren Puts CFTC on Notice Over Crypto and Prediction Market Gaps
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One thing worth watching: if stablecoin regulation tightens in major markets, the dynamics that made onchain gambling resilient in 2025 could shift fast.
The Currency Analytics
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