A Deep Dive into the Stablecoin Ecosystem: A Panorama from Technology to Business

The global financial system is undergoing profound changes. Traditional payment networks are facing comprehensive challenges from stablecoins, which are revolutionizing cross-border value flows, corporate transactions, and access to personal financial services.

In recent years, stablecoins have continued to develop and have become an important infrastructure for global payments. Large fintech companies, payment processors, and sovereign entities are integrating stablecoins into consumer-facing applications and corporate cash flows. At the same time, emerging financial tools such as payment gateways, deposit and withdrawal channels, and programmable yield products have greatly enhanced the usability of stablecoins.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the stablecoin ecosystem from both technical and business perspectives. It examines the key participants shaping this field, the core infrastructure supporting stablecoin transactions, and the dynamic demand driving its applications. Additionally, it explores how stablecoins are giving rise to new financial application scenarios and the challenges they face in being widely integrated into the global economy.

1. Why Choose Stablecoin Payments?

To understand the influence of stablecoins, one must first examine traditional payment solutions. These traditional systems include cash, checks, debit cards, credit cards, international wire transfers ( SWIFT ), automated clearing houses ( ACH ), and peer-to-peer payments. Although they have become integrated into daily life, many payment channels, such as ACH and SWIFT, have existed since the 1970s. While groundbreaking at the time, most of these global payment infrastructures are now outdated and highly fragmented. Overall, these payment methods are plagued by high fees, high friction, long processing times, the inability to achieve round-the-clock settlement, and complex backend processes. Additionally, they often require payment for unnecessary extra services such as bundled identity verification, lending, compliance, fraud protection, and bank integration.

Stablecoin payments are effectively addressing these pain points. Compared to traditional payment methods, using blockchain for payment settlement greatly simplifies the payment process, reduces intermediaries, and achieves real-time visibility of fund flows, which not only shortens settlement time but also lowers costs.

The main advantages of stablecoin payments can be summarized as follows:

• Real-time settlement: Transactions are completed almost instantaneously, eliminating delays found in traditional banking systems.
• Safe and Reliable: The immutable ledger of blockchain ensures the security and transparency of transactions, providing protection for users.
• Cost reduction: Eliminating intermediaries significantly reduces transaction fees, saving expenses for users.
• Global Coverage: Decentralized platforms can reach markets underserved by traditional financial services, including unbanked populations, achieving financial inclusion.

2. The Landscape of the Stablecoin Payment Industry

The stablecoin payment industry can be divided into four technical stack layers:

( 1. Layer 1: Application Layer

The application layer is mainly composed of various payment service providers ) PSP (, which integrate multiple independent deposit and withdrawal payment institutions into a unified aggregation platform. These platforms provide users with convenient access to stablecoin, offer tools for developers who develop on the application layer, and provide credit card services for Web3 users.

a. Payment Gateway

The payment gateway is a service that facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers by securely processing payments.

Notable companies innovating in this field include:

• A well-known payment provider: integrating a certain stablecoin for global payments.
• A well-known cryptocurrency wallet: It does not provide direct fiat currency exchange functionality itself, and users can perform deposit and withdrawal operations through integration with its third-party services.
• A rapidly growing payment gateway: 450,000 active wallets and 6,000 merchants. With a certain payment plugin, millions of e-commerce merchants can settle payments using cryptocurrency and instantly convert a certain stablecoin to other stablecoins.
• Some Web2 payment applications also allow users to make payments using stablecoins, further expanding the application scenarios of stablecoins.

The field of payment gateway providers can be clearly divided into two categories ) with certain overlap ###.

1( Developer-focused payment gateway; 2) Consumer-focused payment gateway. Most payment gateway providers tend to focus more on one of these categories, thereby shaping their core products, user experience, and target market.

The developer-oriented payment gateway is designed to serve businesses, fintech companies, and enterprises that need to embed stablecoin infrastructure into their workflows. They typically provide application programming interfaces (API), software development kits )SDK), and developer tools to integrate into existing payment systems, enabling features such as automated payments, stablecoin wallets, virtual accounts, and real-time settlement. Some emerging projects focused on providing such developer tools include:

• A provider of enterprise-level payment infrastructure: offers enterprise-level payment infrastructure for easy integration of stablecoins. The company provides API solutions to ensure seamless processes, has a payment platform for cross-border business payments, and allows enterprises to hold and trade multiple stablecoins and fiat currencies in enterprise accounts, as well as merchant services that provide the tools needed for businesses to accept customer stablecoin payments. Handling over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, with a growth rate of 200%, valued at $750 million, clients include emerging regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

• A stablecoin payment API provider ( is in the testing phase ): it provides APIs to seamlessly integrate stablecoin transactions into existing businesses. It offers enterprises global deposit and withdrawal channels, stablecoin payment infrastructure, wallets, and virtual accounts, supporting customized payment workflows ( including recurring payments, invoicing, or on-demand payments ).

• A certain cross-border payment API provider: Offers a range of enterprise payment, salary disbursement, and bulk payment APIs, supporting currencies including certain fiat currencies and stablecoins. Primarily targeting the African market, with no operational data available.

Consumer-oriented payment gateways focus on the user, providing an easy-to-use interface for stablecoin payments, remittances, and financial services. They typically include mobile wallets, multi-currency support, fiat currency deposit and withdrawal channels, and seamless cross-border transactions. Some well-known projects that focus on providing users with this simple payment experience include:

• A certain blockchain banking platform: enables personal consumption, remittances, and stablecoin transactions in over 184 countries; the platform collaborates with local channels in Latin America to achieve nearly zero withdrawal fees, has over 10,000 South American users, and is highly rated among certain blockchain developers.

• A certain deposit and withdrawal solution: The deposit and withdrawal solution is directly integrated with merchants, allowing users and businesses to easily convert between fiat currency and stablecoin, with minimal friction. The platform also supports purchasing a certain stablecoin via mobile payment, simplifying the process for consumers to acquire stablecoin.

• A well-known payment application: The stablecoin wallet feature of this application utilizes stablecoin technology, but its functionality is integrated into its existing consumer payment application, allowing users to easily send, receive, and use digital dollars without needing to interact directly with the blockchain infrastructure.

b. U Card

Cryptocurrency cards are payment cards that allow users to spend cryptocurrency or stablecoins at traditional merchants. These cards are typically integrated with traditional credit card networks ( such as a certain credit card company ), enabling seamless transactions by automatically converting cryptocurrency assets to fiat currency at the point of sale.

The project includes:

• A certain Asian card issuer: Asian card issuers, clients include multiple enterprises, selling white-label solutions, mainly relying on transaction volume commissions in cooperation with Hong Kong banks, can cover most areas outside the United States, supports multi-chain deposits; by July 2024, the transaction volume reached $30M.

• Some American card issuers: American card issuers support multiple companies' card issuance, with the main feature being the ability to serve users in the US and Latin America. Issued a card from a certain stablecoin company to pay for travel expenses, office supplies, and other daily business expenses using on-chain assets.

• A certain European card issuer: European card issuer + web3 bank, the business model is similar to the above two, supports certain enterprises to issue cards; Swiss license, mainly serves European + Asian users, does not yet support full chain transactions, only certain blockchain recharges. Growth is slow with a total of 20,000 users, monthly revenue of $100K-150K.

• A rapidly growing U card: A U card that has been growing quickly on a certain blockchain, with over 10,000 cards issued, 5-6k monthly active users, a transaction volume of $7m and income of $200k by December 2024.

• A certain stablecoin ecosystem: The stablecoin ecosystem has recently launched a credit card that supports stablecoins and provides a software development toolkit to facilitate L1 and L2 integration, currently in the testing phase with no data.

There are many cryptocurrency card providers, and they mainly differ in service regions and supported currencies. They usually offer low-fee services to end users to enhance the enthusiasm for using cryptocurrency cards.

( 2. Layer Two: Payment Processor

As a key layer of the stablecoin tech stack, payment processors are the backbone of payment channels, mainly covering two categories: 1. Deposit and withdrawal service providers 2. Stablecoin issuance service providers. They act as a crucial intermediary layer in the payment lifecycle, connecting Web3 payments with traditional financial systems.

a. Deposit and Withdrawal Processor

• A certain deposit and withdrawal service provider: supports over 80 types of cryptocurrencies, offers various deposit and withdrawal methods and token exchange services to meet users' diverse cryptocurrency trading needs.

• A certain deposit and withdrawal network: covering over 150 countries, providing deposit and withdrawal services for more than 90 types of crypto assets. This network handles all KYC) identity verification(, AML) anti-money laundering###, and compliance requirements, ensuring the compliance and security of deposit and withdrawal services.

• A certain mixed payment gateway: a mixed payment gateway solution that supports bilateral exchange and payment between fiat currency and crypto assets, achieving the integration of traditional fiat currency and crypto asset payments.

b. Stablecoin Issuance & Coordination of Processors

• A stablecoin issuance platform: The core products of this platform include a coordination API and an issuance API. The former helps enterprises integrate various stablecoin payments and exchanges, while the latter supports enterprises in the rapid issuance of stablecoins. The platform is currently licensed in the United States and Europe, and has established important partnerships with the U.S. State Department and the Treasury Department, possessing strong compliance operational capabilities and resource advantages.

• A regulated stablecoin issuance platform ( is in the testing phase ): similar to the products of the aforementioned platform, it is a regulated stablecoin issuance platform that provides stablecoin coordination and reserve management APIs. It has compliance licenses in various states across the United States, and partner companies are required to undergo KYB ( corporate identity verification ), while users need to establish accounts on the platform for KYC. The platform's clientele is mostly on-chain OGs, and compared to the aforementioned platform, the endorsement from investors and BD is slightly weaker.

• A certain stablecoin issuance platform ( is in the testing phase ): The stablecoin issuance mechanism of this platform lowers the barrier to entry for niche stablecoins by encouraging users to provide concentrated liquidity in a single pool. The platform adopts a "central hub-radiation" model, where a certain stablecoin acts as the central reserve asset, serving as the "hub" for stablecoin issuance and exchange. This mechanism allows for the efficient minting, redemption, and trading of various stablecoins linked to different assets or jurisdictions, with each stablecoin acting as a similar "spoke" connected to a certain stablecoin. Through this system structure, the platform ensures depth liquidity and enhances capital efficiency, as small stablecoins can interoperate through a certain stablecoin without the need to provide separate liquidity pools for each trading pair. The ultimate design goal of this system is not only to enhance price stability and reduce slippage but also to achieve seamless conversions between stablecoins.

( 3. Layer 3: Asset Issuer

The asset issuer is responsible for creating, maintaining, and redeeming stablecoins. Its business model is usually based on asset-backed.