Where Money Moves - Edition #13

Stablecoin growth continued its rise over the last two weeks, with institutions, fintechs, funds, and retail investors gearing up for the next wave of growth.

Why? Because stablecoins are more than just digital dollars; they are the backbone of today’s crypto markets and the foundation for a new global financial system.

Stablecoin Spotlight: What’s Top of Mind

Plasma is strengthening its team in the run up to mainnet, building the rails for the most widely used and distributed stablecoin network. Following a 7x oversubscribed token sale in July with $373M in commitments, we are adding senior operators across payments, institutions, product, and security.

Adam Jacobs joins as Head of Global Payments to unlock coverage across 100+ countries and 200+ payment methods for Plasma USD₮ rails. A former payments lead at Binance and FTX who later headed digital assets at Nuvei, Adam brings full-stack payments expertise and compliance-grade distribution.

Pascal Bourgi joins as Head of Institutions and Capital Markets to ensure that as institutions come onchain, they use Plasma. Previously an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs across Global Banking and Markets and the Investment Banking Division, Pascal will bridge banks, fintechs, and onchain markets to scale institutional liquidity on Plasma.

Murat Firat joins as Head of Product to lead product scope and decision-making. An early Coinbase Wallet developer and former CTO at BiLira and TRYB, he brings large-scale product execution from one of Turkey’s largest exchanges and one of the most used lira stablecoins to ship payments products that work globally.

Usmann Khan joins as Head of Protocol Security to harden Plasma’s core infrastructure. ImmuneFi’s 2024 bug bounty winner and an all-time top-six researcher, Usmann will lead the security program as Plasma targets $2.5B+ in TVL at launch.

Others include River and Murf becoming DeFi lead and senior product designer, respectively.

To learn more about Plasma, we highly suggest checking out these two links for a research report and video diving into Plasma:

• Plasma CEO and Founder, Paul Faecks appeared in the Blocmates show to talk about capturing the trillion-dollar opportunity of stablecoins.

• Plasma: The Canonical Settlement Fabric for Global Stablecoin Finance by Memento Research

What’s New with Stablecoins

1️⃣ Tether announces USA₮, it’s stablecoin designed for the American market

Tether has announced USA₮, a regulated dollar-backed stablecoin, and will appoint Bo Hines, former advisor of the White House, as CEO of Tether USA₮. This follows the recent signing of the Genius Act into law, establishing a comprehensive framework for stablecoin issuers in the US to engage with the legacy financial system.

2️⃣Hyperliquid invites validators and stakers to decide on which stablecoin issuer will have the USDH ticker

Hyperliquid opened its USDH stablecoin ticker to competing teams, triggering a widely watched bidding race decided by vote from validators and stakers. Native Markets won and will now move ahead with USDH deployment. 

3️⃣ Fireblocks introduces network for payments designed to help firms move US stablecoins 

Fireblocks has introduced a neutral and active network for stablecoin on/off-ramps, OTC providers, banks and more. The company is already serving Bridge, Zerohash, Yellow Card and other large stablecoin orchestration layers.

In Other News

• US Federal Reserve will hold a conference focused on payments innovation in October

• MegaETH is launching USDm, a native stablecoin built with Ethena, to use reserve yield to subsidize sequencer costs and keep network fees low

Stablecoin Adoption Snapshot

1️⃣ Stablecoin Supply & Growth

Stablecoin supply continues to grow unabated, with USD₮ remaining the undisputed leader in total stablecoin supply. This continues the surge in stablecoin supply that has remained unbroken since October 2024.

• Total stablecoin supply: $287 billion (+4.74% from 30 days ago)

• USD₮ remains dominant: 59.5% market share ($170.9 billion)

• Stablecoins now account for over 1.30% of the US M2 money supply

2️⃣ Adoption Continues to Surge

Stablecoin transaction volume has continued to grow over the past two weeks, alongside a steady increase in new wallets holding stablecoins.

• $3.1 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume over past 30 days (via 1.1 billion transactions)

• 191.8 million wallets hold stablecoins (up 1.35% from 30 days ago)

• 114.2 million wallets hold Tether's stablecoin, making it the clear market leader

3️⃣ Stablecoin Liquidity by Chain

Over the past two weeks, the stablecoin supply on Ethereum has continued to grow rapidly. 

• Ethereum grew stablecoin supply over the last week by more than $3.3 billion, remaining dominant in terms of market share for supply at 55.9%. Tron follows with 27.4% of market share.

• Additionally, Solana’s stablecoin supply grew by $1 billion last week, followed by Arbitrum with $260 million. Notably, a majority of the stablecoins moving to Arbitrum are primarily used for trading on Hyperliquid.

All data and charts in the Stablecoin Adoption Snapshot are courtesy of our partner, Token Terminal. Please note that while the underlying data points are accurate, certain chart segments may appear incomplete as Token Terminal continues integrating new networks. For fully verified data sets, refer to the figures provided throughout this newsletter.

Plasma: Where Money Moves Next

Stablecoins represent a step change in financial technology - a system that is borderless, permissionless, and cost-effective by design. Major countries, companies, and institutions, both traditional and modern, will demand accelerated adoption to stay ahead. 

That’s why we’re building Plasma. As stablecoins transition from crypto-native assets to a global money standard, they need faster, cheaper, more reliable and more programmable settlement infrastructure. Plasma is designed from the ground up for this future.

Whether you're a developer, investor, or simply watching where money moves next, Plasma is where the future is being built.

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