Crypto Adoption Climbs with Stablecoins — State of Crypto Report

According to the new State of Crypto Q2 report from Coinbase, crypto adoption hit new highs in June 2025. Key findings show stablecoin supply reached $247 billion—a 54% increase year-on-year—while 34% of SMBs now use crypto, up from 17% a year ago. Real-world asset tokenization also exploded to over $21 billion.

Trend #1: Corporate and Institutional Adoption

Six in ten Fortune 500 executives now run blockchain projects, a 47% rise from last year. They average 9.7 onchain initiatives per firm, up from 5.8 in early 2024. Over 80% of those companies plan to boost their crypto exposure this year. Businesses aren’t standing on the sidelines.

Small and mid-size firms show a “triple-double” year: crypto use, stablecoin use, and crypto payments all doubled since 2024. One in three SMBs now accepts crypto, and 46% of the rest plan to add it in the next three years. Almost four in five SMBs say stablecoins solve key cash-flow headaches, such as high fees or slow cross-border transfers.

The Trump effect cannot be denied. To have the leader of the largest GDP country in the world come out undeniably and say that he wants to be the first crypto president, he wants the industry to be built in America and he's going to direct every agency of the US government to work towards clear rules which enable innovation – this is unprecedented,

Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency platform Coinbase.

Trend #2: Real-World Asset Tokenization Boom

Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization exploded 245× year-on-year to over $21 billion by April 2025, according to RWA.xyz data in the State of Crypto Q2 report. That leap follows a rise from just $85 million in April 2020, underscoring rapid institutional and developer interest.

Private credit dominates the RWA market at 61%, with U.S. Treasuries accounting for 30% and commodities plus institutional funds making up the balance. Investors are clamoring for yield-bearing tokens that mirror traditional debt instruments, yet trade 24/7, anywhere onchain.

Big names have staked their claim. 

• BlackRock’s BUIDL fund – built with Securitize – surpassed $1 billion in assets after a $200 million Ethena allocation, becoming the largest tokenized treasury fund on Ethereum. 
• BNY Mellon and Avalanche integrations broaden RWA access, letting investors tap digital Treasuries and credit via familiar DeFi rails.

What’s next for tokenized assets? 

Expect real estate, fine art, and structured credit to join the onchain party, as platforms launch compliant issuance and fractional-ownership models. Fractional RWA could juice up private markets by slashing minimum entry sizes and speeding settlement, if regulators and infrastructure scale in tandem. This boom is democratizing access to assets, making it possible to own a fractional share of a high-value bond via a smartphone. The RWA boom proves the future of finance is already here – if we can keep building the bridges.

Trend #3: Explosive Stablecoin Growth

Stablecoin supply surged 54% year-over-year to $247 billion by May 2025, making up nearly 10 percent of U.S. currency in circulation. At the same time, 161 million people held stablecoins – more than the populations of the world’s ten largest cities combined. Ark Invest notes that this leap pushed stablecoins past 1 percent of U.S. M2 money supply, and forecasts suggest they could hit 10 percent as adoption accelerates.

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Meanwhile, transfer volumes shattered records. Monthly stablecoin flows topped $719 billion in December 2024 and $717 billion in April 2025. To put that in context, stablecoin traffic now rivals PayPal and edges toward Visa on its busiest days. This massive throughput underlines real usage, not just both churn or exchange loops.

Institutional appetite grows as well. Circle and Tether together hold more U.S. Treasuries than Germany. Tether’s $98.5 billion in bills trims about 24 basis points off one-month yields, saving taxpayers roughly $15 billion a year. 

Users tap stablecoins for everyday needs. 

• Migrant workers cut remittance fees from roughly 6 percent down to under 1 percent, saving senders an estimated $50 billion annually on cross-border payments. 
• Global payroll platforms settle salaries in minutes instead of days, boosting cash-flow predictability for remote teams. 
• People in high-inflation countries park savings in dollar-pegged tokens, sidestepping local currency turmoil.

Headwinds Eternal: Stablecoin Downsides and Pitfalls

Financial stability concerns gather pace. A BIS paper finds stablecoin inflows and outflows now sway U.S. Treasury yields like small-scale quantitative easing, stoking depeg fears. Reuters reports stablecoin issuers already hold $166 billion in T-bills and could swell to $2 trillion by 2028, risking sudden sell-offs that dent Treasury prices. Such concentration means a run on stablecoins could ripple through bond markets and force central banks to step in. Past depeg incidents – like Terra’s collapse – remind us that stablecoins can lose their peg and choke liquidity when users need it most.

Regulatory uncertainty still hampers stablecoin growth. Two-thirds of Fortune 500 executives name unclear rules as a hurdle to stablecoin adoption. Nearly 72% of SMBs say they’d use stablecoins if Congress provided clear market structure. Meanwhile, 38 states juggle over 131 crypto bills, risking a patchwork of conflicting requirements that could stall new projects.

Retail users may enjoy lower fees but still face peg risk if issuers can’t meet redemptions during market stress. Institutions benefit from efficient treasury funding yet must weigh systemic exposure as stablecoins hoard record levels of U.S. debt. Global monetary systems might waltz to a new tune if stablecoins rival central bank money—but that shift demands robust guardrails. Without coordinated international rules, stablecoin downsides could outweigh their promise to streamline finance.

What does the future hold? 

Consumers will start voting with their wallets, demanding fees that barely register and apps as slick as their favorite social networks. Companies won’t roll out new payment rails without iron-clad rules – no CFO wants a surprise audit. Central banks, sensing the shift, will likely fast-track their own digital currencies just to keep up. With stablecoins handling a tenth of U.S. currency and driving $700 billion-plus in monthly flows, regulators and banks alike can’t afford to ignore this powerful trend..

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