{"id":14343,"date":"2025-10-25T20:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/stablecoin-popularity-grows-but-the-fees-are-still-painful\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T20:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:32:22","slug":"stablecoin-popularity-grows-but-the-fees-are-still-painful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/stablecoin-popularity-grows-but-the-fees-are-still-painful\/","title":{"rendered":"Stablecoin popularity grows\u2014but the fees are still painful"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading desks into real-world payments\u2014but convenience comes at a cost. <\/p>\n<p>New data from the New York-based blockchain analytics firm Artemis shows rapid growth in stablecoin payments across sectors, even as fees often match or exceed those in traditional finance.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_0057c3b12b13b6db9950eb59aad6bbfa\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Artemis reports $136 billion in stablecoin payments from 33 firms between January 2023 and August 2025, with B2B transactions leading at $76 billion annually.<\/li>\n<li>Tether\u2019s USDT commands 85% of the stablecoin market, primarily on the Tron blockchain, followed by USDC.<\/li>\n<li>Stablecoin payments face high fees, especially on exchanges, and remain small compared to traditional financial systems, with blockchain congestion further escalating costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>Artemis <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/reports.artemisanalytics.com\/stablecoins\/artemis-stablecoin-payments-from-the-ground-up-2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">surveyed<\/a> 22 stablecoin payment firms and supplemented estimates from 11 others, attributing $136 billion in stablecoin transactions between January 2023 and August 2025, with an annualized run rate of $122 billion. In terms of activity:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>B2B payments lead the pack ($76 billion annualized)<\/li>\n<li>Peer-to-peer ($19 billion)<\/li>\n<li>Card-linked ($18 billion)<\/li>\n<li>B2C ($3.3 billion)<\/li>\n<li>Prefunding ($3.6 billion). <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tether\u2019s USDT dominates with 85% of volume, followed by Circle\u2019s USDC, primarily on Tron, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stablecoin evolution<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Artemis co-founder Anthony Yim and data scientist Andrew Van Aken note that stablecoins have evolved from trader tools to a mainstream payment method. Major firms like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe are integrating them. <\/p>\n<p>The dataset is being touted as the most comprehensive to date, covering 33 firms and representing the majority of emerging stablecoin payment volume.<\/p>\n<p>But growth has a downside: while peer-to-peer transfers on efficient blockchains like Solana can cost fractions of a cent, exchange and conversion fees\u2014including trading fees, network transfers, and FX spreads\u2014can quickly erode that advantage. <\/p>\n<p>Shark Tank judge Kevin O\u2019Leary recently <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kevinolearytv\/status\/1978897749719265632\">highlighted<\/a> the pain point on X: Ethereum network congestion drove fees past $1,000 for small transactions, underscoring persistent cost challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s like paying a thousand-dollar toll to drive on a one-lane highway,\u201d he said. \u201cIt proves what I\u2019ve been saying for years: when real traffic hits the system, it cracks under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Leary added:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cFor over a decade we\u2019ve talked about going on-chain, and now with real-world adoption finally happening, the cracks are showing. Innovation isn\u2019t just about hype or speculation, it\u2019s about building infrastructure that can actually handle scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stablecoin regulation, conflicts of interest<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The report arrives months after President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act, which established a federal framework for stablecoin issuers. Critics say it did little to address consumer protection or conflicts of interest. <\/p>\n<p>For example, Trump and his family control around 60% of World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that launched its own stablecoin, USD1. The firm recently gained momentum when a $2 billion investment fund in the United Arab Emirates used USD1 to acquire a stake in Binance, the globe\u2019s largest crypto exchange.<\/p>\n<p>This week, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served prison time after failing to prevent criminal money-moving activity on his platform.<\/p>\n<p>As with other stablecoins, USD1 is pegged to fixed assets, such as the U.S. dollar, allowing issuers to generate profits by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ap.org\/news-highlights\/spotlights\/2025\/the-crypto-industry-saw-trump-as-a-champion-some-now-fear-hes-putting-personal-profits-first\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">collecting<\/a> interest on Treasury bonds and other reserves backing the token.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Artemis\u2019 findings illustrate that stablecoin payments are surging across business and consumer channels, despite remaining small relative to traditional systems. <\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading desks into real-world payments\u2014but convenience comes at a cost. New data from the New York-based blockchain analytics firm Artemis shows rapid growth in stablecoin&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14344,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343\/revisions\/14344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}