Crypto now projected to move $719 trillion through global payments

For most of the past two years, debate about stablecoins in payments has focused on the checkout screen: will consumers ever tap a wallet instead of a card? Visa, Stripe, and Mastercard have answered with their capital. Visa now settles in USDC, Stripe bought Bridge, and Mastercard is acquiring BVNK.

Each move reflects the same read that stablecoins are becoming the settlement and liquidity layer beneath existing brands, and whoever controls that layer controls the economics of the next payment cycle. Chainalysis put adjusted stablecoin volume at $28 trillion in 2025 and projected it could reach $719 trillion by 2035 on organic growth, with a more aggressive scenario approaching $1.5 quadrillion.

The grounding comes from McKinsey and Artemis, which estimate actual stablecoin payments at about $390 billion annually, a figure corroborated by BCG's $350-$550 billion range, excluding non-economic and trading flows. At those levels, stablecoins represent roughly 2.3% of Visa's $17 trillion in payments volume in 2025.

Stablecoins can reprice settlement economics at 2.3% penetration because settlement and checkout operate on separate infrastructure. Many hybrid stablecoin payment flows never appear as on-chain merchant transactions. Crypto card transactions typically execute on traditional card rails, while the blockchain captures only issuer inflows and outflows.

A stablecoin settlement layer can expand commercially without ever becoming visible at the point of sale. Three bets on the same stack Visa launched USDC settlement in the US in December 2025. By Mar. 25, its global stablecoin settlement activity had reached an annualized run rate of $4.6 billion across more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs in more than 50 countries.

Visa's own framing centered on treasury modernization and settlement efficiency, as its Canton Network effort extended that logic into payment, settlement, and treasury use cases for banks, a deliberate push to own the orchestration layer for institutional stablecoin flows. By March 2026, Bridge-enabled stablecoin-linked cards had gone live in 18 countries, with plans to reach 100-plus by year-end, and Visa was evaluating settlement optionality, faster fund movement, and simplified blockchain abstraction for institutions.

Stripe's 2025 annual letter, published Feb. 24, reported stablecoin payments volume doubled to around $400 billion, with an estimated 60% in B2B flows, while Bridge volume more than quadrupled. Bridge had won conditional OCC approval for a national trust bank covering custody, issuance, orchestration, and reserve management.

Mastercard's March 2026 agreement to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion came alongside a statement that digital currency payment use cases had already reached at least $350 billion in 2025, with the incremental opportunity in cross-border remittances, payouts, peer-to-peer transfers, and B2B payments.

Mastercard also cited speed and programmability as answers to treasury management and commercial flow pain points. Three companies, three products, and M&A strategies, one shared thesis: stablecoin settlement is embedding itself into payment infrastructure before any consumer-visible checkout revolution arrives.

CompanyMoveWhat the move saysMain use casesLikely control pointVisaUSDC settlement in the U.S.; 130+ stablecoin-linked card programs across 50+ countries; Canton Network pushStablecoins are being treated as a settlement and treasury modernization layer, not just a checkout experimentMerchant settlement, treasury operations, card-issuing orchestration, institutional settlementSettlement + orchestration layerStripe / BridgeStripe acquired Bridge; stablecoin volume around $400B in 2025; estimated 60% B2B; trust-bank path for custody, issuance, orchestration, and reservesStripe is building enterprise-grade stablecoin infrastructure for business flows, not retail-only crypto paymentsB2B payments, developer APIs, custody, issuance, reserve management, enterprise infrastructureDeveloper/compliance stackMastercard / BVNKMastercard agreed to acquire BVNK; digital-currency payment use cases at $350B+ in 2025Mastercard sees stablecoins as a way to upgrade cross-border and commercial money movement while keeping fiat connectivityCross-border remittances, payouts, P2P, B2B payments, treasury/commercial flowsCorridor distribution + commercial flows The Federal Reserve confirmed in an Apr.