Stablecoins x AI: The next supercycle?

Our Stablecoin x AI report is out now (PDF below)

Stablecoins and AI are quietly reshaping global finance.

Stablecoin volumes hit $700B monthly, and tech giants like Google and Tether are racing to control machine-to-machine money.

The implications? A complete rewrite of the financial stack and trillion-dollar shifts in business infrastructure.

Here’s the inside scoop executives can’t afford to miss.

The Trojan Horse for Institutional Adoption

Stablecoins aren’t crypto toys. They’re the backbone of a new financial system. By April 2025, stablecoins topped a whopping $233B in circulation, growing nearly 60% YoY. USDT alone surged 91% in two years, dominating with a $144B market cap.

Why executives care:

• $1.35T transferred in 2024, proving real business adoption.

• Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe are embedding stablecoins for instant, global payments.

• 30M active stablecoin wallets as of early 2025, up 53% YoY, signaling widespread consumer and enterprise adoption.

• Stablecoins are processing about a fifth of Visa's payment volume and over a quarter of Mastercard's.

The bottom line: Stablecoins now rival traditional banks as trusted payment rails, with 60–90% lower costs than SWIFT and instant 24/7 settlements. It’s programmable money made global and composable.

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And the signals are clear:

• Tether.io hit $150B and is building AI payment rails

• Circle launched a payment network rivalling Visa & Mastercard

• Stripe launched stablecoin accounts for businesses in 100+ countries

• Ripple acquired a prime broker for $1.25B to push its own stablecoin

• Robinhood, MoonPay, Ripple are building stablecoin rails

• Visa and PayPal are integrating stablecoin payouts

• Coinbase launched a x402 internet-native payment standard

• J.P. Morgan, Citi, Wells Fargo & others are exploring a joint bank-backed stablecoin

Why it matters: We're witnessing one of those rare infrastructure flips that happen maybe once per generation. Citi predicts the stablecoin market could balloon to $3.7 trillion by 2030, positioning these digital dollars as core economic infrastructure, not speculative assets.

AI Agents Need Payment Rails

Here's where things get wild.

Coinbase, AWS, Anthropic, Circle, and NEAR just launched x402. It’s the first protocol embedding stablecoin payments directly into HTTP. No wallets, no APIs, no billing cycles. Just: "Send $0.005 per request" and data flows instantly.

Why this matters: When AI agents can directly purchase data, execute trades, and pay for services using stablecoins, we'll witness exponential acceleration in economic activity. The internet may finally have native, programmable money.

Meanwhile, Tether — the world's largest stablecoin issuer — launched Tether AI, a modular AI runtime with native USDT payments. They're not just issuing digital dollars; they're building the payment infrastructure that autonomous AI agents will use to transact with each other.

The strategic play: The blockchain AI market is projected to grow from $448.5 million in 2023 to $3.4 billion by 2032 at a 25.3% CAGR. But the real prize isn't the market size—it's owning the payment rails of AI commerce.

Google Killed Traditional E-Commerce

Google launched "Shop with AI". Checkout now happens directly in Gemini, not on websites. Shopify lost 5% market cap within hours. The $5.5T e-commerce stack is being compressed into an LLM.

Google kills the checkout

Here's the connection: AI agents taking over commerce need programmable money to transact autonomously. Stablecoins are global, real-time, API-less payment rails. Protocols like x402 + stablecoins = seamless machine-native checkout.

This isn't a UX update. It's a complete rewrite of how commerce works.

The opportunity: Integrating stablecoins into your e-commerce and CRM systems positions your brand at the intersection of AI-driven checkout, capturing agentic consumer spending first.

What’s Next

Expect a rapid, multi-trillion-dollar convergence of AI and stablecoin infrastructure. Winners in this next supercycle won’t chase crypto headlines—they’ll quietly embed stablecoin payments and AI compute into their core business systems.

The future isn't DeFi 2.0. It's the payment layer the internet never had.

Discover the full story. As a paid subscriber, you'll gain access to detailed data and insights in the full presentation.

What we cover:

• Stablecoin & Blockchain x AI market maps with top players

• The explosive growth driving stablecoins mainstream

• Why Wall Street suddenly loves stablecoins

• Tether’s unexpected pivot into AI infrastructure

• Ripple’s hidden $1.25B stablecoin strategy

• Coinbase’s protocol merging stablecoins with HTTP

• Google’s bold move reshaping e-commerce forever

• The protocol quietly merging stablecoins with HTTP

• Why crypto miners are ditching Bitcoin for AI compute

• Real-world enterprise use cases already scaling globally

• Strategic bets corporates must place now to stay ahead

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