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So said Bloomberg News, which reported Monday (July 21) on the various signs of a “retail re-engagement.” For example, Coinbase’s app had been in 25th place in Apple’s Finance category last month, but has since jumped up 20 spots.
Meanwhile, Google searches for “bitcoin” are increasing, while there was a wave of chatter on Telegram and Discord leading up to President Donald Trump’s signing of the three cryptocurrency-related bills last week.
However, the report added that the picture is a bit more complicated. Consumer interest in crypto is returning, but the recent market rally is being driven by institutional investors.
Much of the re-engagement began last month when stablecoin issuer Circle went public, Chris Rhine, head of liquid active strategies at Galaxy Digital, told Bloomberg.
“It’s encouraged all investors to get re-engaged — small retail to large institutions,” Rhine said. “We have institutions calling us now, asking how to position around stablecoins. The sense of urgency is there.”
All the same, the report added, the urgency has not yet carried over to retail trading. For example, Coinbase’s trading volumes are projected to have fallen, while downloads for that exchange’s wallet app have declined as well.
Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote Monday about the landscape surrounding stablecoins following the passage of the GENIUS Act, and what that could mean for B2B and enterprise payments.
“Stablecoins were never meant to replace your credit card at the corner store. That’s a nice story for crypto optimists, but it misses the real utility taking shape in the shadows of the global economy,” that report said. “Where central banks wobble, currencies inflate and cross-border wires take days, stablecoins offer something more basic: a dollar global firms can actually use.”
With the GENIUS Act stablecoins gain legal legitimacy, as long as they “play by traditional financial rules of 1:1 reserve backing, anti-money laundering (AML) compliance, and dual charter options through state or federal regulators,” PYMNTS added.
While stablecoins won’t supplant Visa or replace the dollar, they could transform the way global enterprises access, store and move their money.
Currency.com CEO Konstantin Anissimov told PYMNTS in an interview in May that there has been “a big shift in terms of adoption of stablecoin payments that is being driven by uncertainty in geopolitics.”
“I am personally seeing a big increase of small to medium enterprises utilizing stablecoin payments because banking rails are harder and harder to use,” Anissimov said.
