Bitcoin Bull Market Could Last 14 More Months: Analysts Weigh In
On trading screens across the globe, they move in quiet increments — a cent up, a cent down, rarely enough to raise a pulse. Yet in the plumbing of digital markets, stablecoins are anything but passive. In the past five years, they’ve become the grease that keeps the wheels of crypto turning, the settlement layer for trades measured in milliseconds, and the bridge between blockchain rails and the traditional financial system.
And yet… they’re still not money. Not in the sense that a government-issued currency is.
If you’ve traded Bitcoin or Ethereum lately, chances are the other side of that trade wasn’t the U.S. dollar or euro, but a stablecoin — Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, or one of a growing number of rivals. On Binance alone, USDT pairs account for more than 70% of total spot volume.
The appeal is simple: speed and certainty. Stablecoins move faster than bank wires, cost less than card networks, and can settle transactions at any hour. For high-frequency traders and DeFi protocols, they’re not just convenient — they’re critical infrastructure. Liquidity providers can flip positions, manage risk, and exit to “cash” without actually leaving the blockchain.
Mike Dolan’s analysis for Reuters put it bluntly: stablecoins aren’t the headline-grabbers, but they are “the quiet currency of crypto commerce.”
In 2025, that quiet role is getting louder attention. Jurisdictions from the EU to Hong Kong have rolled out tailored stablecoin rules, requiring full reserves, real-time audits, and licensing for issuers. The U.S., still piecing together its own framework, has signaled that stablecoins will sit in a regulated category — somewhere between a payment instrument and a money market fund.
The changes have spurred consolidation. Smaller algorithmic models, once marketed as the decentralized answer to USDT, are fading out, replaced by fiat-backed players who can navigate compliance costs and banking relationships. The market share chart is tilting toward those with the deepest pockets and the strongest legal teams.
Despite their dollar pegs and growing ubiquity, stablecoins haven’t crossed the final threshold into full-fledged money. They don’t have legal tender status, and most merchants — outside the crypto bubble — won’t take them for coffee or rent. They’re still tethered (pun intended) to the banking system, dependent on regulated institutions to hold reserves and clear fiat on-ramps.
In economic terms, they’re more like shadow dollars: trusted in certain contexts, invisible in others. Traders and DeFi users treat them as cash, but in the eyes of central banks, they’re still liabilities of a private issuer, not a sovereign obligation.
This is where the conversation inevitably turns to CBDCs — central bank digital currencies. Some regulators see them as a safer alternative to private stablecoins, with the same instant settlement benefits but without the counterparty risk. Others argue that CBDCs will coexist with stablecoins, each filling different niches: the former for retail and public services, the latter for global, permissionless markets.
For now, the competition is theoretical. In practice, stablecoins are outrunning policy, integrating deeper into decentralized finance, cross-border trade, and even remittance corridors.
Ask a market maker in Singapore or a DeFi developer in Lisbon, and they’ll tell you: stablecoins are the pipes, not the water. They don’t need to be “true money” to be indispensable. As long as liquidity pools are deep, pegs are tight, and regulators don’t strangle the model, they’ll keep flowing through the system, unseen by most, essential to those who know where to look.
The irony is that the more stablecoins succeed at being invisible — just a smooth conduit for value — the more they’ll define the very architecture of the next financial era.
