Stablecoins and TradFi Drive Crypto Maturation in 2025, Says a16z

Highlights:

• The 2025 State of Crypto report shows stablecoins processed $46 trillion last year.
• The report says big banks like JPMorgan and Visa joined crypto, helping Web3 grow.
• a16z reveals growing daily use of blockchain among millions of crypto users.

According to the 2025 state of crypto report from a16z, the cryptocurrency market is witnessing increased involvement from major institutions and the emergence of stablecoins. These trends show that blockchain technology is improving fast and can support wider use. The report calls stablecoins the clearest sign that crypto is maturing. Most of the total volume comes from big financial flows, not everyday retail payments, but the numbers are still huge. These digital tokens processed $46 trillion in the past year, growing 106% from last year. 

Stablecoins See Strong Growth

According to a16z’s report, stablecoin activity is now close to the level of the U.S. Automated Clearing House (ACH), the system that handles most direct deposits, payroll, and bill payments. This shows stablecoins are starting to work at the same scale as traditional banking infrastructure. 

When filtering out artificial or bot-driven activity, stablecoins handled about $9 trillion in the past year, up 87% from last year. This is more than half of Visa’s payment volume and over five times what PayPal processed. Stablecoins were once mainly used for crypto trading. Now, they move U.S. dollars quickly, cheaply, and across borders. Most transfers settle in under a second and cost only a fraction of a cent.

The report describes stablecoins as the “backbone of the on-chain economy,” helping with remittances, global payments, and decentralized finance. The passage of the GENIUS Act in the United States has played a role in boosting the mainstream use of stablecoins.

4 takeaways from the @a16zcrypto 2025 State of Crypto report: https://t.co/SsXDt64UuO pic.twitter.com/4fqFDQWALg

— a16z (@a16z) October 22, 2025

In September 2025, monthly adjusted transactions reached $1.25 trillion, which shows real-world demand beyond crypto speculation. The total supply of stablecoins passed $300 billion. Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) make up about 87% of all tokens. Ethereum and Tron handle most transactions, processing $772 billion in September alone. A16z notes stablecoins now hold real economic weight. Over 1% of all U.S. dollars exist in tokenized form on public blockchains.

Crypto Users and Institutions Drive Web3 Growth in 2025

The report also shows that monthly active users in the web3 space have risen to between 40 and 70 million. Over the past year, the crypto user base grew by 10 million monthly active participants. Despite this growth, these users represent only a small portion of the estimated 716 million total crypto owners worldwide.

In addition, the a16z report highlighted that dozens of traditional financial institutions entered the crypto industry over the last 12 months. Notable companies include Fidelity, JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Visa. Blockchains have also expanded significantly, now processing around 3,400 transactions per second, over 100 times more than five years ago. In the past year, new crypto uses have become popular. Perpetual futures, prediction markets, and tokenization of real-world assets all grew in 2025. These show that blockchain is being used in more practical ways.