The State of Crypto: The Future of Money Is Here

2025 has marked crypto’s turning point, driven by the surge of digital asset adoption, real-world tokenization, and growing institutional and small business engagement.  At the center of it all, stablecoins have emerged as the dominant force powering onchain utility and real-time, global payments. According to new research conducted for Coinbase by The Block Pro Research, organic stablecoin transfer volume has reached unprecedented levels with the two highest monthly volume transfers in history happening in the last 12 months. December 2024 set a monthly volume record of $719 billion, followed closely by April 2025’s $717.1 billion [2]. 

Consumers, institutions, and small and medium businesses (SMBs) alike have identified stablecoins as a key solution to addressing their biggest financial pain points. Use cases include remittances with near-instant and low-cost cross border transactions, lower payment processing fees, increased payroll efficiencies, inflation protection, and bridging payments gaps for the under and unbanked. 

• Stablecoins are facilitating faster money movement, updating outdated financial systems. Nearly 1 in 5 Fortune 500 executives consider onchain initiatives a key part of their company's strategy, marking a 47% year-over-year increase [3]. Additionally, 81% of crypto-aware SMBs are interested in using stablecoins to address their biggest financial pain points, including fee and transaction processing. It’s a belief that’s catching on quickly, especially with more than three times as many Fortune 500 executives now planning to use or exploring stablecoins compared to just last year.

• Crypto helps address the top financial pain points facing SMBs.  82% of SMBs say crypto can help solve at least one of the pain points their business faces, up from 68% a year ago. In 2024 the annual stablecoin transfer volume reached $27.6 trillion, surpassing a combined volume of Visa and Mastercard in 2024 by over 7.68% [4], highlighting their realized  potential for businesses as a faster, cheaper, and more scalable solution for cross-border payments.

• Regulatory clarity is the unlock for crypto’s next chapter. As we publish this report, there is an emerging patchwork quilt of legislation in the U.S., including the stablecoin bill GENIUS Act, marking momentous traction  for the industry.  It is past time for a regulatory unlock that will strengthen broader crypto and  we welcome legislation that protects consumers and encourages innovation, adoption. An overwhelming 9 in 10 Fortune 500 executives agree that clear, consistent U.S. regulation around crypto, blockchain, and onchain technologies is essential to support ongoing innovation. 

The rise of onchain activity and accelerating global adoption signal a fundamental shift in the evolution of money, with stablecoins emerging as a primary catalyst, powering real-world use cases and driving the next wave of digital financial integration. This research report is Coinbase’s latest release in our integrated campaign to educate the public about the role crypto, blockchain and other onchain technologies can play in the profound transformation of the financial system. 

Methodology

Unless otherwise footnoted, data and insights cited in this report are derived from the following sources:

Fortune 100 Initiatives: An analysis of web3 initiative activity by Fortune 100 companies from Q1 2020 to early April 2025 by The Block Pro Research. “Activity” was broadly defined to include any digital assets/blockchain-related internal company projects, investments, partnerships, product/service launches, and other similar initiatives. The Block conducted searches of publicly available information using keywords such as “crypto,” “blockchain,” “tokenization”, “NFTs,” “metaverse,” and “digital assets” across news sites, company filings, press releases and announcements. Search results were manually filtered for relevance, aggregated, and deduplicated. For each initiative in the resulting database, The Block assessed the stage of the initiative, the industry and the web3 use case it pertains to (e.g., tokenization, process automation, payments/settlement, etc.).

Web3 Adoption Survey: A survey of 100 Fortune 500 executives at the level of director and higher, who are aware of crypto and blockchain, conducted for Coinbase by GLG third-party research firm, from April 10-22, 2025. 

Small and Medium Business Survey: A survey of 251 financial decision-makers at US businesses with fewer than 500 employees who are aware of cryptocurrency, conducted for Coinbase by research firm NRG from April 14-16, 2025. 

Footnotes

1 RWA.xyz, DefiLlama

 2. Source: Allium. This excludes artificial volume from internal smart contracts, MEV bot trading, and intra-exchange flows, providing a clearer picture of genuine usage

3. Web3 Adoption Research, conducted for Coinbase by GLG Research, April 2025 

4. Source: CEX.IO. This report utilizes a diverse range of trusted sources, including DeFiLlama, Artemis, The Block, Visa/Allium, CoinGecko, CryptoQuant, Checkonchain, and GrowThePie.

Image Footnotes

1, 2, 3 Web3 Adoption Research, conducted for Coinbase by GLG Research, April 2025

4 Small and Medium Business Survey conducted for Coinbase by NRG Research, April 2025

5, 6 Allium

7 RWA.xyz