Global banks and traditional financial giants are actively integrating blockchain technology and stablecoins into their products, marking the beginning of a stablecoin arms race. This trend is accelerating as the U.S. Senate passes the GENIUS Act to regulate stablecoins.

1. Improving Regulatory Environment
   2025 has become a watershed year for stablecoin policies. The U.S. GENIUS Act and Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Ordinance have established clear regulatory frameworks, directly shifting the market from "wild growth" to "compliant competition."

Trump once noted: Stablecoins are a revolution in fintech, and the stablecoin bill is a major endorsement of cryptocurrencies. Federal Reserve Governor Waller stated: Stablecoins bring competition to payment systems but do not see them as a threat. Fed’s Musalem believes: Stablecoins are an interesting innovation in payments, and establishing a regulatory framework is a good thing. Stablecoins could become a key component of payments. U.S. Vice President Vance added: Once the GENIUS Act is implemented, it is expected to significantly expand the use of stablecoins as a digital payment system, benefiting millions of Americans. At the same time, it will protect coin holders and enhance market transparency.

2. Growing Market Demand
   Standard Chartered predicted: Currently, stablecoins account for 40% of all blockchain transaction fees, with Ethereum hosting over half of all stablecoins. By the end of 2028, the stablecoin industry is expected to grow by about 8 times.

Latest research from Coinbase shows that stablecoins are becoming a core driver of the future of finance. Record-high monthly trading volumes were set in December 2024 and April 2025, reaching $719 billion and $717.1 billion, respectively. In 2024, the total annual trading volume of stablecoins hit $27.6 trillion, surpassing Visa and Mastercard’s combined transaction volume by 7.68%. The rise of on-chain activity and accelerated global adoption mark a fundamental shift in monetary evolution, with stablecoins acting as the primary catalyst for real-world use cases.

3. Competing for Industry Influence
   According to GLG Research, nearly one-fifth of Fortune 500 executives view on-chain projects as a critical part of their corporate strategy, a 47% year-on-year increase. The essence of stablecoin chain deployment is a competition for "accounting rights" and "monetary sovereignty." By investing in stablecoin chains, giants can evolve from "crypto market participants" to "crypto rule-makers," ultimately securing a central position in the reshuffled financial system.

• Circle’s Arc, through its Malachite Consensus Mechanism and USDC-native Gas Design, has set the technical standard for "low-friction settlement" on stablecoin chains. Other institutions seeking to join the USDC ecosystem must comply with Arc’s cross-chain interfaces and fee rules.

• Tether’s Stable, with its core features of USDT as native Gas and zero-fee transfers, forces other stablecoin chains to adopt similar mechanisms to remain competitive, indirectly embedding USDT usage habits into industry standards.

• Cosmos’ Noble, leveraging the IBC protocol, has become a "hub node" for cross-chain stablecoin flows. Its "cross-chain asset verification rules" have been adopted by over 20 app chains within the Cosmos ecosystem, dominating its stablecoin cross-chain standards.

Conclusion

As regulatory signals become clearer and market demand grows, giants are no longer limited to issuing stablecoins but are setting their sights on a more ambitious goal—developing stablecoin chains. This competition over stablecoin chains is not just a battle for future financial influence but also a grand experiment guiding deeper integration between crypto technology and traditional finance.