300% Growth In High-Inflation Nations: Why Stablecoins Are Booming Where Fiat Is Failing

Experts see exponential growth in on-chain payment volumes, rising institutional engagement, and shifting regulatory frameworks as proof of stablecoins as connector between traditional finance and blockchains.

What Happened: According to Messari's "State of Stablecoins" report, transfer volumes for stablecoins now rival legacy payment networks such as ACH, and in some cases surpass volumes seen on Visa V and PayPal PYPL.

Speaking with Benzinga, Andrew Dyer, analyst at Messari and lead author of the report, points to this rapid growth as a clear marker of change.

He pointed to integrations by fintechs, neobanks, and major payments providers as enabling seamless cross-border B2B payments by routing local fiat through stablecoins and back, reducing reliance on correspondent banks and slashing fees.

This "stablecoin sandwich" model has quietly scaled to billions in monthly volumes.

"We're constantly seeing new integrations with incumbents like Visa (stablecoin-linked cards), Stripe (Stablecoin Financial Accounts in 100+ countries), and Mastercard MA (enabling stablecoin payments at 150M merchants)," Dyer added.

The regulatory backdrop is equally pivotal.

Dyer notes that although jurisdictions like the EU and Singapore have launched clear frameworks, "U.S. legislation has and will continue to set the standard globally."

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Why It Matters: With 99% of circulating stablecoins denominated in U.S. dollars and backed primarily by U.S. Treasuries, compliance infrastructure rooted in the U.S. has global spillover effects.

Addressable‘s stablecoin data for the Messari report highlights geographic disparities in stablecoin usage.

"USDT controls over 60% of the global stablecoin market, and its dominance is even more pronounced in emerging markets, where it has roughly 4.5× more users than USDC," said Dr. Asaf Nadler, COO and co-founder of Addressable, speaking with Benzinga.

He attributes this skew to early Tether partnerships with local exchanges in countries like Nigeria, Turkey, and Argentina, contrasting with USDC's more institutional U.S.-focused approach.

"Stablecoin adoption in high-inflation nations like Iran and Bangladesh has grown ~300% YoY," Nadler added.

Addressable's data model links onchain wallets to offchain identifiers, including geolocation, allowing it to surface correlations between inflation and user growth using third-party rankings like DataPandas.

The war in Ukraine further validated this model.

"Escape velocity" wallet growth was observed after the conflict began, tracked through Addressable's identity graph mapping 1.5 billion wallets to over 400 million social profiles, with 23 million matched to real identities and locations.

Dyer further said he expects stablecoin strategies to focus more on banking integrations and user incentives rather than DeFi primitives.

"Brokerages, fintechs, and neobanks may use stablecoins as a user acquisition lever," he said, noting how platforms might share yield from reserve assets with end-users.

He also emphasized that banks may prioritize tokenized deposits and custody over DeFi strategies.

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