Layer One: Rain and Uptop on building a billion-dollar stablecoin business

Landmark report shows stablecoins increasingly integrated into everyday finance

This week a new report on global stablecoin usage was released by BVNK, in partnership with YouGov, Coinbase and Artemis. The Stablecoin Utility Report 2026 reveals a broad range of burgeoning use cases for the everyday crypto user: savings, shopping and salary payments. What it shows is that, as the global stablecoin supply continues to rise above $300 billion, these funds are being increasingly integrated into everyday finance for normal consumers.

Our podcast guests this week were two of the figures spearheading this trend. Stablecoin infrastructure firm Rain has spent the last five years establishing crypto-native payment rails that over 200 partners now build on. Many of these are issuers of crypto debit and credit cards, one of the fastest-growing use cases for stablecoin payments: 71% of stablecoin holders polled reported using a card to spend their tokens (or having an interest in doing so).

These numbers rise sharply in lower-income countries, suggesting that the appetite for stablecoins is highest where trust in traditional banking systems is weak. Nigeria is the clearest case study for this trend. There, 87% of respondents said they already own stablecoins, far higher than the US rate of 52%. Nigeria's affinity for digital assets is largely down to the massive devaluation of the local currency: from March 2023 to today, the Nigerian naira lost almost 70% of its value against the dollar. Meanwhile, stablecoin usage skyrocketed, with tens of billions of dollars in payments processed each year.

That’s the sort of mass adoption that Yoo-Naut and Gomez foresee for the rest of the world (but driven by convenience and cost-effectiveness, rather than economic crisis). Recognizing and riding this wave is how Rain was able to complete a $250 million fundraising round last year, at a valuation just shy of $2 billion. The firm now plans to expand its coverage worldwide.

There are still some hurdles to be overcome. Gomez outlined some of the major friction points still present in stablecoin onboarding: fees, risk controls, wait times and fragmented liquidity across dozens of different issuers. Although, as more everyday finance comes onchain, these issues will naturally become less relevant. As Yoo-Naut put it: “Once you’re getting your payroll onchain, you don’t really think about on-ramping, because you’re already there.”

That will likely become more common in future, with crypto firms such as MoonPay already beginning to offer payroll services, and 89% of respondents in the YouGov survey expressing a willingness to receive their salary in stablecoins. And interestingly, more than 20% already held half or more of their personal savings in stablecoins, signalling that onchain assets are being increasingly used for more than just speculation.

Of course, since these survey respondents were all existing or prospective crypto users, the figures are somewhat skewed. It’s difficult to infer how stablecoins will be received among a general public that is, on average, less tech-savvy and more risk-averse. However, according to Yoo-Naut the vast majority of future stablecoin users won’t even know they’re users: more and more fintech firms and neobanks will simply rewire their products to run on stablecoin rails under the hood.

Stablecoins could therefore soon become the default payment infrastructure for the majority of everyday finance, without the average user ever realizing it.

Podcast Recap: Rain and Uptop on Stablecoin Rewards

In the Headlines: The stories driving the conversation this week

• Stablecoin platform Bridge has received conditional approval for a national banking charter. The firm — which was acquired by payments giant Stripe last year — is one of several major crypto companies moving to establish themselves as federally regulated banks, including Ripple and Circle. This regulatory oversight would allow Bridge to offer a broader lineup of stablecoin custody, issuance and management services.
• TD Cowen has suggested that Trump could fill vacant Democratic CFTC and SEC seats to advance the Senate’s crypto bill. The investment bank argued this could form one half of a compromise that would see Democratic lawmakers abandon key conflict-of-interest provisions targeting the president’s personal crypto ventures. However, the dispute over stablecoin yields, which saw negotiations grind to a halt last month, would nonetheless remain.
• Avalanche’s Build Games kicks off on February 20, with $1 million in prizes up for grabs. The six-week contest will see teams of crypto-native builders competing to bring their ideas for the AVAX ecosystem to market, from core infrastructure to experimental consumer dApps. A grand prize of $100,000 will go the the team that best realizes their vision, with further prizes on offer for the best in each category. 

Top of the Charts: Total stablecoin supply dominated by the USDT-USDC duopoly

Keep up with the latest in tokenization, DeFi, and institutional adoption by subscribing to Layer One's weekly market insights.

Layer One is brought to you in collaboration with Avalanche.