It’s the 61st edition of the Gems Corner, and today, we’ll be analyzing the recent surge in stablecoins usage globally, and other alphas.
Sponsored by
As the world faces more financial uncertainty, stablecoins are becoming a safe haven for a lot of people, especially in countries with unstable economies. The numbers don’t lie—more and more people are starting to rely on them for day-to-day transactions and storing value.
Interestingly, stablecoins recently hit its all-time high (ATH) as both institutions and individuals are turning to it as a means of payment and store of value. Visa, in partnership with Castle Island Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital, conducted a survey to understand stablecoin usage in developing countries like India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey, and Brazil.
Here’s the result on why more people are turning to stablecoins in the chart below:
More Reasons for the surge in popularity
Beating Inflation: In places where the local currency is rapidly losing value—like Argentina or Turkey—people are turning to stablecoins to protect their money. Dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDC and USDT are becoming the digital alternative to stashing dollars under the mattress.
Quick, Cheap Payments: Sending money across borders can be slow and expensive with traditional systems. Stablecoins, however, make it super easy to send cash instantly and with fewer fees.
Whether you're working freelance in Nigeria or sending money back home, stablecoins are making international transactions much smoother.
DeFi is Booming: The decentralized finance (DeFi) space is growing like crazy, letting people lend, borrow, and earn interest on their assets without the need for a middleman. And guess what? Stablecoins are a key part of this.
By reducing volatility, they’re helping people get more comfortable with using DeFi platforms to make money, all while keeping risk in check.
Big Players Are Joining In: Even major financial institutions and governments are starting to take stablecoins seriously. Central banks are thinking about launching their own digital currencies (CBDCs), with the US and China leading the charge. When even the big dogs start paying attention, you know it’s no longer just a crypto thing—it’s mainstream.
Sponsored by DIA
DIA announces ‘Lumina’, a brand-new oracle network, reimagined from scratch.
Lumina is a trustless oracle network that delivers data feeds for any token, LST, RWA, random numbers, and more to any blockchain.
DIA Lumina is composed of state-of-the-art modular components such as Zero-Knowledge technology, a cross-chain messaging protocol, ETH scaling solutions and more.
The network is permissionless, enabling nodes and stakers to participate in distributed data sourcing, secured by crypto-economic and cryptographic mechanisms.
DIA Lumina’s native Ethereum L2 rollup, ‘Lasernet’, executes all critical oracle operations, ensuring trustless computation and full verifiability.
However, stablecoins are not all beer and Skittles - some drawbacks are worth mentioning. Perena launched a survey on what people dislike about stablecoins, and here are the results:
Regulatory bottlenecks, lack of transparency, and high fees stood out as the primary concerns of users. Moreover, with the recent institutional adoptions, government acceptance, and innovative stablecoins initiatives coming up, most of these concerns will be melted out in the next couple of months/years.
For instance, PayPal’s PYUSD recently crossed $1 billion supply on Solana and Ethereum blockchains, respectively. This, and the growing supply on Layer 2 blockchains shows mainstream adoption.
Stablecoins Yields
If you have dormant stablecoins and looking for where to get the best yields, you can use DeFillama to filter the top ones. Ensure you do a little digging on the protocol before packing your stablecoins though, for the safety of your assets. I pack my stables on:
The rise of decentralized stablecoins is imminent, stay informed. Will probably do an issue on it. Exciting times are ahead—let’s see where this journey takes us.
Tweet of the day
Alpha Bites and Tweets
That’s a wrap.
Thanks for reading!
Viktor DeFi.
PS: I’d love to hear your feedback and comments.
