According to a research report by broker Bernstein, the stablecoin market is experiencing growth and gaining traction as a preferred option for cross-border settlements among early adopters such as payments firms, fintech companies, and consumer platforms.

With a current stablecoin supply of $150 billion, tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) dominate the market, commanding shares of 75% and 22%, respectively. Stablecoins, typically pegged to the U.S. dollar, are increasingly being utilized for cross-border transactions, indicating robust adoption within the crypto trading ecosystem.

Analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra highlight that the value settled using stablecoins on the blockchain has reached significant levels, with an annualized value transferred of $6.8 trillion in Q1 2024, closely approaching the 2022 peak of approximately $7 trillion.

The report notes notable signs of stablecoin adoption by major payments firms like Paypal and Visa, as well as consumer fintech platforms such as Grab in Singapore and Mercado Libre in Latin America.

However, despite Solana's prominence in blockchain payments, the network faces scalability challenges. The report underscores Solana's significant market share (peaking at 43%) in the value of stablecoins transferred compared to Ethereum, the previous market leader.

Solana is currently engaged in pilots with Visa and Shopify. However, the report questions whether Solana can expand into broader consumer and business-to-business payments due to scalability constraints. Achieving such expansion would necessitate a substantial increase in scalability, as consumer payment demands would require Solana's transactions per second (TPS) to grow by 15-20 times from its current level of approximately 700 TPS, while general-purpose blockchains have yet to bridge this gap.