Everyone rushes into stableecoins, but the numbers look … the same.
In the 2nd quarter, it felt like you couldn’t go a day without a major stableecoin message. JPMorgan launched its USD depositum on the base. Coinbase debuted his stableecoin payment stack after Shopify Partnership. Anchorage Digital acquired USDM issuer Mountain Protocol. Ubyx raised $ 10 million to StableCOin -Clearing Infrastructure. Bitcoin-based plasma filled its $ 1 billion deposit in 30 minutes. All within weeks in succession.
But despite all this activity, stableecoins remain a brutally concentrated, “winner takes the most” market. Of the approx. $ 250 billion in circulating stableecoin supply claims Tether $ 158 billion (2.5x Circle’s $ 62 billion)While USDC dwarves the third largest dollar pegged active, USDE (5.3 billion dollars)of 11x.
While yield -bearing stableecoin and tokenized treasury products such as USDE, SUSDS, BUIDL and M0 are creating new competition vectors, distribution is still winning. The ultimate winner is not determined by the highest yield from a new mechanism, but by distribution and utility. The most valuable stableecoin will be the one that is seamlessly integrated, trusted and accepted everywhere.
I have no doubt that a lot of money will continue to flow into stableecoins as “dollars on a blockchain” have established itself as one of the largest markets that can be won in crypto. While the more interesting question for me is, how do you help users use their stableecoins when they hold them?
Mini-apps: Mobile-first crypto arrives finally
For years, defense complexity has been its greatest barrier to adoption. Q2 marked a turning point as the industry was together around a new access layer: Mini apps.
- Coinbase Wallet (Builds on Farcaster Frames Frames) Invested in the renewal of Coinbase -Intogetbook for a Mini -APP platform.
- The world’s mini-app ecosystem exploded and caught Builder attention.
- Opera launched its Standalone Minipay app for iOS and Android.
The strategy is clear: Embed Defice Power in familiar, user -friendly interfaces.
Mini-apps finally draw Defi into the mobile age. Unlike previous cycles, UX is not a reflection – UX is the product. Distribution platforms are now striving to become superapp -like structures where developers are struggling to utilize in captivity user bases, like WeChat in China.
By abstracting away gas fees, seeds and hexadecimal addresses, these apps on-chain funding make available without forcing users to understand the underlying complexity.
Sophisticated capital structures return (Without baggage)
One of Q2’s most interesting developments has been the quiet return of structured products to defi.
Protocols such as Resolv, Aave’s umbrella initiative and infinifi.xyz are building products that look well -known for any tradfi professional. By offering features that mirror the tranching and promotion of dividend optimization, the differentiated risk profiles that can accommodate the specific mandates of institutional investors deliver from pension funds to corporate corporate (and defi) Treasuries.
It is a step beyond simple, high-risk yield agriculture and against a financial system that can price and allocate risk in a sophisticated way. It is the infrastructure needed to control capital in scale.
A blur of financial worlds
The difference between “crypto” and “tradfi” dissolves further.
Superstate’s opening clock platform facilitated the first direct issue of sec-registered public shares on the chain, and Kraken rolled out commission-free stock trading along with his crypto offers.
When traditional assets can go on new rails and users can access both systems from a single interface, it no longer makes sense to think about these as “crypto” or “fintech” products.
Of course, the two examples above highlight “stocks” that come to crypto, but the opposite is also true, where almost all major fintech applications have or add crypto to some capacity. The market has been moved from experimentally to significant.
Looking forward: Another kind of bull market
The Q2 2025 is likely to be remembered as the quarter when Defi stopped trying to reinvent funding and began to improve it. The StableCOin infrastructure, built by traditional institutions, the mobile first experiences that emerge through mini-apps, and the sophisticated products developed by mature protocols all point to the same conclusion: Defi has found its foot.
The acquisition activity tells the story: Strategic offers such as Privy’s exit to Stripe and Anchorage’s acquisition of Mountain Protocol continue the tendency for cryptoinfrastructure companies to be appreciated and acquired by larger players.
This is not the speculative mania from previous cycles. It is more accessible, efficient and global financial services on scale.
The Gold Rush mentality that characterized Crypto’s early years is to make room for railway building. And historically, the companies that build the railways tend to surpass those who just dig for gold.
