The Stablecoin Founder Map Doesn't Match the Stablecoin Volume Map
Key takeaways
- The largest stablecoin markets on Earth are in countries where most VCs have never held a meeting.
- In 2025, stablecoin transaction volume crossed $28 trillion globally, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined.
- Nigeria alone has over 26 million crypto users, more than one in eight adults, and 59% of them hold USDT.
The Stablecoin Founder Map Doesn't Match the Stablecoin Volume Map The Stablecoin Founder Map Doesn't Match the Stablecoin Volume Map · decrypt Alex Witt Sun, June 28, 2026 at 12:01 AM GMT+7 6 min read BLK MA V Most assume the stablecoin opportunity is centered where the capital is, in New York, San Francisco, and London. The largest stablecoin markets on Earth are in countries where most VCs have never held a meeting.
In 2025, stablecoin transaction volume crossed $28 trillion globally, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined. Most founders and capital remain concentrated in the U.S. and Europe, where stablecoins remain an institutional product. That layer is already contested: BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity are moving into tokenized money markets and enterprise settlement, leaving far less room for venture-backed startups than the narrative implies.
The real demand is happening somewhere else. Nigeria alone has over 26 million crypto users, more than one in eight adults, and 59% of them hold USDT. Across Latin America, stablecoin flows represent 7.7% of regional GDP according to IMF data. The question is no longer whether emerging markets matter. The question is why so many VC portfolios still behave like that data does not exist.