Table of Contents

Preface

1. What is a Stablecoin Public Chain

1.1 The Motivation Behind the Proposal of Stablecoin Public Chains

1.2 Value Distribution of Stablecoins on Public Chains

1.3 The Concept of Stablecoin Public Chains

1.4 Stablecoin Public Chains vs Traditional Public Chains

2. Typical Projects

2.1 Plasma

2.2 Stable

2.3 Arc (Circle)

2.4 Tempo (Stripe)

2.5 Comparative Analysis of Ecosystems Driven by Mainstream Stablecoins

3. Economic Models and Ecological Design of Stablecoin Public Chains

4. Evolution of Payment Systems and Analysis of Stablecoin Public Chains

5. The Impact of Regulation and Compliance on Stablecoin Public Chains

6. Competitive Landscape and Development Projection

6.1 Current Status of the Stablecoin Public Chain Track

6.2 On-chain Game Between Tether, Circle, and Payment Giants

6.3 Competitive Landscape of Stablecoin Public Chains and Traditional Public Chains

6.4 Development Projection

7. Challenges and Prospects

References

Preface

In recent years, stablecoins have become one of the core asset classes in the crypto financial system. Dollar-pegged stablecoins represented by USDT and USDC have a total market capitalization exceeding $100 billion, serving not only as the primary settlement and quotation asset in secondary market trading but also gradually penetrating broader scenarios such as cross-border payments, on-chain finance, and corporate fund management. With the introduction of stablecoin-related policies in recent years, the importance of stablecoins is expected to further amplify in the future.

Therefore, stablecoins are not only an important bridge between Web3 and traditional finance but may also largely determine the future shape and development direction of Web3. In the competitive landscape of public chains, the chain that can attract and retain the most stablecoins will typically form the strongest financial ecosystem, thus gaining an advantage in application innovation, capital flow, and user stickiness.

However, looking at the existing public chain ecosystem, stablecoins play a very important role. Whether in the collateral and settlement of DeFi protocols, as the main trading pairs on centralized exchanges, or as the circulating medium for on-chain payments, stablecoins are at the core of value transmission. Yet, the current public chains that primarily support stablecoins, such as Ethereum, TRON, and Solana, were not originally designed specifically for stablecoins, which may lead to certain limitations in performance, compliance, and ecological compatibility. Historical experience tells us that the success factors for stablecoins are not complex financial designs but rather simple, stable, low-cost, high-performance infrastructures that are scalable and compliant.

Against this backdrop, the stablecoin public chain track carries the expectation of providing tailored infrastructure for stablecoins. Its goal is to address the shortcomings of existing public chains in terms of cost, efficiency, compliance, and ecological binding, thereby promoting stablecoins into larger-scale applications. However, at the same time, how to ensure asset stability, sustainable liquidity, and build a truly usable ecological network within a regulatory framework is a question that stablecoin public chains must consider. Stablecoin public chains are at a moment of great opportunity and challenge.

1. What is a Stablecoin Public Chain

1.1 The Motivation Behind the Proposal of Stablecoin Public Chains

The proposal of stablecoin public chains arises from various practical needs and development motivations. The mainstream public chains that stablecoins rely on, such as Ethereum and TRON, were not specifically tailored for stablecoins. This external dependency brings some issues: high Gas costs, transaction performance bottlenecks, fragmented cross-chain experiences, and uncertainties in compliance regulation. Thus, designing a public chain specifically for stablecoins has become a trend aimed at creating a more stable and reliable infrastructure.

Stablecoin public chains attempt to achieve an integrated ecological closed loop by enabling the issuance, circulation, settlement, and application of stablecoins all on the same chain. This not only enhances efficiency but also strengthens the self-consistency and security of the ecosystem. The demands of financial institutions and payment giants are also driving this direction, as they seek a compliant chain with a complete identity system and regulatory interfaces to meet the requirements of compliant operations.

Overall, the core objectives of stablecoin public chains can be summarized in three aspects. First, to provide stable, low-cost, and high-speed payment capabilities to address the pain points of existing public chains in terms of performance and costs. Second, to ensure compliance and traceability to meet the usage needs of financial institutions and payment giants in a regulatory environment. Third, to possess programmable financial capabilities, allowing it to simultaneously support applications such as DeFi, RWA, and compliant payment APIs on-chain. With these features, stablecoin public chains are expected to become an important bridge connecting crypto finance and the real financial system.

1.2 Value Distribution of Stablecoins on Public Chains

Stablecoins are not only the core pricing and settlement tools of the Web3 ecosystem but also create considerable economic value on public chains. Taking USDT as an example, its largest circulating public chains are Ethereum and TRON. According to data statistics, the Gas fees generated from USDT transactions on Ethereum over the past year amount to approximately $50 million to $100 million. This portion of transaction fees directly contributes to the income of blockchain validators and indirectly forms the ecological value of the public chain.

Similarly, USDC's circulation on Ethereum accounts for over 60%, with the Gas fees generated from USDC transactions on Ethereum exceeding $50 million for the entire year. This further illustrates the significant on-chain economic activity generated by large stablecoins on mainstream public chains, and their fee income is of great importance to the public chain and the entire ecosystem.

However, despite such enormous fee income, the issuers of USDT and USDC, Tether and Circle, cannot profit from it, as all fees flow to the public chains they are on. Therefore, stablecoin issuers want to build their own public chains not only to create their own ecological closed loop but also to reclaim their own traffic and wealth.

1.3 The Concept of Stablecoin Public Chains

A stablecoin public chain refers to a blockchain network specifically designed around the issuance, circulation, and application of stablecoins. It differs from traditional general-purpose public chains, which aim to support all types of applications, focusing instead on the efficient circulation and sustainable operation of stablecoins.

Currently, stablecoin public chains mainly present two development paths:

• Stablecoin-driven chains: Driven by stablecoin project teams or related teams, with stablecoins as the core driving force of the on-chain economy, such as projects like Plasma and Stable. Their design focuses on reducing transaction costs, improving TPS, and providing tailored infrastructure for stablecoins.

• Stablecoin issuer-led chains: Led by large stablecoin issuers or payment giants, such as a chain that may be launched by payment giant Stripe in the future. The advantage of such chains lies in their ability to directly integrate compliance frameworks, identity systems, and payment interfaces, naturally aligning with the needs of institutional users and cross-border payments.

Stablecoin public chains differ from general public chains in their broad coverage, instead forming a focus and deep cultivation around this key asset.

1.4 Stablecoin Public Chains vs Traditional Public Chains

In the existing blockchain ecosystem, general public chains like Ethereum, TRON, and Solana carry most of the circulation and settlement of stablecoins. However, the design goals of these public chains are to build a comprehensive ecosystem of multi-assets and multi-applications, with stablecoins being just one of the core assets. Therefore, the development of stablecoins is inevitably constrained by external environments, such as high Gas fees, limited TPS, fragmented cross-chain experiences, and uncertainties in compliance adaptation.

Compared to general public chains like Ethereum and TRON, the unique value of stablecoin public chains lies in their optimization of the operating environment for stablecoins from the ground up. First, in terms of cost, stablecoin public chains can support micro-payments and high-frequency trading, significantly lowering the usage threshold for users. Second, some stablecoin public chains are designed with reserved identity verification and regulatory interfaces, naturally aligning with the compliance requirements of financial institutions and payment companies. More importantly, stablecoin public chains can integrate issuance, circulation, settlement, and application on the same chain, forming a complete closed-loop ecosystem, thereby reducing cross-chain friction and enhancing overall efficiency and security.

These characteristics determine that the potential user base of stablecoin public chains is also very clear. Payment companies and financial institutions are the most direct beneficiaries, as they hope to integrate stablecoins into payment and settlement networks within a compliant environment; stablecoin issuers can reduce their reliance on external public chains and gain control over transaction experiences and compliance; for exchanges and financial applications, stablecoin public chains mean a more efficient and lower-cost settlement infrastructure, helping to enhance user experience.

2. Typical Projects

2.1 Plasma

Layer 1 Infrastructure Designed for Stablecoins

Plasma is a Layer 1 blockchain infrastructure specifically designed for stablecoin payments, with its core design goal being the efficiency and low cost of stablecoin transfers. It is deeply integrated with the Tether/USDT ecosystem, receiving official support and resources from the Tether ecosystem.

Functionally, Plasma places USDT at its core, supporting zero-fee USDT transfers and boasting high throughput to meet large-scale payment and application needs. This distinguishes it from traditional public chains like Ethereum and TRON: the former targets general assets and diverse applications, while the latter focuses on the efficient circulation of stablecoins and institutional-level payment scenarios.

In terms of underlying architecture, Plasma operates as an independent Layer 1 public chain with its own consensus and security mechanisms. Its PlasmaBFT consensus mechanism is a hybrid model combining PoS (Proof of Stake) and BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance):

• Validators are selected through PoS and maintain an incentive mechanism;

• BFT protocols achieve second-level transaction finality, avoiding block rollbacks, particularly suitable for payment and settlement scenarios.

Additionally, Plasma is fully compatible with EVM, allowing developers to directly use Solidity to deploy smart contracts and utilize existing Ethereum toolchains, such as MetaMask, significantly reducing migration and integration costs.

Moreover, Plasma periodically anchors the state root (or checkpoints, summaries) to the Bitcoin network, leveraging Bitcoin's immutability and decentralization to enhance trust assurance. This anchoring mechanism does not put all transactions on-chain but provides an external "verification endorsement," thereby improving the system's resistance to attacks or disputes while maintaining the flexibility of its independent public chain. Writing the state root into the Bitcoin chain means that even if Plasma's validators or network encounter issues, it may still verify, resolve disputes, and trace operations through the anchoring records on the Bitcoin chain. This "anchoring" design allows it to leverage Bitcoin's anti-tampering security properties to some extent.

Plasma Functional Highlights: Zero Gas Fee USDT Transfers, Accepting USDT, BTC, and XPL for Gas Payments

In terms of functional highlights, Plasma achieves zero Gas fee USDT transfers. Other operations such as smart contract interactions, DeFi applications, NFTs, etc., are not completely free. For contract calls and complex operations, users still need to pay Gas.

However, Plasma supports using USDT or BTC to pay for Gas, avoiding the need for users to hold native tokens for transactions, which significantly lowers the threshold. The BTC here is not the native BTC on the Bitcoin main chain but is brought onto the Plasma chain through a cross-chain bridge, generating mapped assets (such as pBTC), which are then converted into the network-required Gas (XPL) based on real-time prices by the Paymaster contract. This way, users only need to hold BTC to complete transfers, DeFi, or contract interactions on Plasma. At the same time, Plasma also allows users to use the native token XPL to pay for Gas, providing users with diverse options.

Its self-developed PlasmaBFT consensus mechanism enables it to achieve a throughput capacity of thousands of TPS, with transaction confirmation times of less than one second, meeting the performance needs for high-frequency payments and cross-border settlements. The platform also introduces regulated confidential transaction features, enhancing privacy while balancing compliance requirements.

Figure 1. Plasma performance. Source: https://www.plasma.to/

Strategic Position of USDT in Plasma

Plasma is a public chain tailored for USDT, establishing USDT as the core asset from the outset of its design. Its core functions, including payments, transfers, TVL locking, and the on-chain ecosystem, revolve almost entirely around USDT. Particularly, the zero Gas USDT transfer feature provided by Plasma significantly lowers the user entry barrier and has become an important selling point for attracting traffic. In this model, USDT is no longer just an asset within the network but a key hub supporting the operation and ecological expansion of Plasma. Additionally, with the support of Tether, the issuer of USDT, Plasma aims to achieve a complete closed loop from user scale to liquidity accumulation and application expansion, thereby positioning itself as the main venue for stablecoins.

Plasma Native Token XPL

The native token XPL of Plasma is the core asset of the entire network. XPL serves as one of the main Gas tokens for paying transaction fees, as well as a staking asset within the network's consensus mechanism, while also fulfilling governance and ecological incentive roles. The initial total supply of the token is 10 billion, with a distribution structure covering public sales, ecological funds, teams, and investors, and a phased unlocking mechanism designed to balance early development with long-term incentives.

Figure 2. Plasma native token XPL. Source: https://www.plasma.to/insights/xpl-the-public-sale-and-its-role-in-the-plasma-ecosystem

Compared to traditional public chains, one major innovation of Plasma is the introduction of a multi-asset Gas model. In addition to the native XPL, users can also directly use BTC and USDT to pay transaction fees when transferring or interacting with contracts on the network. This design significantly lowers the user entry barrier, allowing users holding mainstream assets to smoothly experience DeFi, cross-chain transfers, and other functions without needing to prepare XPL, thereby enhancing Plasma's connectivity and usability within the Bitcoin and stablecoin ecosystems.

Figure 3. Plasma XPL emissions. Source: https://www.plasma.to/insights/xpl-the-public-sale-and-its-role-in-the-plasma-ecosystem

In August 2025, Plasma partnered with Binance to launch the "Plasma USDT Locked Product," an on-chain yield product aimed at users locking USDT on the Binance Earn platform, allowing users to earn daily USDT returns and share in airdrop rewards of 100 million XPL (accounting for 1% of the total supply). After the product was launched, the initial quota of 250 million USDT was snapped up in less than an hour, and Binance subsequently expanded the total quota to 1 billion USDT, opening multiple rounds of quotas to meet market demand, fully demonstrating the strong market interest in this stablecoin ecological token.

On September 25, 2025, the Plasma native token XPL was listed on several top exchanges such as Binance and OKX, attracting significant market attention right from the opening. Within less than a week of its launch, its market capitalization surpassed $2.7 billion, entering the top 50 in CMC market cap rankings, confirming the market's strong expectations for its positioning as a "stablecoin public chain + low-cost payment." However, it is important to note that the initial price increase of XPL is highly dependent on market sentiment, liquidity injection, and the momentum of exchange listings. Short-term selling pressure, unlocking of locked assets, and new user sell-offs are uncertain factors that may exert pressure on the price.

Figure 4. XPL price. Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/plasma-xpl/

Potential Advantages of Plasma: Locking in the Largest Global Stablecoin User Traffic

Plasma has received support from several heavyweight institutions, including Tether, Bitfinex, Founders Fund, Framework Ventures, Flow Traders, and DRW, and raised approximately $24 million in Series A funding in February 2025, with total funding reaching $27.5 million. During the public sale phase of the token XPL, Plasma demonstrated strong market appeal. In July 2025, Plasma successfully completed its public token sale (XPL), raising approximately $373 million, far exceeding the original target of $50 million, with oversubscription exceeding 7 times, and the project valuation was around $500 million.

Figure 5. Plasma public sale data. Source: https://x.com/PlasmaFDN/status/1949826471238783140

The Plasma testnet officially launched on July 15, 2025, marking a critical phase for the project. The testnet employs a high-performance PlasmaBFT consensus mechanism and a Rust version of the EVM execution layer, compatible with Solidity contracts and mainstream development tools, allowing developers to directly access it through wallets like MetaMask. The network supports tokens like BTC and USDT for fee payments and has opened faucets to receive test tokens XPL for contract deployment and transaction testing. Currently, several wallets, including OKX Wallet and Bitget Wallet, have integrated the testnet, further lowering the participation threshold for developers and users.

On September 25, 2025, Plasma officially launched the Beta version of its mainnet and simultaneously completed the TGE event for the native token XPL. The official announcement stated that over $2 billion in stablecoin liquidity would be activated on the launch day, with deployments in protocols like Aave, including a liquidity stress test of $1 billion in USDT to establish market benchmarks and verify stability. In the early stages of the launch, Plasma allocated 25 million XPL to small deposit users and validators, reserving 2.5 million for the "Stablecoin Collective," while also implementing zero-fee USDT transfers as an ecological feature. As of September 28, within less than a week of its launch, according to Defillama data, the TVL on the Plasma mainnet Beta reached $4.9 billion, with the highest TVL coming from AAVE. This also reflects the large-scale migration of stablecoins onto the Plasma network and the release of genuine demand.

Figure 6. Plasma TVL data. Source: https://defillama.com/chain/plasma

Through the design of gas-free USDT transfers, Plasma captures the core demands of the largest stablecoin user base globally: low cost and high efficiency. Driven by both locked funds and user traffic, Plasma is expected to form an ecological closed loop centered around stablecoins, further consolidating its position in cross-border payments, on-chain settlements, and financial applications.

Plasma Ecological Cooperation

According to official announcements from Plasma and various media reports, Plasma has announced strategic partnerships with the African payment platform Yellow Card and Turkey's BiLira Kripto, aiming to promote the gas-free USDT transfer experience and facilitate the interoperability between local fiat currencies and stablecoins. If these collaborations materialize, they will support the expansion of Plasma's application scenarios in emerging markets. However, it is important to note that, as of now, no publicly verifiable on-chain transaction data has been found to confirm that these collaborations are operational or generating real capital flows.

Reports indicate that Plasma is also advancing deep cooperation with DeFi leader Curve Finance, planning to support the StableSwap AMM mechanism at the mainnet launch to provide low-slippage, high-capital-efficiency stablecoin exchange services. StableSwap is an automated market-making protocol launched by Curve, designed specifically for stablecoins or assets with similar prices, allowing for minimal price fluctuations and controllable transaction costs during large exchanges. With this mechanism, Plasma can connect assets like USDT to StableSwap pools, enhancing cross-asset liquidity and usage efficiency. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has publicly stated that this integration has "unparalleled growth opportunity" potential. Currently, there are no on-chain transactions or contract data indicating that this integration has been fully launched, and further observation and verification are needed in subsequent technical disclosures and on-chain monitoring.

With the launch of the Plasma mainnet beta version, the collaboration between Plasma and Ethena Labs officially commenced on September 25, 2025, incorporating Ethena Labs' synthetic stablecoin USDe and its staking version sUSDe into Plasma's DeFi ecosystem. Users participating in specific activities on the Plasma network can earn USDe rewards to enhance network activity and participation. Plasma has integrated with DeFi protocols such as Aave, Curve, Balancer, and Fluid, supporting liquidity provision and lending functions for USDe and sUSDe. Users can also bridge USDe to the Plasma network through the Plasma native interface or Stargate Finance.

On Plasma, USDe and sUSDe are used as core assets in DeFi. For example, on the Aave platform, users can deposit USDe or sUSDe to earn Ethena points and participate in Liquid Leverage strategies, enabling the cyclical operation of stablecoins to enhance yields. Additionally, users providing liquidity on platforms like Curve, Balancer, and Fluid can also earn points, which can be used for participating in Plasma network governance or redeeming other incentives. Through this approach, Plasma deeply embeds USDe and sUSDe into its DeFi ecosystem, significantly enhancing network liquidity and user participation.

Figure 7. AAVE Plasma Market. Source: https://app.aave.com/markets/?marketName=proto_plasma_v3

In addition, Plasma has become a partner of Uranium Digital for on-chain infrastructure, providing on-chain settlement and transparency support for the world's first 24/7 uranium trading platform. Through the combination of these regional payment links and DeFi applications, the Plasma ecosystem is constructing a complete closed loop from payment users to on-chain financial applications.

Current Focus of Plasma Ecosystem on DeFi

Since the launch of the Plasma mainnet beta version on September 25, 2025, its ecosystem has developed rapidly, with TVL surpassing $5 billion in less than a week. Among this, over $4.5 billion of the funds come from Aave, with USDT remaining the primary asset. Additionally, DeFi protocols such as Fluid, Euler, and Balancer have also contributed significant liquidity to the ecosystem.

Figure 8. Plasma protocol ranking. Source: https://defillama.com/chain/plasma

It can be seen that the current Plasma ecosystem mainly revolves around stablecoin liquidity, payments, and lending in various DeFi protocols. According to official disclosures from Plasma, partnerships have been established with over 100 DeFi protocols. Despite the numerous partners, the Plasma ecosystem is still in its early stages, with assets highly concentrated in USDT, indicating that the richness of the ecosystem needs further development and improvement.

In addition to DeFi protocols, as of the end of September 2025, the meme coin project Trillions (TRILLIONS) on the Plasma chain has also become a highlight of the ecosystem, attracting widespread attention due to its market performance. Initially launched as a joke project with a "trillion market cap dream," Trillions quickly gained attention in the crypto community, with the official slogan "Charge towards a trillion," and deployed the TRILLIONS token on the Plasma chain. Within just a few days, Trillions' market cap briefly surpassed $50 million, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $25 million and over 4,500 unique addresses participating in trading. This also represents the preliminary development of the meme coin ecosystem on the Plasma chain, attracting a large number of users.

Overall, the Plasma ecosystem is rapidly expanding, and through collaborations with multiple core DeFi projects, it is expected to play an important role in stablecoin payments and DeFi applications, providing users with a comprehensive experience of liquidity, yield, and payments.

Potential Risks

Although Plasma's core selling point is the gas-free USDT native transfers, its operational costs ultimately need to be borne by the foundation or token subsidies. Whether a sustainable economic model can be formed in the long term is a key issue.

In terms of compliance, Plasma's core advantage lies in its binding to USDT traffic, but this also means it is highly dependent on Tether's compliance robustness. If USDT faces regulatory crackdowns in certain jurisdictions, Plasma will inevitably be affected. Additionally, while Plasma emphasizes targeting payment and institutional users, its identity verification, anti-money laundering, and compliance interface construction are still not sufficiently transparent.

Plasma explicitly mentions in its technical architecture that it supports developers in deploying compliance-oriented smart contracts, including KYC layers, transfer restrictions, and other functions, indicating that Plasma has the technical capability to support compliance. However, as of now, Plasma's official social media channels have not publicly disclosed any collaborations with specialized KYC/AML or payment compliance projects. This indicates that while Plasma has the technical capability to support compliance, the infrastructure aimed at compliance within its ecosystem is still in the process of gradual improvement and requires further disclosure and development.

Ecological and liquidity risks are also worth noting. Currently, the total locked value in Plasma is primarily composed of USDT, leading to a concentration of assets and a lack of diversification. If USDT's liquidity experiences fluctuations, the on-chain activity of Plasma will also be directly impacted. Although Plasma has already collaborated with DeFi protocols like AAVE and Ethena, its application layer is currently mainly focused on DeFi protocols, and the richness of its application layer still lags behind mainstream public chains like Ethereum and Solana. The improvement of its ecosystem and the diversity of applications will require time to develop.

Finally, while Plasma has received substantial funding support in its public offering, the value capture logic of its token under the gas-free model has not been fully validated. If a clear value support cannot be established, the token may be more susceptible to speculative capital, leading to significant price volatility.

2.2 Stable

Layer 1 Public Chain Designed for USDT

Stable is a high-performance Layer 1 public chain specifically built for USDT, aiming to provide a high-speed, low-cost, and low-latency stablecoin trading network. It is not aimed at multiple tokens but focuses on USDT trading and settlement scenarios, balancing dedicated blockchain space for enterprises and compliant privacy trading solutions to support enterprise-level payment and clearing needs.

In terms of consensus mechanism, Stable's official documentation states that it will adopt StableBFT, a customized PoS protocol based on CometBFT, compatible with Ethereum EVM, designed to provide high throughput, low latency, and strong reliability in network experience. StableBFT ensures security through Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) mechanisms and allows nodes to process proposals in parallel, breaking through the traditional single-leader model to improve transaction confirmation speed. To further optimize performance, Stable plans to separate data propagation from the consensus process, enabling transactions to be directly broadcast to block proposers, accelerating finality. The official information regarding staking assets on Stable has not yet been provided.

Stable achieves sub-second block confirmation, supporting high throughput, low costs, and rapid settlement, while providing dedicated blockchain space for enterprises and compliant privacy trading solutions. By optimizing transaction execution, state storage, and batch processing, Stable ensures the efficiency and low latency of on-chain transactions.

On Stable, USDT can be natively used to pay for gas and on-chain settlements, allowing users to avoid holding other tokens and not being troubled by the high fees and transaction delays of traditional public chains. This public chain has optimized the underlying structure for stablecoin use cases, addressing issues such as fee volatility, limited transaction speed, high costs for enterprise integration, complex user experiences, and insufficient dollarized financial services in certain regions.

Stable is an independent Layer 1 public chain that builds a complete ecosystem from the ground up, focusing more on the actual payment and settlement functions of stablecoins, allowing USDT to circulate on-chain as efficiently and securely as cash.

USDT-Specific Features of Stable

The core design of Stable is to enable USDT to circulate on-chain like cash, with functionalities centered around reducing transfer friction, enhancing throughput, and improving transaction predictability.

It employs a dual-token mechanism of USDT0 and gasUSDT: gasUSDT is the native gas token on the chain, specifically used to pay for the fees of blockchain operations; while users primarily use USDT0 in their daily transactions. USDT0 is a cross-chain stablecoin asset based on LayerZero, maintaining a 1:1 peg with standard USDT, and leveraging the OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) standard to circulate directly across different blockchains without the need for traditional bridging or multi-pool liquidity splitting, thus integrating the USDT liquidity across different chains.

Figure 9. gasUSDT & USDT0 on Stable. Source: https://docs.stable.xyz/en/architecture/usdt-specific-features/usdt-as-gas-token

On Stable, users only need to hold USDT0 to complete most operations. The protocol automatically converts gasUSDT through account abstraction, simplifying the user experience. Additionally, peer-to-peer USDT0 transfers are completely fee-free, lowering the payment threshold.

For enterprise users, Stable has designed dedicated block space to maintain transaction stability and predictability even during network congestion. At the same time, the USDT Transfer Aggregator can batch process a large number of USDT0 transfers, enhancing overall throughput without affecting other transactions. In the future, Stable also plans to introduce confidential transfer features, utilizing zero-knowledge encryption to hide transfer amounts while retaining necessary compliance and auditability, providing higher privacy protection for enterprises.

Overall, the USDT-specific features of Stable not only optimize daily payment and cross-chain efficiency but also provide a controllable on-chain environment for enterprise applications, allowing USDT to circulate more efficiently and securely on-chain while reducing the complexity of use for both users and developers.

Stable Roadmap: Phased Performance Enhancements

The core goal of Stable is to make the use of USDT on-chain faster, more convenient, and more stable. To achieve this, it has proposed a phased technical roadmap, progressing from basic usability to performance optimization and then to extreme scalability.

Figure 10. Stable Roadmap. Source: https://docs.stable.xyz/en/introduction/technical-roadmap

In the first phase, Stable focuses on lowering the usage threshold. It reduces the complexity of user operations regarding fees and token switching by allowing USDT to be used directly as gas fees on-chain. Additionally, the accompanying wallet and user-friendly address system enable users to transfer and receive payments more simply, akin to using everyday payment tools.

Entering the second phase, Stable begins to enhance transaction efficiency. It aims to allow transactions to be processed in parallel and executed in batches, maintaining low latency and low costs during high-frequency payments and large enterprise settlements. At the same time, it will provide dedicated channels for institutional users to ensure stable processing of critical business even during network congestion.

Finally, Stable plans to achieve comprehensive high performance in the third phase. By upgrading the underlying consensus mechanism and execution engine, it hopes to reach throughput levels far exceeding those of traditional public chains, while providing efficient access interfaces to offer reliable infrastructure support for developers and enterprises.

Overall, Stable's roadmap prioritizes usability first, then gradually enhances efficiency, and finally pursues extreme performance. This phased approach not only meets the current application needs of stablecoins but also lays the foundation for larger-scale payment and financial scenarios in the future.

Current Development Status of Stable

Currently, the core technical framework of Stable has been largely completed, with the launch dates for the testnet and mainnet yet to be announced. Key features such as native USDT payments, sub-second transaction confirmations, EVM compatibility, and gas-free USDT0 transfers will be realized. These developing capabilities lay the groundwork for Stable's future applications in payment, consumption, and settlement scenarios.

In terms of marketing, Stable has received investment support from institutions including Bitfinex, Hack VC, and Franklin Templeton, as well as backing from Tether, with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino also supporting the project. These funds will be used to build network infrastructure, expand the workforce, and increase the global distribution of USDT.

On the application conceptual level, Stable positions itself as a dedicated infrastructure for USDT payments, lowering user thresholds through its native gas architecture and gas-free model, while also providing integration efficiency for merchants and institutions. However, the ecosystem is still in its nascent stage, with no publicly available user data or actual case studies. This means that while Stable's payment chain has technical potential, whether it can achieve "USDT circulating on-chain like cash" still requires observation of specific application implementations and market adoption progress.

Differences in Positioning Between Plasma and Stable

Both Plasma and Stable are public chains supported by Tether, centered around USDT as the core asset, but they differ in technical architecture and target positioning. Plasma is an independent EVM-compatible Layer 1 public chain that employs a high-performance consensus mechanism and a Rust execution engine, capable of providing extremely high throughput and low-latency experiences. Additionally, it periodically anchors the on-chain state root (or checkpoints, summaries) to the Bitcoin network, leveraging Bitcoin's immutability and decentralization to enhance trust assurance. Its design intent is to address performance bottlenecks in high-frequency trading, cross-border payments, and DeFi applications, balancing security and efficiency.

In contrast, Stable (Stablechain) is a brand new independent Layer 1 blockchain that uses USDT as its native gas token, focusing on payment and settlement scenarios. It optimizes the daily payment experience through sub-second confirmations and extremely low transaction costs, leaning more towards enterprise and compliance application needs.

While both chains center around USDT, they present a complementary and competitive landscape in practical applications. Plasma promotes security performance and ties to the Bitcoin ecosystem, likely capturing market share in high-frequency use cases such as DeFi, merchant settlements, and cross-chain transactions; whereas Stable focuses on payment experience, suitable for small payments, enterprise settlements, and cross-border clearing scenarios. Inevitably, there will be competition in certain application areas, such as merchant payments and cross-border remittances, but overall, their technical paths and ecological goals do not completely overlap.

Potential Risks of Stable

As previously mentioned, Plasma is inevitably affected by Tether's compliance limitations due to its backing. Similarly, Stable is supported by Tether, and its core value is highly dependent on USDT. If Tether faces regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions or experiences a decline in market share, the ecological activity and overall value of Stable will be directly impacted.

Currently, the testnet and mainnet of Stable have not yet launched, and its public chain performance has not been market-validated, leading to uncertainties in future development. Although Stable adopts a PoS consensus mechanism, the official token issuance plan has not been clearly defined, which poses certain risks. It is important to note that PoS consensus does not inherently require an economic token on-chain. For example, some enterprise-level chains or consortium chains use PoS to ensure transactions and consensus, but the nodes are operated by institutions without issuing tokens. However, the lack of tokens may affect network incentives and ecological growth.

In contrast, Base chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 Rollup expansion chain that uses a sequencer model to order transactions and submit states to Ethereum L1. Base is not a PoS chain and does not have a native token; its security relies on the Ethereum main chain without requiring node staking or token issuance. Whether Stable, as a PoS public chain, will adopt a model like Base in the future or follow Plasma's approach of issuing its own independent token remains to be seen.

At the same time, as traditional payment giants like Visa and PayPal accelerate their entry into the blockchain payment field, other compliant stablecoin public chains (such as Arc and Tempo) are also actively positioning themselves, increasing the competitive pressure on Stable in the market.

2.3 Arc (Circle)

Arc: An Open Layer 1 Blockchain Designed for Stablecoin Finance

In August 2025, Circle announced the launch of its self-developed Layer 1 public chain, Arc, marking a strategic upgrade from a stablecoin issuer to a blockchain infrastructure provider. Arc is a Layer 1 public chain specifically designed for stablecoins, aiming to provide efficient and secure technical support for payments, cross-border settlements, and financial market applications.

On Arc, users can pay gas fees using USDC, thereby avoiding the uncertainty brought by volatile tokens in traditional public chains. In addition to USDC, Arc also natively supports various stablecoins, including EURC and USYC1, which can serve as payment and settlement mediums on-chain, facilitating multi-currency financial applications. As a Layer 1 public chain launched by Circle, Arc aims to provide infrastructure for stablecoin finance and build a multi-currency settlement network. Arc employs a high-performance consensus mechanism, with fast transaction confirmation speeds, capable of processing thousands of transactions per second to meet enterprise-level demands. Arc features an institutional-grade Request for Quote (RFQ) engine and 24/7 on-chain settlement capabilities, providing reliable payment and trading tools for enterprises and financial institutions. Transactions are completed almost instantaneously, with the high-performance Malachite consensus mechanism ensuring deterministic sub-second finality, while also offering optional privacy protection features, allowing users and enterprises to mask transaction or balance information based on their compliance needs.

Figure 11. Arc website page. Source: https://arcnetwork.xyz/

Core Features of Arc: Cross-Chain Settlement Layer

Unlike traditional public chains that only serve a single stablecoin or a single chain, Arc's design goal is to become a cross-chain stablecoin settlement layer. It is not merely a stablecoin payment channel but provides a unified clearing and settlement infrastructure for the flow of funds between multiple stablecoins and multiple blockchains.

On Arc, stablecoins can achieve cross-chain transfers through direct minting and burn-and-mint mechanisms. This mechanism avoids the complex processes associated with relying on third-party cross-chain bridges, enabling users to complete fund settlements between different chains more quickly and securely. Arc also introduces a unified balance view and sub-second deterministic finality. This means that users or institutions holding stablecoins on any chain can see their overall asset situation on Arc's settlement layer and complete settlements at near real-time speeds. This design significantly reduces payment friction in a multi-chain ecosystem, providing underlying support for cross-border payments, institutional settlements, and multi-chain DeFi applications.

In contrast, the logic of single stablecoin public chains like Plasma and Stable is different. Their settlement targets are primarily limited to a single stablecoin like USDT, excelling in on-chain payment and liquidity efficiency, but requiring additional reliance on cross-chain bridges or third-party tools for cross-chain transfers. In terms of user experience, Plasma or Stable may offer relatively convenient on-chain operations, but once cross-chain payments are involved, they often face challenges of asset fragmentation and multi-step operations; whereas Arc, through unified balances and rapid finality, makes multi-chain asset management closer to a single-chain experience. On the application level, Plasma and Stable resemble exclusive highways built for a specific stablecoin, suitable for forming localized ecological closed loops; while Arc positions itself as a multi-chain stablecoin clearing center, capable of accommodating broader application scenarios such as cross-border payments, institutional settlements, and multi-chain DeFi.

In other words, Plasma and Stable emphasize on-chain efficiency, while Arc emphasizes unified settlement across multiple chains. The former is a fast lane serving specific stablecoins, while the latter resembles a cross-chain clearinghouse, connecting multiple highways together.

Application Scenarios and Potential Ecosystem of Arc: Not Just Stablecoin Infrastructure, But Also Promoting the Development of Native Stablecoin Applications

The design goal of Arc is not only to serve as the underlying infrastructure for stablecoins but also to promote the development of a class of native stablecoin applications. Based on its low-cost settlement, built-in foreign exchange engine, and deterministic sub-second transaction confirmations, Arc aims to leverage its potential application value in multiple directions.

Firstly, in the field of cross-border payments, Arc provides an instant, low-cost settlement experience, particularly suitable for enterprises requiring global fund flows. By linking with the Circle Payments Network (CPN), Arc can become the on-chain settlement layer for cross-border payments, while its foreign exchange engine lays the foundation for automatic conversions between different stablecoins and local fiat currency inflows and outflows.

Secondly, in the area of stablecoin foreign exchange derivatives, Arc supports a perpetual contract market centered around stablecoin pairs. Traders can engage in leveraged trading based on stablecoins of different currencies, while the built-in FX engine provides real-time quotes and atomic settlement.

In on-chain credit scenarios, Arc provides a development foundation for credit applications that combine off-chain trust signals. Developers can integrate identity, cash flow history, or external risk control models with stablecoins to build more compliant and auditable lending protocols, thereby serving users and enterprises that traditional credit systems struggle to cover.

For capital markets, Arc is committed to migrating traditional financial market settlement models (such as DvP delivery and margin collateral) onto the chain. Relying on native assets like USDC and USYC, Arc can provide instant settlement and compliance support for tokenized trading of securities, government bonds, commodities, or structured products.

Finally, Arc also hopes to provide possibilities for smart commerce and programmatic payments. Since transaction fees are denominated in USDC and feature sub-second confirmations and privacy controls, developers can embed logic and identity verification into the payment process, supporting automated subscriptions, programmable procurement, and even AI-driven on-chain trading markets.

The application directions of Arc are not limited to payment settlements but also encompass derivatives, credit, capital markets, and smart payments, reflecting Circle's ambition to leverage Arc to expand stablecoin finance into broader scenarios that combine digital assets and traditional finance.

Deep Integration with Circle Ecosystem, Naturally Strong Regulatory Attributes

Arc is not a public chain built from scratch but an extension of Circle's long-term ecological strategy. As the issuer of stablecoins like USDC and EURC, Circle has already built a complete product matrix that includes payment networks (CPN), cross-chain transfer protocols (CCTP), wallet and contract tools, custody, and settlement services. The launch of Arc provides a native on-chain environment for these services.

On one hand, Arc can enhance the synergy between Circle's products. USDC is used directly as a native asset on Arc, reducing transaction friction. Arc is deeply integrated with services like CPN, Mint, and Paymaster, allowing Circle to complete functions such as payments, settlements, and foreign exchange conversions on-chain, forming a closed-loop ecosystem. EVM compatibility ensures that developers can build applications in a familiar environment, but it inherently relies on Circle's underlying infrastructure, thereby locking in ecological stickiness.

On the other hand, Arc comes with strong regulatory attributes. Firstly, Circle itself, as a regulated stablecoin issuer, already meets compliance requirements in the U.S. and many other countries, which dictates that Arc must support compliant and auditable functionalities. For example, Arc has built-in optional privacy protection, allowing for limited privacy transactions while meeting regulatory requirements, rather than complete anonymity. Additionally, due to its direct connection with Circle's payment and settlement network, Arc is more easily integrated with banks, institutions, and other regulated financial entities, making it a compliance-friendly blockchain infrastructure.

Arc tightly integrates stablecoin infrastructure with the regulatory environment, providing a high-performance, secure, and controllable enterprise-level blockchain platform. This not only strengthens the competitiveness of USDC and Circle in the compliant financial market but also builds an application infrastructure that is both open and subject to regulation.

Potential Value of Arc: Direct Connection to the U.S. Dollar Settlement System, Creating a Compliant "On-Chain Swift"

From a strategic positioning perspective, the core value of Arc lies in the fact that it is not competing with decentralized ecosystems like Bitcoin and Ethereum but is targeting the on-chain upgrade of the global U.S. dollar settlement system. As the native carrying chain for USDC, Arc deeply integrates payments, settlements, foreign exchange conversions, and native stablecoin support, directly linking to Circle's payment network and custody system. It can be understood that Arc is designed to be closer to a "compliant on-chain Swift"; it is not an entirely open and completely deregulated blockchain but rather an on-chain settlement network that can directly connect with banks, payment institutions, and multinational corporations.

Arc will not directly replace traditional settlement networks, but it can provide higher efficiency in cross-border payments and real-time settlements, serving as a complementary solution to Swift. Moreover, since Circle itself is a regulated stablecoin issuer, its on-chain system is inherently linked to compliance frameworks, and the built-in privacy protection, audit support, and institutional-grade foreign exchange engine of Arc are functionalities designed for regulatory scenarios.

At the same time, Arc has stated that it will complete integration with custody and settlement service provider Fireblocks at launch. This means that over 2,400 banks, asset management institutions, and fintech companies already using Fireblocks will be able to directly access the Arc network without the need to develop additional compliance and custody infrastructure. This approach is entirely different from the typical public chain's strategy of attracting retail developers, reflecting that Arc is strategically positioned for global financial infrastructure.

Arc retains the openness and composability of blockchain but deliberately aligns with the usage needs of financial institutions in terms of compliance, security, and settlement certainty. In the long run, if Circle can leverage Arc to establish a clearing channel covering multi-currency stablecoins and compliant assets, it could indeed become the "on-chain Swift" in the eyes of financial institutions.

Potential Challenges for Arc

Despite Arc's advantages in native stablecoin support, high-performance settlement, and compliance design, it still faces multiple challenges. Technically, achieving sub-second transactions and cross-chain interoperability requires a balance between security, decentralization, and complexity. Ecologically, the cold start of developers and applications, as well as compatibility with non-USDC applications, may be limited. In terms of regulation, balancing cross-border compliance and privacy protection with audit requirements and user data security is necessary. Regarding market acceptance, institutional adoption of a new on-chain settlement system will take time, and it may face competition from other stablecoin chains in the future.

2.4 Tempo (Stripe)

Tempo: Stripe's Enterprise-Level On-Chain Payment Layout

Stripe has indicated that it is actively expanding its layout in the stablecoin and digital payment fields, planning to jointly launch its self-developed Layer 1 public chain, Tempo, in collaboration with Paradigm. The core goal of Tempo is to provide efficient, low-cost on-chain settlement infrastructure for enterprise-level payment scenarios while balancing compliance and privacy requirements, offering a secure and auditable transaction environment for enterprise users and financial institutions.

The design focus of the Tempo public chain includes optimizing payment performance, supporting stablecoin settlements, being compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and adopting a high-throughput architecture to meet the payment needs of global enterprises. Through these technical features, Tempo aims to become an enterprise-level on-chain payment network, providing Stripe with a new competitive advantage in the global payment market while promoting the practical application of stablecoins in real business scenarios.

Currently, Tempo is still in a secret development phase and has not officially launched. Stripe has appointed Matt Huang, co-founder of Paradigm, to oversee the development and operation of Tempo. Although project details are limited, its launch is expected to further enhance Stripe's market influence in enterprise-level payments and stablecoin applications.

Stripe's Business Foundation and Stablecoin Layout

Stripe is a global leading payment infrastructure provider, primarily offering online payment, settlement, and financial services to businesses. Its core business includes e-commerce payment processing, subscription billing, and invoice management. As the demand for digital payments continues to grow, Stripe is actively expanding its layout in the stablecoin and blockchain fields, planning to further enhance its competitiveness in the enterprise payment market through the Tempo public chain.

In terms of stablecoins, Stripe has launched stablecoin financial accounts that allow businesses to store, transfer, and pay using dollar-denominated stablecoins in 101 countries worldwide. This account is supported by the stablecoin platform Bridge, which Stripe acquired, and collaborates with MetaMask to issue MetaMask USD (mUSD), providing businesses and individual users with convenient storage, trading, and consumption methods in the Web3 ecosystem. This strategy reflects Stripe's attempt to combine traditional payment networks with the blockchain financial ecosystem, offering enterprise clients more direct and efficient on-chain fund management tools.

Tempo's Value Proposition: Promoting Web2 Payment Scenarios

The planned launch of the Tempo public chain represents not only a technological innovation for Stripe but also a direct service to its core Web2 enterprise clients. With native stablecoin settlement capabilities and high-performance architecture, businesses can achieve on-chain settlements directly within their existing payment systems, eliminating the need to frequently convert assets between traditional payment networks and blockchains. This means significantly reduced costs and settlement times for cross-border payments, while supporting large-scale, high-frequency transactions. Tempo's compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Stripe's payment interface allows businesses to access on-chain payments in a familiar development and operational environment, thus achieving "on-chain settlement, Web2 scenario implementation." In other words, Tempo enables blockchain payments to truly serve the payment and settlement needs of traditional enterprises, providing a practical path for the application of stablecoins in real business scenarios.

Development Challenges for Tempo: Ecosystem Building and Developer Attraction

Despite Tempo's clear advantages in enterprise-level payment scenarios, its long-term development still faces challenges in ecosystem building. As a public chain optimized for enterprise payments, if it is limited to payment functions, it may struggle to attract developers to build diverse applications on it. Compared to Ethereum or Arc public chains, the migration and learning costs for developers are higher, and the lack of comprehensive tools and incentive mechanisms may lead to insufficient ecosystem activity.

Moreover, the long-term value of a public chain depends not only on payment transaction volume but also on the diversity and innovation capacity of the ecosystem. If Tempo is merely an on-chain payment tool, lacking support for financial applications, DeFi, or enterprise-level tools, its network effects and growth potential will be limited. Stripe needs to ensure the implementation of enterprise-level payments while providing open interfaces, smart contract capabilities, and compliance tools to support developers in innovating and building applications.

2.5 Comparative Analysis of Ecosystems Driven by Mainstream Stablecoins

Currently, the distribution of stablecoin public chains mainly revolves around USDT and USDC. These public chains aim to leverage the massive traffic of mainstream stablecoins to quickly build infrastructure for trading, payments, and DeFi, becoming the underlying network for high-frequency settlement and circulation of stablecoins. As mentioned earlier, projects like Plasma, Stablechain, Arc, and Tempo, despite their different positions, share a common goal of competing for the discourse power of payment and settlement infrastructure driven by stablecoins. Their commonality lies in focusing on stablecoin trading, payments, and settlements, aiming to become the infrastructure for the circulation and application of the next generation of stablecoins. However, due to differences in underlying technology and the institutions behind them, their application scenarios and focal points vary.

Click the image to view the sheet.

Plasma, supported by Tether, is positioned as a high-performance USDT payment and settlement network. Leveraging the security of the Bitcoin chain, it supports zero-fee USDT transfers, low-latency settlements, and privacy payments, making it particularly suitable for high-frequency scenarios such as exchange fund flows and cross-border payments. In contrast, Stable, also supported by Tether, is designed to be the ultimate settlement channel for USDT. As an independent high-performance Layer 1, it leans more towards enterprise-level payment and fund clearing scenarios, emphasizing stability and large-scale throughput capacity.

Unlike Tether's Plasma and Stable, Arc is a public chain launched by Circle, centered around USDC, focusing on cross-chain interoperability and liquidity connectivity. Its goal is to enable free settlement and circulation of USDC across multiple chains, becoming an important infrastructure for the DeFi ecosystem and cross-border payments. Tempo, on the other hand, is driven by a collaboration between Stripe and Paradigm, primarily targeting retail payments and merchant settlements while maintaining EVM compatibility to attract developers to build more payment and application scenarios based on stablecoins.

The fundamental reason for these differences lies in the issuers and underlying technologies. Tether's Plasma and Stable revolve around USDT, but Plasma relies on the Bitcoin ecosystem, emphasizing payment and security; Stable independently builds Layer 1, making it more suitable for institutional settlements. Circle's Arc focuses on the cross-chain liquidity of USDC, aligning with its positioning in compliance and international payments. Tempo, under the Stripe background, naturally focuses on payment implementation, aiming to promote the adoption of stablecoins at the merchant level.

3. Economic Models and Ecosystem Design of Stablecoin Public Chains

Supporting Stablecoin Payments as Gas is the Core Mechanism of Stablecoin Public Chain Design

Among the existing leading stablecoin public chains, most choose to support stablecoins like USDT and USDC as gas fees, which is central to the economic and ecological role of stablecoin public chain design. By directly using USDT or USDC to pay transaction fees, user operation thresholds are lowered, and transaction activity and payment traffic are increased, which is crucial for the initial cold start of the ecosystem. At the same time, different projects need to balance incentive mechanisms, traffic aggregation, and compliance when designing their economic models. For example, Plasma not only allows stablecoin payments but also offers its native token XPL as a gas payment option, ensuring on-chain incentives and network security while providing users with more flexibility. Meanwhile, projects like Stable primarily rely on USDC payments, reinforcing compliance and institutional collaboration advantages, but it remains to be seen whether they will consider additional ways to attract developers and users to participate in the ecosystem in the future.

Differences Between Single Stablecoin Chains and Multi-Stablecoin Chains Determine Ecosystem Building Strategies and Initial Competition Models

Single stablecoin chains (like Plasma) primarily use one core stablecoin (such as USDT) as the medium for circulation and settlement, which can concentrate liquidity and quickly form network effects, making the initial ecosystem launch relatively easy, but with limited cross-chain capabilities and multi-scenario adaptability. In contrast, multi-stablecoin chains (like Arc or other multi-currency clearing networks) support the circulation of various stablecoins on-chain, enhancing cross-chain and multi-scenario application adaptability, but due to the dispersion of traffic and liquidity, the initial ecosystem launch costs are higher. This design difference directly impacts the strategic layout of public chains in payment, DeFi, cross-chain clearing, and other scenarios. Single stablecoin chains are suitable for quickly establishing initial ecosystems, while multi-stablecoin chains are better suited for building long-term, cross-currency, multi-scenario financial infrastructure.

Ecosystem Cold Start and Application Closure are Key to the Long-Term Value of Stablecoin Public Chains

The core value of stablecoin public chains lies in payments and settlements. By directly using USDT or USDC to pay transaction fees, user thresholds are lowered, and transaction activity is increased, which is the foundation for the initial cold start of the ecosystem and network efficiency. However, the added value comes from the support of payment traffic for ecological applications. Although public chains are primarily used for payments, initial traffic can feed back into DeFi, NFTs, RWA, and other applications, providing a user base and developer incentives for ecosystem building, creating a positive cycle. Long-term value is reflected in the combination of efficient payments and active ecosystems. An efficient payment network combined with active ecological applications allows public chains to form sustainable network effects and ecological closures, thereby consolidating their strategic position in future financial infrastructure.

From the perspective of economic models and ecosystem design of stablecoin public chains, we can better understand their long-term value and competitive strategies. Those who can design reasonable gas usage mechanisms, effectively aggregate stablecoin traffic, and solve ecosystem cold start issues are more likely to become the core infrastructure for future stablecoin settlements and DeFi ecosystems.

4. Evolution of Payment Systems and Analysis of Stablecoin Public Chains

Stablecoin public chains are not only settlement tools in the crypto world; their development direction and application potential are largely inspired and constrained by the evolution of traditional payment networks. By comparing traditional payment systems and on-chain stablecoin clearing, we can more clearly see the advantages and shortcomings of stablecoin public chains in terms of cost, efficiency, compliance, and user experience, thus assessing their strategic value in future financial infrastructure.

The development of payment networks has gone through several stages: from the traditional cross-border clearing system SWIFT to the high-speed centralized payment networks Visa and Mastercard, and then to online payment platforms PayPal and Stripe, each stage has pursued faster, cheaper, and more convenient transaction experiences. With the rise of blockchain technology and stablecoins, stablecoin public chains are expected to become new payment infrastructures capable of achieving rapid settlements and cross-border payments on-chain while maintaining transparency and traceability.

Compared to traditional payment systems, on-chain stablecoin clearing demonstrates advantages and characteristics across several dimensions: in terms of cost, decentralized networks can reduce cross-border remittance and settlement fees; in terms of speed, blockchain settlements can achieve real-time or near-real-time transactions; in terms of compliance, stablecoins themselves and the institutions behind them enable on-chain payments to meet regulatory requirements to some extent; in terms of user experience, users can directly use on-chain wallets for payments without intermediary settlements or cumbersome account opening processes.

Currently, payment giants like Stripe, PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard are also exploring on-chain payment layouts. For example, Stripe has launched stablecoin and crypto payment interfaces, supporting merchants to receive USDC payments; PayPal allows users in certain regions to directly use crypto assets for consumption and settlement; Visa and Mastercard are also collaborating with stablecoin issuers to attempt to integrate on-chain payments into traditional financial networks. Traditional payment institutions may also try to leverage stablecoin public chains to enhance payment efficiency while maintaining compliance in the future.

Therefore, stablecoin public chains are likely to play an important role in the payment system in the future. On one hand, they can serve cross-border settlements, B2B payments, and high-frequency trading scenarios, becoming the underlying infrastructure for financial institutions and enterprises; on the other hand, they also provide new opportunities for DeFi payments, developer ecosystems, and innovative applications. The development path of stablecoin public chains combines the advantages of traditional payment systems and on-chain settlements, characterized by parallel technological innovation and compliance practices, as well as a focus on ecosystem building and traffic attraction.

5. The Impact of Regulation and Compliance on Stablecoin Public Chains

The development of stablecoin public chains relies not only on technology and market demand but is also deeply influenced by regulatory policies. Different regions have increasingly clear regulations on stablecoins, with varying policy frameworks in the United States, Hong Kong, and the European Union, which will directly affect the speed of stablecoin public chain implementation and ecosystem building.

The U.S. stablecoin bill has been signed into law in 2025, imposing strict reserve requirements and disclosure obligations on stablecoin issuers. This change will have far-reaching implications for the compliance path, ecosystem construction, and market positioning of stablecoin public chains. Circle has consistently pursued a compliance path, relying on licenses, transparent reserves, and regulatory cooperation to create a safe and reliable payment and financial infrastructure. This gives its stablecoin public chain Arc an advantage in scenarios such as institutional access and cross-border payments, but it also means that Arc or other stablecoin public chains backed by USDC or Circle need to meet the entry standards for compliance set by institutions and financial enterprises, while establishing quantifiable indicators for transparency, auditing, and risk management to gain institutional trust and funding support.

In contrast, Plasma and Stable lean more towards a crypto-native development path, and Tether's demonstrated compliance regarding the U.S. stablecoin bill is not high. While they have advantages in on-chain efficiency and technological innovation, they face higher uncertainty. Strict regulations may limit their large-scale promotion in certain regions and could even affect the speed at which USDT's traffic migrates to these chains. Therefore, changes in the regulatory environment not only determine the business models available to projects but also influence their ecosystem construction and user growth paths.

Moreover, regulatory differences across regions can lead to differentiated global layout strategies. The stablecoin licensing in Hong Kong and the EU's MiCA framework provide institutional clarity, allowing projects to quickly establish themselves in local markets, while the U.S. GENIUS Act emphasizes institutional access and compliance transparency. This diverse regulatory environment will drive stablecoin public chains to form a polarized development pattern: one type of public chain follows a compliance route, serving institutions and enterprises; the other type adheres to high performance and technology-driven approaches, attracting more crypto-native users.

In the context of a constantly changing global regulatory environment, policy factors will become an important variable that cannot be ignored in the competitive landscape of stablecoin public chains.

6. Competitive Landscape and Development Projection

6.1 Current Status of the Stablecoin Public Chain Track

Current Status of the Stablecoin Public Chain Track: High Barriers, Few Projects, and an Immature Ecosystem

At this stage, the number of projects in the stablecoin public chain track is very limited, and a mature ecosystem has not yet formed, with few teams truly focusing on such public chains. This phenomenon reflects several important characteristics. First, the stablecoin public chain track has high barriers and difficulties. Stablecoin public chains not only need to support high-frequency trading and large-scale settlements but also must find a balance between performance, compliance, and security. The high technical complexity, combined with the requirements for compliance and cooperation with financial institutions, deters many developers and teams.

Second, early market signals are limited. As stablecoin public chains are still in their infancy, trading volumes and ecological applications have not yet formed significant network effects, and there is a lack of clear profit model cases, leading to relatively cautious participation from investors and developers. Furthermore, the market is currently dominated by the two major stablecoins, USDT and USDC, and their leading institutions (such as Tether, Circle, and Stripe), resulting in a high concentration of resources, making it difficult for new entrants to easily access stablecoin traffic and institutional resources, further suppressing the expansion speed of the track.

As a result, the early winner effect may be quite pronounced. A small number of projects can quickly form an initial ecosystem based on technological advantages, stablecoin traffic, or institutional cooperation, creating a first-mover advantage; at the same time, due to the scarcity of participants, competition is more reflected in the differentiation of technology and resources rather than purely in market share competition.

6.2 The On-Chain Game Between Tether, Circle, and Payment Giants

USDT (Tether): Firmly Grasping the Initiative in Issuance and Settlement

Tether has long been the dominant player in the stablecoin market, holding the largest circulation volume, but it has always relied on external public chains like Ethereum and Tron. Supporting its own stablecoin public chain is primarily aimed at reducing external dependencies, gaining control over underlying settlements, thereby enhancing transaction speed, lowering costs, and building a more controllable clearing and payment ecosystem in the future. Its competitive advantage lies in its large user base and strongest liquidity; if it can successfully migrate some transaction volumes to its own public chain, it will further strengthen its market barriers.

Tether simultaneously supports Plasma and Stable, with the core purpose of expanding the usage boundaries of USDT. On one hand, a multi-chain layout can meet performance and compliance needs in different scenarios, avoiding excessive pressure on a single public chain; on the other hand, this is also a form of risk diversification and innovation exploration. By parallelly incubating public chains with different architectures, Tether can continuously optimize the underlying infrastructure of stablecoins.

From a broader perspective, Tether's strategy is not just to be a stablecoin issuer but to attempt to become the controller of stablecoin payment infrastructure. Through the promotion of Plasma and Stable, Tether is strengthening the global payment network attributes of USDT, laying the foundation for subsequent ecosystem expansion, compliance cooperation, and even commercial profitability.

USDC (Circle): Benchmarking Compliance and Institutional Payment Networks

Circle has always focused on compliance and transparency, with a user base primarily consisting of institutions and compliant financial companies. By promoting its own stablecoin public chain, it can create a compliance-friendly payment and financial infrastructure, enhancing developer programmability and scalability (such as smart contracts and cross-border payment interfaces). Compared to Tether, Circle's advantage lies in its backing by the U.S. regulatory environment and financial institution resources, which may emphasize seamless integration with traditional finance in the future.

Traditional Financial Payment Giants (like Stripe): Extending from Payment Networks to On-Chain Finance

Payment giants entering the stablecoin public chain space are not only actively adapting to the trend of crypto asset payments but also aiming to maintain their dominant position in future cross-border settlements and merchant networks. Compared to stablecoin issuers, they are more focused on how to enhance efficiency in payment scenarios (such as second-level settlements), reduce transaction fees, and provide merchants with plug-and-play on-chain settlement tools. Their competitive points lie in merchant resources, global payment networks, and compliance infrastructure. Once deeply integrated with stablecoins, they could potentially become the Web3 version of the Visa network.

6.3 Competitive Landscape Between Stablecoin Public Chains and Traditional Public Chains

The core value of stablecoin public chains lies in payments and settlements, primarily targeting high-frequency trading and stablecoin circulation scenarios, dedicated to providing low-cost, high-efficiency payment experiences. In contrast, traditional public chains like Ethereum and Solana are more inclined towards comprehensive ecosystem construction, covering various applications such as DeFi, SocialFi, and GameFi. However, in small payment and high-frequency settlement scenarios, they may have high costs and delays, resulting in a payment experience that may not be as good as that of stablecoin public chains.

In terms of compliance and institutional access, stablecoin public chains are currently mainly supported by mainstream stablecoins (like USDT and USDC) or payment giants. Some institutions can meet the compliance requirements of financial institutions and enterprises relatively well. However, it should be noted that the compliance of USDT remains controversial, and its transparency and reserve audit issues may affect the willingness of some institutions to use it; in contrast, USDC is generally more favored by institutions due to its better regulatory compliance and reserve transparency. Therefore, the compliance advantages of stablecoin public chains are not absolute and need to be identified based on actual situations. Future changes in regulatory policies may impact their circulation, application, and ecosystem construction.

In terms of ecosystem construction, stablecoin public chains initially need to rely on payment traffic to drive the development of DeFi, RWA, and other applications, forming a payment closure and added value. In contrast, traditional public chains have more mature and diverse ecosystems, but payment traffic and settlement efficiency may not necessarily feed back into other application scenarios. In the future, whether stablecoin public chains can form long-term competitiveness will depend on their ability to balance payment efficiency, ecosystem closure, and compliance. Network effects are also a key dimension in the competition between the two types of chains. Stablecoin public chains build initial users and ecosystems around mainstream stablecoin traffic, while traditional public chains rely on mature communities and developer resources, with strong potential for ecosystem expansion.

The Rise of Stablecoin Public Chains May Impact Traditional Public Chains

If stablecoin public chains achieve comprehensive breakthroughs in payment efficiency, cost, compliance, and ecosystem construction, their rise may impact traditional public chains, especially those that carry a large volume of USDT and USDC circulation. According to DeFiLlama data, the public chain with the largest circulation of USDT is Tron, accounting for about 47.58%, followed closely by Ethereum at about 40.98%, while BNB Chain and Solana account for less than 5% each. In terms of USDC, Ethereum holds an absolute advantage, accounting for over 60%, with Solana at about 12.98%. If stablecoin public chains successfully attract payment traffic, the transaction volumes and stablecoin settlement demands on these chains may partially migrate, thereby affecting their trading activity, fee income, and attractiveness to developers and ecosystems.

Figure 12. USDT circulation on chains. Source: https://defillama.com/stablecoin/tether

Figure 13. USDC circulation on chains. Source: https://defillama.com/stablecoin/usd-coin

Currently, Ethereum, as the origin of smart contracts, has accumulated a vast array of applications such as DeFi, NFTs, and Layer 2 expansion solutions, with stablecoins being just a part of its large ecosystem. Even if the demand for stablecoin settlements flows out, its advantages in financial innovation, application diversity, and security will not be significantly affected.

Solana, with its advantages of high performance and low fees, is currently supporting high-speed trading applications, including DeFi, MEME, and on-chain games. Even if there is a shift in traffic during the payment phase, it still maintains competitiveness in high-frequency interactive application scenarios. BNB Chain, relying on the traffic inflow and resource integration from the Binance exchange, has formed a closed loop of CEX + public chain + ecological applications. It not only has advantages in stablecoin settlements but also continues to expand in areas such as GameFi, DApps, and Launchpads, providing diversified support for the ecosystem.

In contrast, Tron’s core business is almost entirely focused on stablecoin (USDT) payments and transfers, with its on-chain TVL and activity strongly correlated to this. Comparatively, Tron’s ecosystem lacks strong DeFi innovations or application ecosystems, and its development in NFTs and GameFi is also relatively weak. If the traffic of the stablecoin USDT is siphoned off, it may be significantly impacted.

This also means that traditional public chains may need to optimize payment performance, reduce fees, or strengthen stablecoin ecosystem cooperation to maintain competitiveness.

6.4 Development Projection

From Consortium Chains to Stablecoin Public Chains: The Inevitable Evolution of Open Finance

Looking back at the previous cycle, consortium chains were seen as a bridge for traditional financial institutions to embrace blockchain technology. Giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan attempted to build their own consortium chains to enhance clearing efficiency and reduce inter-institutional trust costs. However, it has been proven that the closed nature of consortium chains and the lack of incentive mechanisms became the biggest bottleneck. Closed systems struggle to form network effects, and the absence of tokens leads to insufficient participation motivation, while governance coordination costs are high, resulting in most projects remaining at the pilot stage.

As a result, banks and financial enterprises have gradually shifted from "consortium chain consensus" to "stablecoin settlement networks." The logic is clear: since closed consortium chains struggle to achieve efficient collaboration between institutions, it is better to leverage the consensus system of open blockchains directly, allowing stablecoins to serve as a bridge for cross-border payments and settlements. This has made stablecoin public chains the new focus of competition.

Institutional Entry Logic: From Payment Closure to Clearing and Settlement Dominance

Today, both banks and tech giants are actively laying out their own stablecoin public chains, driven by two main motivations:

• Competing for global payment dominance. In the context of rapid globalization of digital payments, mastering a stablecoin public chain equates to controlling the next generation of clearing network entry;

• Optimizing cross-border capital flows: On-chain stablecoin settlements can significantly reduce cross-border exchange costs, shorten clearing cycles, and achieve a "programmable payment" closure.

However, this raises a core question: Is the mission of stablecoin public chains "clearing and settlement" or "payment"? Clearing and settlement emphasize the security and stability of underlying value transfers; payment focuses on user experience and adoption speed. Perhaps in the future, whoever can find the best balance between "efficiency and experience" will be poised to dominate.

From "Chain Performance" to "Ecosystem Competition": The Shift of Core Battlegrounds

The clearing network remains the foundation of the financial system, with high demands for efficiency and security. However, in an open financial system, the underlying public chain is merely infrastructure; what truly determines user scale and stickiness is the upper-layer payment ecosystem and application experience.

Therefore, future competition will no longer be merely a comparison of "who has higher TPS," but rather a comprehensive competition of "who has a stronger payment ecosystem." Traditional payment users have become highly reliant on methods like bank cards and Apple Pay, making it difficult for stablecoin public chains to replace them in the short term. However, in areas such as cross-border e-commerce, Web3 gaming, and creator economies, once the on-chain payment experience is sufficiently smooth, its penetration speed could be very rapid.

Competitive Landscape Among Different Types of Public Chains: Traffic and Compliance Alignment

From a competitive perspective, the development of stablecoin public chains presents a multidimensional game:

• USDT Chain vs. USDC Chain: The former relies on a massive circulation and exchange network to dominate the market; the latter earns trust through compliance and cooperation with financial institutions.

• Payment Giant Chains vs. Crypto Native Chains: The former emphasizes payment implementation and merchant access, focusing on developer friendliness and regulatory collaboration; the latter focuses on performance optimization and DeFi ecosystem expansion, serving a broader range of on-chain application scenarios.

Future competition will not only be a battle of technical routes but also a comprehensive confrontation of traffic scale, compliance resources, and ecosystem capabilities.

Possible Market Landscape: Multipolar Coexistence and Interconnectivity

Based on current development trends, three possible future scenarios can be projected:

• Single Dominant Type: A certain stablecoin public chain (such as USDT Chain or USDC Chain) forms a standard based on traffic and interoperability, becoming the on-chain dollar clearing and settlement center;

• Multiple Coins Coexisting Type: Similar to the SWIFT system, different stablecoin public chains interconnect through cross-chain clearing protocols, forming a multi-currency settlement network that reduces single-coin dependency risks;

• Institutional Chains and Crypto Chains Running in Parallel: Compliant institutional chains serve enterprise settlements and fiat currency channels, while crypto native chains delve into DeFi and innovative scenarios, with both collaborating and coexisting through bridging layers.

The future of stablecoin public chains will not be a complete replacement of traditional systems but rather a layered integration. The foundation will be secured by regulatory and banking systems, the middle layer will be supported by open public chains carrying clearing and programmable functions, and the upper layer will be built by payment companies and developers creating application experiences. This compliance + openness structure will allow stablecoin public chains to integrate into the mainstream financial system while serving the global open economy, truly achieving a transition from the closed collaboration of consortium chains to the open consensus of stablecoin public chains.

7. Challenges and Outlook

Risks and Challenges

Although stablecoin public chains have inherent advantages in payment and settlement scenarios, they still face multiple risks. A core issue is ecological singularity; if a public chain relies solely on a single stablecoin, its risk resistance is limited. If that stablecoin experiences liquidity fluctuations or compliance issues, the entire chain's payment traffic and ecological activity may be impacted.

Regulatory uncertainty is also a variable that cannot be ignored. Although the U.S. GENIUS Act has provided a clear framework for stablecoins, future regulatory details may still be adjusted, imposing higher requirements on public chain business models, cross-border payments, and institutional access. Regulatory differences across regions may also lead to imbalances in global layouts, forcing projects to weigh compliance costs against market expansion speed.

Additionally, the challenge of cold-starting developers still exists. While stablecoin payment scenarios are strong, whether payment traffic can feed back into applications like DeFi, NFTs, or RWAs still needs time and incentive mechanisms to validate. If ecological applications cannot quickly form a closed loop, on-chain activity may be limited.

Finally, competitive pressure should not be overlooked. Layer 2 solutions, cross-chain bridges, and internal clearing systems of major exchanges may all become alternatives, affecting the market share and traffic inflow capabilities of stablecoin public chains.

Future Outlook

The future development of stablecoin public chains has several noteworthy directions. The entry of payment companies may promote the realization of the concept of stablecoins as payment chains. With the participation of payment giants like Stripe and PayPal, the payment attributes of stablecoin public chains are being strengthened. By integrating on-chain settlement functions, they can achieve low-cost, high-efficiency, and instant cross-border payment services, truly making "stablecoins = payment tools" a reality. These enterprises possess vast merchant resources and user networks, and once integrated with stablecoin systems, they will establish a closed-loop payment ecosystem between traditional finance and the Web3 world.

The path to financial compliance will drive institutional stablecoin public chains like Circle to become on-chain dollar clearing networks, possessing inherent advantages in cross-border payments and enterprise-level settlements. Compared to crypto native chains, these public chains are more likely to gain the trust and funding support of financial institutions.

A multi-stablecoin fusion chain is also a possible future scenario. By simultaneously supporting USDT, USDC, and other compliant coins, public chains can form a more robust settlement ecosystem, reducing single-coin dependency risks and attracting more payment and financial business access.

In terms of ecosystem development, stablecoin public chains will exhibit differentiated growth. Plasma, Stable, and others will lean towards crypto native users, emphasizing on-chain efficiency and technological innovation. Circle, Stripe, and others will target financial and payment users, emphasizing compliance, institutional access, and cross-border payment capabilities. The coexistence and competition of different paths will shape a multipolar landscape for the future stablecoin public chain track.

References

1. Plasma official website: https://www.plasma.to/

2. Plasma documentation: https://docs.plasma.to/docs/get-started/introduction/start-here

3. Plasma Testnet Is Live: https://www.plasma.to/insights/plasma-testnet-is-live

4. XPL: The Public Sale and Its Role in the Plasma Ecosystem: https://www.plasma.to/insights/xpl-the-public-sale-and-its-role-in-the-plasma-ecosystem

5. Plasma Mainnet Beta and XPL: https://www.plasma.to/insights/plasma-mainnet-beta-and-xpl

6. Ethena Labs Partners with Plasma to Launch USDe Rewards on Mainnet: https://www.ainvest.com/news/ethena-labs-partners-plasma-launch-usde-rewards-mainnet-2504/

7. Ethena and Plasma Unite to Unlock Global Yield Access With Tether: https://www.binance.com/en-JP/square/post/22973737679698

8. Stable official website: https://www.stable.xyz/

9. Stable documentation: https://docs.stable.xyz/en/introduction/why-stable

10. Introducing Arc: An Open Layer-1 Blockchain Purpose-Built for Stablecoin Finance. Link: https://www.circle.com/blog/introducing-arc-an-open-layer-1-blockchain-purpose-built-for-stablecoin-finance

11. Arc official network: https://arcnetwork.xyz/

12. Arc: An open Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin finance: https://6778953.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6778953/Arc%20Litepaper%20-%202025.pdf

13. Some Technical Notes About Circle’s New Blockchain: https://medium.com/sentora/some-technical-notes-about-circles-new-blockchain-d09b8d26e0a4

14. Stripe Developing "Tempo" Blockchain in Partnership with Paradigm: https://www.ainvest.com/news/stripe-developing-tempo-blockchain-partnership-paradigm-2508

15. USDe and sUSDe Supercharge Plasma’s Mainnet as Stablecoin-Native Chain Goes Live: https://coinlaw.io/usde-susde-plasma-mainnet-launch

16. Ethena expands DeFi reach to Plasma with USDe and sUSDe as core dollar assets: https://crypto.news/ethena-launches-usde-susde-plasma-mainnet-2025/

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。