Stablecoins: Topic of the Day
By Blake Player, Chief Commercial Officer at VALR
Originally published by Business Day.
Stablecoins are digital assets designed to hold a steady value relative to a peg. Most are tethered to a familiar fiat currency such as the US dollar. They may not be as exciting as Bitcoin, with its dramatic price swings, but stablecoins regularly make headlines as they continue to power a fundamental shift in how money moves around the world. There are now close to $300 billion in issued stablecoins.
There are three main types.
Fiat-backed stablecoins, such as USDT and USDC, are the most widely used. They are backed by reserves of cash and short-term government securities.
Crypto-collateralised stablecoins are over-collateralised by other digital assets and managed through smart contracts on blockchains.
Algorithmic stablecoins attempt to maintain their peg using code and supply adjustments alone. These have struggled to gain lasting traction, with TerraUSD standing as the most prominent cautionary tale.
Why Stablecoins Have Taken Off
Stablecoins run around the clock, outside normal banking hours. They let anyone transfer value in a way that is transparent, low-cost and near-instant on public blockchains. These practical advantages have fuelled their rapid growth.
According to data compiled by Artemis Analytics, stablecoin transaction volumes reached $33 trillion in 2025, a 72 per cent increase from the prior year and more than the combined annual throughput of Visa and Mastercard. The numbers reflect a clear shift from pure speculation toward everyday financial utility.
Key Use Cases
Stablecoins solve real problems in daily finance. Their primary use has long been holding and transferring dollars on-chain in non-volatile form between wallets, exchanges, and trading partners. This around-the-clock access eliminates the price gaps that once formed between venues during off-hours, and now powers real-time arbitrage across hundreds of platforms globally.
Beyond trading, stablecoins enable fast, low-cost cross-border payments and remittances, particularly valuable in markets where traditional correspondent banking is slow or expensive. They serve as the dominant quote currency in crypto markets, while corporates use them for treasury management, currency hedging, and rapid fund rebalancing. Payment providers and digital banks rely on USDC and USDT for continuous settlements and instant dollar liquidity.
Stablecoins also support everyday business operations such as supplier payments and programmable payroll. Because every transaction is recorded openly on the blockchain, they deliver a level of auditability that legacy systems struggle to match.
VALR's Role in South Africa and Globally
Processing over $15 billion in stablecoin volumes annually, VALR is South Africa's largest provider of stablecoin services and consistently ranks among the top 10 minters of USDC globally. The exchange serves more than 2,000 corporate and institutional clients, ranging from small businesses to companies listed on the JSE and Nasdaq. VALR also operates an OTC desk handling large-volume trades in fiat and crypto assets, with competitive rates and deep liquidity.
VALR is licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa and holds regulatory approval in Europe. The platform offers institutional-grade infrastructure including API integration for automated trading and payments, multi-account management, governance controls, and secure collaboration tools. VALR also provides the crypto and financial technology backbone powering many other institutions' crypto and payment offerings through their “crypto-as-a-service” API infrastructure.
Despite fluctuating market conditions, stablecoins have been on a relentless rise, reshaping global finance in meaningful ways. For businesses and institutions in South Africa and beyond, they form a reliable bridge between traditional money and the digital economy. VALR provides the secure, compliant infrastructure that makes this transition practical.
Contact us: stablecoins@valr.com
Learn more: valr.com/business
Risk Disclosure
Trading or investing in crypto assets is risky and may result in the loss of capital as the value may fluctuate. VALR (Pty) Ltd is a licensed financial services provider (FSP #53308).
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.
