Stablecoins At The Crossroads: Nkiru Uwaje On The Shift From Experimental Use To Everyday Business Infrastructure

TRM Labs reports that stablecoin transaction volumes exceeded $4 trillion between January and July 2025, representing an 83% year-on-year enhance in annualized exercise. Industry surveys and consulting analysis additional indicate that institutional curiosity is rapidly changing into actual adoption, with 13% of economic establishments and corporates already utilizing stablecoins, and greater than half of remaining organizations planning to undertake them throughout the subsequent 6 to 12 months. On-chain information additional illustrates the size: main USD-pegged tokens processed month-to-month volumes within the a whole bunch of billions, with USDT alone routinely dealing with roughly $700 billion per thirty days at peaks in 2025, highlighting why treasuries and cost groups are treating stablecoins as a viable settlement instrument.

In this unique interview, Nkiru Uwaje, COO and co-founder of MANSA, a world settlement and liquidity firm, examines how and why stablecoins entered mainstream enterprise use in 2025, with a give attention to their increasing function throughout funds, treasury operations, regulatory frameworks, and real-world purposes in each developed and rising markets.

Why did stablecoins lastly go mainstream in 2025? What components allowed stablecoins to scale?

“Mainstream” doesn’t imply each cost moved on-chain in a single day. It means stablecoins stopped being one thing you needed to justify and have become one thing you may pilot with out rewriting your whole working mannequin.

A number of issues converged. The first is apparent market pull. Cross-border cash motion nonetheless has cutoffs, intermediaries, and settlement lags, whereas stablecoin transfers don’t care about banking hours. That distinction issues quite a bit once you’re working payroll, paying suppliers, or making an attempt to clean working capital throughout time zones.

The second is that the info started to mirror actual operational utilization, not simply buying and selling flows. Even although total stablecoin exercise continues to be dominated by market plumbing, B2B cost volumes grow quick via 2025.

And the third is confidence. The previous yr can also be the time laws began to appear like a set of requirements you may construct round. In funds, readability is oxygen.

Which use circumstances and sectors are driving stablecoin adoption right this moment?

The largest progress I see continues to be unglamorous: it’s paying and getting paid throughout borders in a approach that’s predictable.

Supplier funds are a very good instance. When you’re settling invoices internationally, the ache isn’t the headline FX price; it’s timing uncertainty, middleman charges you may’t forecast cleanly, and the operational value of tracing funds when one thing goes lacking. That’s why B2B use circumstances show up so strongly in enterprise surveys.

The different huge driver is high-frequency payouts equivalent to platforms paying contractors, marketplaces paying sellers, and companies paying distributed groups. Those flows are operationally delicate. If you miss a payday or a provider deadline, it turns into a belief drawback, not a “finance” drawback.

Treasury is the quiet engine behind all of this. When groups begin treating stablecoins as a settlement instrument, like one thing you progress to finish obligations, adoption turns into much less ideological and extra of a course of enchancment.

How do SMEs and huge enterprises use stablecoins otherwise?

SMEs often undertake from the sting inward. They really feel friction first, they usually’re keen to alter conduct rapidly if it reduces friction.

So an SME instance is a enterprise that imports stock and must pay a provider overseas on a decent timeline. Instead of ready via correspondent banking and cutoffs, they settle in stablecoins. Then the provider converts regionally or makes use of it immediately for their very own obligations. The “win” right here is about time and certainty.

Large enterprises are completely different. They don’t undertake as a result of a single cost is painful, however as a result of the system is pricey. Enterprises care about controls, coverage, auditability, and integration into current treasury and ERP workflows. That’s why you see them speak about pilots, accepted counterparties, clear operational threat possession, and financial institution relationships as a lot as they discuss in regards to the asset itself.

Both matter as a result of they reinforce one another. SMEs create actual transactional density in corridors. And enterprises create the standardization stress that turns “helpful” into “repeatable.”

What impression have the GENIUS Act and MiCA had on stablecoins? 

Well, these frameworks at their greatest turned “belief” into necessities. The GENIUS Act sets expectations round reserve backing, public reserve disclosures, advertising guidelines, and brings issuers clearly into AML and sanctions compliance obligations. That adjustments procurement conversations inside firms, as a result of now authorized and compliance groups can map stablecoin utilization to a recognizable rulebook.

In flip, MiCA defines the regulatory perimeter for stablecoin-like devices and makes stablecoin issuance and repair provision look extra like regulated monetary exercise, with authorization and disclosure necessities and clear timelines for applicability.

Do firms reshape choices? In observe, sure, however often in boring methods like clearer disclosures, extra conservative insurance policies round reserves and redemptions, extra structured onboarding, and extra funding in compliance operations. That’s precisely what allows scale. Payments don’t develop on “perception”; they develop on repeatable compliance and operational certainty.

Why does stablecoin adoption right this moment look extra like operations and treasury than crypto buying and selling?

Trading is non-obligatory, and payroll isn’t.

When stablecoins are handled as a settlement instrument, the customer is often an ops or treasury chief making an attempt to hit service ranges: “Can I pay on time, reconcile rapidly, and cut back trapped money?” That’s why this seems like an operation.

Take money focus. Multinationals routinely depart buffers sitting in native accounts as a result of transferring cash is sluggish, has cutoffs, and creates uncertainty. Stablecoins can compress that cycle via transferring worth between entities with out ready for banking home windows. Thus, the treasury can handle liquidity with extra real-time consciousness.

It works otherwise for cross-border payroll. If you use in a number of markets, you’re always balancing pace, value, and compliance. Stablecoins don’t take away the necessity for controls, however they will shorten settlement time and cut back the transition interval the place you’re blind or ready. That’s an operational improve, not a speculative one.

How are stablecoins being utilized in rising markets, particularly Africa?

In many rising markets, the stablecoin story is now rather more about entry and continuity than about crypto.

We have rising proof that utilization is materials relative to native economies. Working papers estimating cross-border stablecoin exercise find that, relative to GDP, areas together with Africa and the Middle East stand out in contrast with superior economies.

On the bottom, that appears sensible. Businesses use stablecoins to pay worldwide suppliers, to obtain income from overseas with fewer delays, and to handle foreign money publicity extra predictably. Banks and controlled cost suppliers interact after they can construction it responsibly, as a result of prospects are asking for one thing that works on weekends, holidays, and throughout borders.

What must occur in 2026 to maintain stablecoins rising?

I feel the subsequent part is ending the boring integration work. Stablecoins solely turn into “infrastructure” after they sit cleanly contained in the instruments firms already run. That consists of tighter integration with KYC/KYB, higher reconciliation tooling, and clearer operational requirements round approvals and limits.

Interoperability issues too, however not as an summary ideally suited. What groups need is the power to maneuver worth between trusted counterparties with out stitching collectively fragile processes throughout a number of suppliers. When these connections are standardized, finance groups spend much less time on exceptions and extra time on choices.

Which firms or industries do you see main the stablecoin cost?

The leaders are usually the companies that really feel settlement friction on daily basis: cost suppliers, international platforms that run mass payouts, import/export companies, and corporations working throughout risky foreign money corridors.

What’s been attention-grabbing in 2025 is seeing stablecoins present up in locations that traditionally stored crypto at arm’s size. Some fintechs have publicly described stablecoin plans geared toward reducing inside cross-border settlement prices.

Looking forward, what might doubtlessly undermine or improve stablecoin momentum?

Momentum builds when stablecoins function like a well-run cash motion somewhat than a separate universe. That momentum is pushed by clearer requirements, tighter integration with treasury and compliance workflows, and predictable on- and off-ramps that keep away from delays and uncertainty.

The issues that sluggish adoption are additionally simple. These are operational fragility, unclear governance round reserves and redemption, and poor integration that pushes workload onto already-stretched finance groups. When stablecoins add work, they don’t scale; after they take away work, they do.

2025 was the yr stablecoins proved they can be utilized for actual funds at a significant scale, even when that’s nonetheless a subset of whole exercise. 2026 is the yr they both mature into routine infrastructure or keep a group of promising level options.

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