Stablecoin Transactions Surpassed Visa’s in Q1: Bitwise

There were more stablecoin transactions in the first quarter of 2025 than there were Visa transactions, notes the Bitwise Crypto Market Review for Q1 2025, which looks at various metrics in what it calls “The Best Worst Quarter in Crypto's History.”

Bitwise is a cryptocurrency investment firm that specializes in managing crypto index funds.

CIO Matt Hougan highlighted that from a political and regulatory perspective, Q1 was “historically positive,” with a new pro-crypto President making digital assets and especially stablecoins a national priority, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropping numerous high-profile crypto lawsuits. But crypto prices fell sharply after a brief post-election surge, he noted.

“It’s fair to ask: What happens next?” he said. “Will improving fundamentals lift crypto to new all-time highs, or is all the good news already priced in?”

Stablecoin Volumes Surge

The stablecoin transactions were only a little ahead of Visa, but compared to previous years, it’s clear that stablecoin use has taken a major leap.

Hougan noted that stablecoin transaction volume was up more than 30%.

That’s on top of stablecoins’ assets under management (AUM) surging “to an all-time high of over $218 billion, up 13.5% quarter-over-quarter,” he said. The market capitalization of stablecoins has since surged to $237 billion.

“However big you think stablecoin AUM will get, you're probably thinking too small,” Hougan said on X recently. “So, the question becomes: What does the rest of the crypto market look like if stablecoin AUM is multiple trillions?”

Real-world Assets Spike

Then there’s the value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA), which spiked from about $14 billion to $19 billion. That’s up from about $9 billion in Q1 of 2024.

Specifically, demand for tokenized U.S. Treasuries continues to surge, driving the sector from a little more than $2 billion in Q4 of 2024 to nearly $4.5 billion this quarter.

DeFi-ing Expectations

While venture capital funding rose faster than it has in any of the last 6 quarters, it’s interesting to note that DeFi projects attracted their second-highest investments ever, after Q1 of 2022.

Two of the top 10 venture funding deals were DeFi-focused, with the Trump family-connected World Liberty Financial project bringing in $590 million, and Ethena raising $100 million to build infrastructure for the creation of synthetic yield-bearing stablecoins.

In all, DeFi projects accounted for 18% of the fundraising in Q1, putting it on par with infrastructure projects. Crypto financial services accounted for 58% of the funds raised, and tokenization projects took in 5%.