Stablecoin transaction volume crossed $28 trillion globally in 2025 — more than Visa and Mastercard combined. But here’s the disconnect: most founders and venture money are still clustered in the US and Europe, while the real demand is thousands of miles away.
Nigeria alone has over 26 million crypto users. That’s more than one in eight adults, and 59% of them hold USDT. In Argentina, stablecoin purchases account for over half of all exchange transactions. Brazil saw $318.8 billion in crypto inflows through mid-2025, with more than 90% flowing through stablecoins.
The numbers tell a clear story. Sub-Saharan Africa grew 52% year-over-year, receiving over $205 billion in on-chain value. Across Latin America, stablecoin flows represent 7.7% of regional GDP according to IMF data.
Yet Stablescape, which tracks over 3,000 stablecoin and crypto-fintech companies globally, finds that 1,300 are based in the United States. Emerging markets across Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East represent just 32% of tracked companies, despite generating the majority of real-world stablecoin volume.
Alex Witt, General Partner at Verda Ventures, argues the funds backing founders in Lagos, São Paulo and Manila now will reap the biggest stablecoin returns of the next decade. It’s a fair point. The Western narrative treats stablecoins as infrastructure for sophisticated DeFi use cases, but in much of the world, they are the product — a financial lifeline in economies where local currency can’t be trusted.
The question isn’t whether emerging markets matter. It’s why so many VC portfolios still behave like that data doesn’t exist.
