Five Ways Stablecoins Will Reshape Payments in 2026
Like so many other emerging technologies, stablecoin adoption appears to be following an S-curve, characterized by three phases: slow initial adoption, a rapid acceleration period, and finally, maturation. At Rain, we believe we’re in the early days of this middle stage.
The total market capitalization for stablecoins grew by roughly $100 billion in 2025, now exceeding $300 billion for the first time in history. As the infrastructure improves, institutional adoption increases, and real-world use cases become more clear, the stablecoin market is poised for major disruption in 2026.
Here are our top predictions for the year ahead:
1. Real-world stablecoin payments will exceed trading volume
2025 saw an increase in stablecoin usage for retail spending and B2B payments, but data shows that consumer transactions still make up a relatively small portion of total stablecoin volume. That will change in 2026.
Today, stablecoins are the largest driver of onchain liquidity, but next year, we expect they will no longer be used simply to trade other crypto assets. On the enterprise side, businesses will increasingly look to stablecoins as an operational tool as opposed to just balance sheet exposure.
Legacy rails force treasury teams to hold excess buffers, pre-fund accounts, and accept delayed settlement, particularly when it comes to cross-border payments. Stablecoins offer a different model: continuous settlement rather than batch-based with real-time visibility. Treasury teams can centralize liquidity instead of fragmenting cash across multinational accounts.
In 2026, more than half of stablecoin transaction volume will originate from payments, treasury flows, and consumer spending.
2. “Chain agnostic” will become the baseline expectation
As stablecoins become the standard for payments and settlement, interoperability will be a top concern for users.
Mobile phone networks are a good parallel: in the early days of cell phones, users were locked into a single carrier, forcing them to pay high roaming fees and deal with spotty coverage. Over time, compatibility won. Today, our phones work all over the world and we don’t give it a second thought.
Stablecoins must follow a similar path in order for adoption to accelerate, and that’s why Rain acquired Fern this year. Fern’s cross-chain routing engine, known as the Multiplex, will underscore Rain’s future cross-chain bridging capabilities, improving liquidity and allowing companies to more easily move between fiat and crypto.
In 2026, the industry-wide expectation will be that stablecoins can move across chains and rails seamlessly. Platforms that lock value into one chain will face challenges scaling.
3. Stablecoin-powered consumer cards will become a standard offering
It isn’t consumer demand driving stablecoin-powered card growth, it’s brands looking for more efficient payment infrastructure. Traditional card programs are capital intensive and come with high prefunding requirements and fragmented liquidity.
Rain’s onchain solution offers faster settling and better liquidity, providing partners with a radically more capital efficient option.
Marketplaces, creator platforms, fintech apps, exchanges, and global consumer brands can all embed payments without building complex banking stacks or managing dozens of regional accounts, or without their users knowing stablecoins are involved at all.
In 2026, consumer card programs that draw on stablecoin-backed balances will become a default offering across fintechs, exchanges, creator platforms, and global apps.
4. More value will stay onchain, making off-ramps less important
As stablecoins increasingly function as global digital dollars, the need to constantly convert back to fiat currencies declines.
When payments, payrolls, remittances, and settlement can happen outside of traditional bank rails, users are less dependent on cashing out. As use cases expand and stablecoin adoption increases, offramps are less critical.
At Rain, our focus is on turning onchain value into everyday spend, allowing users and businesses to operate directly from stablecoin balances. As more value circulates within these ecosystems, off-ramps become less central to payment flows and more of a supporting function.
In 2026, stablecoin off-ramps will become less central to stablecoin-powered payment flows.
5. Agentic payments are going to turn to stablecoins
Agentic payments, transactions initiated and executed by AI agents, are already using stablecoins, and we expect this trend to continue next year.
As AI agents take on more responsibility managing business operations like supply chains and treasuries, stablecoins will be the logical choice as the settlement layer. Fiat money is embedded in systems designed around human constraints. Stablecoins provide an alternative, allowing agents to engage in financial transactions without sacrificing security.
In 2026, stablecoins will become the preferred medium of exchange for agentic payments.
If 2025 was characterized as the year stablecoins scaled, 2026 will be the year they prove their utility. Stablecoins will move from an emerging asset class to foundational financial infrastructure, and the acceleration phase is already underway.
