From Niche to Mainstream: How Stablecoin Tech Just Quietly Outpaced Visa
Lila: John, I just saw a headline that completely stopped me in my tracks. It said something about stablecoin infrastructure being faster than Visa? That can’t be right. I always thought blockchain was notoriously slow and clunky. Did I miss something huge?
John: Hey Lila! That’s a fantastic question, and you’re right to be skeptical. The headline is a bit sensational, but the underlying fact is real and incredibly significant. We’re not talking about the number of individual transactions, like buying a coffee, but something even more important: total settlement volume. And yes, in that arena, stablecoins have just hit a massive milestone.
The Trillion-Dollar Milestone: What “Surpassing Visa” Actually Means
Lila: Okay, “settlement volume.” That sounds like financial jargon. Can you break that down for me? What’s the difference between that and just… transactions?
John: Absolutely. Think of it this way:
- Transaction Count: This is the total number of individual payments. Visa and Mastercard process billions of these for everyday purchases, and they are still the undisputed leaders here.
- Settlement Volume: This is the total dollar value moved across the network. It’s less about how many transactions there are and more about how much money is being settled.
In the past, legacy payment rails like Visa have dominated this space. For example, in 2022, Visa’s network settled around $11.6 trillion, while stablecoins were already close behind, settling over $11 trillion.
Lila: Wow, that was already surprisingly close! So what happened since then?
John: This is where it gets exciting. According to data from early 2024, the tables have officially turned. Currently, a report from Brevan Howard Digital confirmed that in 2023, the total on-chain settlement volume for stablecoins reached $12.4 trillion. For the same period, Visa reported a total volume of $12.3 trillion. For the first time, a blockchain-based system has moved more economic value in a year than one of the world’s largest payment processors. It’s a quiet revolution that has been building for years.
The Tech Behind the Numbers: From Slow Chains to Superhighways
Lila: That’s incredible! But it brings me back to my first question. How is this possible if blockchains like Ethereum have historically been slow and expensive to use?
John: You’ve hit on the core of the problem that developers have been working to solve for years. In the past, you were absolutely right. Using Ethereum directly for every transaction was like trying to drive all the world’s traffic down a single-lane road. It led to high gas fees (tolls) and long waits during peak times. This was a major bottleneck that prevented mainstream adoption.
Lila: So what’s the new, multi-lane superhighway then?
John: The solution has been the rise of Layer 2 scaling solutions. Think of them as express highways built on top of Ethereum’s main road. Blockchains like Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism are the most well-known examples. They work by bundling up thousands of transactions off the main chain, processing them quickly and cheaply, and then submitting a single, verified record back to the Ethereum mainnet for security. This gives you the best of both worlds: speed and low cost from the Layer 2, with the security and decentralization of Ethereum.
Alchemy’s Role: The Invisible Engine Powering the Ecosystem
Lila: Okay, that makes sense. So companies and apps are building on these Layer 2s instead of directly on Ethereum. But who keeps these “highways” running smoothly for developers? Is that where Alchemy comes in?
John: Exactly. You can think of Alchemy as the “AWS for Web3.” Just as web developers use Amazon Web Services so they don’t have to build their own servers, blockchain developers use platforms like Alchemy so they don’t have to run their own complex blockchain infrastructure. Alchemy provides the tools, data, and connections—known as nodes—that applications need to communicate with blockchains reliably and at scale.
Lila: The original article I saw mentioned a “new blockchain engine” from Alchemy that powers “70% of the market.” Is that what’s making everything so fast?
John: That’s the one. The “engine” isn’t a single product but rather Alchemy’s entire high-performance platform, especially their infrastructure called Supernode. They’ve invested heavily in making sure data retrieval and transaction submissions on these Layer 2s are incredibly fast and dependable. The “70% of the market” claim is also key—according to Alchemy, their platform is used by 70% of the top Ethereum applications. When the most-used apps are running on hyper-optimized infrastructure, the performance of the whole ecosystem gets a massive boost.
Lila: So Alchemy is like the expert crew that paves and maintains the Layer 2 superhighways, making sure there are no potholes for the developers building on them.
John: That’s a perfect analogy! By providing this reliable foundation, they’ve played a huge part in enabling stablecoins to handle such massive settlement volumes.
What This Means for the Future
Lila: This is all fascinating. So, what’s the big takeaway? Looking ahead, does this mean I’ll be ditching my credit card for stablecoins to buy groceries next year?
John: Haha, probably not for groceries just yet. While consumer payments are a long-term goal, the immediate impact is more foundational. Looking ahead, this milestone proves that the underlying technology is now robust enough for serious, large-scale financial activities. We’re seeing this infrastructure being used for:
- B2B Payments: Businesses moving large sums of money across borders without waiting days for bank transfers to clear.
- Remittances: Sending money internationally with much lower fees than traditional services.
- The Creator & Metaverse Economy: Providing the financial plumbing for new digital economies where value needs to move instantly and globally.
This isn’t about replacing Visa tomorrow. It’s about proving that a parallel, programmable, and highly efficient financial system is no longer just a theory—it’s here, and it’s operating at a multi-trillion-dollar scale.
John: The key takeaway is that the quiet, behind-the-scenes work on infrastructure is what truly drives innovation. This milestone wasn’t about hype; it was about developers building the tools that finally allowed blockchain to fulfill one of its core promises: moving value at the speed of the internet.
Lila: I get it now. The real story is the invisible plumbing. It’s less about the coin itself and more about the powerful engine making it all work on a global scale!
This article was created based on publicly available, verified sources. References:
- Original Source
- CoinDesk: Stablecoin Settlement Volumes on Public Blockchains Top Visa’s in 2023: Brevan Howard Digital
- Alchemy Blog: Introducing the New Alchemy
- The Block: Stablecoin settlement volume on public blockchains surpassed Visa last year: Brevan Howard