The global stablecoin market is expanding at a pace that is increasingly difficult for European policymakers to ignore. While the European Union continues legislative and technical work on a digital euro, private dollar-backed stablecoins are growing in scale, speed, and global reach, reinforcing US monetary influence in digital payments.
Recent analysis by crypto media outlet Decrypt highlights how a small group of stablecoins are moving faster than the rest of the market in 2025. The focus is not just on size, but on velocity, how quickly new tokens are issued, circulated, and used for settlement. This distinction matters, because payments relevance depends less on market capitalisation than on transactional intensity.
At the same time, live market data from CoinGecko shows the structural reality behind these narratives. Stablecoins now represent a market worth well over $300 billion, with US dollar-denominated tokens accounting for the overwhelming majority of supply and volume. Euro-linked stablecoins remain marginal by comparison.
Speed, not just scale
According to Decrypt, incumbents such as Tether continue to expand steadily, while newer entrants are recording rapid growth from smaller bases. Some of these projects are described as “fast-moving” because of high issuance churn, rapid expansion across blockchains, or strong uptake in specific trading and payments niches.
CoinGecko’s category data helps explain why this matters. Stablecoins show unusually high turnover relative to their supply, often changing hands many times per day. This makes them functionally closer to payment instruments than to passive stores of value. Even relatively small stablecoins can become systemically relevant if they are deeply embedded in trading venues, decentralised finance protocols, or cross-border settlement flows.
The result is a market that is both highly concentrated and highly dynamic. A handful of large issuers dominate liquidity, but competition at the margins is intense, driven by fees, integration, regulatory positioning, and political signalling.
Europe’s missing currency
What stands out most clearly from CoinGecko’s key statistics is what is absent. Euro-denominated stablecoins account for only a tiny fraction of the market. There is no euro-based private digital currency with anything close to global scale, and no European alternative that rivals dollar stablecoins in velocity or adoption.
This asymmetry sits at the heart of the digital euro debate. The European Central Bank has repeatedly argued that a digital euro is needed to preserve monetary sovereignty and ensure access to public money in an increasingly digital economy. Stablecoin data now provides empirical support for that concern.
Private dollar stablecoins already function as a global settlement layer, not only in crypto markets but increasingly in cross-border payments and tokenised finance. Their dominance effectively extends the dollar’s reach into new digital infrastructures, often outside the direct control of European authorities.
Why timing matters
The ECB’s digital euro project remains in a preparatory phase, with legislation still under negotiation and no launch decision taken. In contrast, stablecoin issuers can scale quickly, responding to market demand in weeks rather than years.
This timing gap carries strategic implications. Even if the digital euro eventually launches with strong privacy and offline features, it will enter a market where user habits, merchant integrations, and developer ecosystems are already shaped by dollar-based instruments.
For European policymakers, the lesson from stablecoin market data is not that public money must imitate private crypto products. It is that payments relevance is earned through usability, reach, and reliability. Without a credible European digital alternative, private stablecoins will continue to fill the vacuum.
As stablecoins become faster, larger, and more embedded in everyday financial plumbing, the cost of waiting rises. The data now makes clear that the digital euro is not competing with hypothetical future risks, but with a private dollar system that already exists at scale.