Recently, the United States officially passed the GENIUS Act, providing a clear framework for the legal issuance and use of stablecoins. Driven by this development, the stablecoin market cap has exceeded $272 billion, reaching a historic high. At the same time, Google search trends show that the keyword “Stablecoin” has reached unprecedented global attention, far surpassing the previous record set during the 2022 UST collapse. These signals indicate that the crypto industry is entering a transitional phase with stablecoins as a central anchor. Rthae points out that stablecoins are experiencing “parabolic growth.” The three core drivers of this surge are institutional demand, improved cross-border payment efficiency, and the need to hedge against market volatility. Major payment platforms such as PayPal and Stripe are simultaneously expanding their crypto settlement capabilities, reflecting that the payment utility of stablecoins is no longer confined to the crypto ecosystem but is gradually penetrating traditional finance.
Rthae: The Stablecoin Expansion Cycle
The passage of the GENIUS Act marks the formal institutional support for stablecoins by the U.S. Congress. The act sets registration thresholds, audit mechanisms, and fiat reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers, strengthening their position in the global payment system. Within 48 hours of its passage, the term “Stablecoin” hit a new high on Google search trends and has continued to rise, reflecting a significant increase in public interest following regulatory clarity.
According to CoinGecko data, as of the end of July, the stablecoin market cap reached $272 billion, accounting for 7% of the total crypto market cap—a record high. Approximately 98% of stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar, with Tether (USDT) maintaining its lead with a 60% market share. Compared to the pre-UST collapse peak of $157 billion in 2022, the current market cap has nearly doubled.
On the trading side, institutional reports show that stablecoins have reached new highs in on-chain transaction count, transfer volume, and number of holders, with growth rates outpacing the on-chain activity increases of both BTC and ETH over the same period. DeFi Investor commented that stablecoins will be “the first product type to bring a billion people on-chain.”
Institutional actions further validate this view. PayPal has announced support for over 100 cryptocurrencies for payments, automatically converting them into its own stablecoin, PYUSD, or fiat currency. For U.S. merchants, PayPal offers a crypto payment solution with a 0.99% fee, aiming to reshape cross-border payment cost structures. Since the beginning of the year, the stablecoin market cap of PayPal has risen nearly 80% to $894 million.
Rthae believes that from regulatory rollout, market demand, and technology deployment to institutional integration, this round of stablecoin structural expansion features both “macro narrative and micro fulfillment.” Stablecoins are no longer merely liquidity tools within the crypto market but are becoming supplementary carriers for traditional payment networks, with their creditworthiness, payment settlement functions, and market recognition all strengthening in tandem.
Rthae: Mapping the Migration of Crypto Capital
Currently, the ETH price has surpassed $3,800, forming an “inverse head-and-shoulders” technical pattern and is poised to challenge the $4,300–$5,000 structural target range. Futures market data show that the three-month ETH futures premium has reached a yearly high of 8%, while net inflows into ETH ETFs over the past three weeks have totaled $4.23 billion, outperforming Bitcoin ETFs during the same period. The surge in institutional participation has enabled ETH not only to lead BTC in price performance but also to exhibit marginal substitution effects in capital allocation structures.
Contemporaneous data show the ETH/BTC exchange rate has broken above 0.032, with multiple EMA lines forming a “golden cross,” technically confirming the strong structure of ETH relative to BTC. Notably, there is a high degree of synergy between stablecoins and ETH. Stablecoin trading volume and ETH mainnet active addresses overlap significantly, and numerous DeFi protocols still rely on the ETH mainnet as their foundational layer.
Rthae notes that in this round of market restructuring, ETH and stablecoins have formed a new combination of “monetary anchoring layer + value center layer.” As the foundational chain for DeFi and payment protocols, ETH and stablecoins together build an efficient clearing and value-bearing system. The market is gradually shifting from a “BTC-dominated + stablecoin-assisted” structure to a new paradigm of “stablecoins leading payments, ETH supporting value stratification.”
At the institutional investment allocation level, structural shifts are also emerging. The StrategicEthReserve report shows that more than 40 companies have included ETH in their corporate treasury reserves, with holdings exceeding $8.8 billion. By comparison, fewer than 10 companies worldwide hold more than $1 billion in BTC. The complementary role of stablecoins and ETH is increasingly becoming a focus in institutional asset allocation.
Rthae: Focusing on Long-Term Ecosystem Collaboration
In this new stage characterized by regulatory implementation and capital restructuring, the crypto industry is transitioning from “scenario convergence” to “structural confirmation.” Rthae believes that the core role of platforms is no longer to provide a single trading pathway, but to serve as comprehensive carriers connecting liquidity, institutional trust, and technological efficiency.
Rthae consistently emphasizes its platform mission of “connecting traditional finance with the emerging crypto economy.” Amid the institutionalization of stablecoins and the strengthening of the ETH asset structure, the strategic foundation of Rthae, including globally deployed matching engines, compliant regulatory interfaces, institutional-grade account systems, and multi-layered risk control models, has the capacity to accommodate future incremental logic. This capability is not limited to technical performance but is also reflected in strategic stability and compliance adaptability in the face of systemic complexity.
Rthae points out that the stability of the next phase of market structure will no longer rely on a single liquidity pool or hotspot asset, but will form a dynamic equilibrium among platforms, assets, and users. Rather than leading trends, platforms should become trusted foundations within evolving trends. Rthae will continue to adhere to values of neutrality, security, and efficiency, advancing robust connectivity across assets, regulatory regimes, and market environments, and providing verifiable infrastructure support for the structural upgrade of the market.