[00:00] Stable coins now move around $76 billion every&nbsp; weekend. That's a number that makes you check&nbsp;&nbsp; if someone accidentally added an extra zero and&nbsp; then check again just to be safe. Stable coins&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:12] used to be the boring bit of crypto, right? They&nbsp; were the digital dollars traders parked in while&nbsp;&nbsp; deciding whether to ape into Bitcoin or rotate&nbsp; into altcoins. But according to a new report&nbsp;&nbsp; from a leading name in the industry, that version&nbsp; of stable coins has evolved into something much,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:27] much bigger. So today, we're diving into that&nbsp; report to see what it found, where the biggest&nbsp;&nbsp; growth is happening, and whether stable coins&nbsp; are becoming one of the most important pieces&nbsp;&nbsp; of financial infrastructure in the world. My name&nbsp; is Louis, and you're watching the Coin Bureau. So,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:43] without further ado, the report we're looking&nbsp; at today comes from Binance Research titled&nbsp;&nbsp; Stablecoin: Transforming the Financial Landscape.&nbsp; We'll just be looking at the main takeaways from&nbsp;&nbsp; the report today, but we'll link the full report&nbsp; down below if you want to dig deep yourself. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:00] what is the Binance Research Report actually&nbsp; saying? Well, the simple version is this.&nbsp;&nbsp; Stable coins are changing jobs. They started out&nbsp; as crypto's waiting room. You sold Bitcoin, parked&nbsp;&nbsp; in USDT or USDC, had a little think, maybe made a&nbsp; coffee, and then jumped right back into the next&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:18] trade. But the report argues that stable coins are&nbsp; no longer just where money waits. Increasingly,&nbsp;&nbsp; they are where money actually lives. The report&nbsp; frames this using a very old idea from economics.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:31] Money usually has three jobs. It stores value,&nbsp; it moves value, and it settles value. In normal&nbsp;&nbsp; human English, that means that money should&nbsp; help you save, pay, and finalize transactions.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:45] Binance research says that stable coins are&nbsp; now starting to do all three. So less casino&nbsp;&nbsp; chip between trades and more digital dollar with&nbsp; a passport, a bank account, and apparently no need&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:57] for downtime. So different people are using stable&nbsp; coins for very different reasons. For one person,&nbsp;&nbsp; a stable coin might be a way to protect savings&nbsp; from a weak local currency. For another, it might&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:09] be the cheapest way to send money overseas. For a&nbsp; trader, it might be a settlement layer that keeps&nbsp;&nbsp; working after traditional markets have gone&nbsp; home for the weekend and put on sweatpants.&nbsp;&nbsp; The first major signal Binance Research points to&nbsp; is not volume, but behavior. The report says that&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:26] among Binance users with at least $10 in portfolio&nbsp; value, 30% now hold more than half their portfolio&nbsp;&nbsp; in stable coins. Back in 2020, that figure&nbsp; was just 4%. Now, that is a massive shift. And&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:41] then there is the yield angle. According to the&nbsp; report, Binance Earn claims to have distributed&nbsp;&nbsp; around $1.2 billion in stable coin rewards since&nbsp; 2022. Now, that is not the same as saying this is&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:54] risk-free income, cuz it is absolutely not. But&nbsp; it does show that stable coin holders do not just&nbsp;&nbsp; want dollars sitting in there doing nothing. They&nbsp; want those dollars to at least get off the sofa&nbsp;&nbsp; and do a few chores for them. The report compares&nbsp; historical onchain dollar yields of around 2% to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:11] 4% with US national savings deposits average of&nbsp; 0.38%. For someone in a developed market, that&nbsp;&nbsp; may sound like a better savings product. But for&nbsp; someone in an economy with high inflation, limited&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:25] dollar access, or weak banking options, it could&nbsp; really make a difference, giving them access to&nbsp;&nbsp; a financial tool they simply did not have before.&nbsp; But so far, the most revealing part is premiums.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:37] Binance research says that 87% of fiat currencies&nbsp; trade at a premium when used to buy stable coins.&nbsp;&nbsp; And that premium rises with inflation, about 4%&nbsp; in normal inflation environments, 27% in high&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:51] inflation economies, and 62% in hyperinflation&nbsp; economies. And let's be honest, nobody pays 62%&nbsp;&nbsp; extra because the app looks pretty. that just&nbsp; signals urgency. So, the takeaway here is pretty&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:06] clear. Binance research is arguing that stable&nbsp; coin demand is evolving from traders chasing the&nbsp;&nbsp; next move to people trying to preserve value,&nbsp; access dollar-like assets or earn a yield that&nbsp;&nbsp; traditional options may not offer them. And when&nbsp; the users are both holding stable coins in larger&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:22] amounts and paying premiums to get them, that&nbsp; shows you that there is very strong demand. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp; before we continue, you could probably tell by&nbsp; now that there is a lot to keep up with here. So,&nbsp;&nbsp; if you want to stay on top of what's happening&nbsp; in crypto without trying to decode the entire&nbsp;&nbsp;
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[04:53] Okay, the next question is where is all of this&nbsp; stable coin activity actually sitting? According&nbsp;&nbsp; to Binance research, exchange stable coin reserves&nbsp; have grown to around $93 billion and Binance alone&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:06] holds about $53 billion of that. I mean, that is&nbsp; $42 billion more than the next ranked exchange.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, reserves are not the whole story here, but&nbsp; they are a pretty important clue. We could think&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:19] of them like fuel in a tank. The more stable coin&nbsp; liquidity sitting on a platform, the more users&nbsp;&nbsp; can trade, pay, earn yield, move collateral,&nbsp; or settle transactions from one place. And this&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:31] is where we need to keep the tone balanced. The&nbsp; report clearly shows that centralized exchanges&nbsp;&nbsp; are still a major hub for stable coins. That could&nbsp; be convenient because users can do many things&nbsp;&nbsp; in one ecosystem instead of jumping between 10&nbsp; different apps like some crypto obstacle course.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:48] But it also raises concentration questions. If&nbsp; too much stable coin activity gathers around&nbsp;&nbsp; a small number of platforms, then transparency,&nbsp; regulation, security, and operational resilience&nbsp;&nbsp; become even more important. The report also&nbsp; argues that big exchange ecosystems can help&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:05] newer stable coins scale quickly. One example it&nbsp; gives is United Stable or U, which reportedly grew&nbsp;&nbsp; from around $5 million in market cap to over $1&nbsp; billion by mid 2026. Another example is USD1,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:20] which the report says added more than $1.4 billion&nbsp; or 43% during the same period. The simple way to&nbsp;&nbsp; think about this is shelf space. If a new stable&nbsp; coin gets liquidity, users, and integrations&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:33] inside a large ecosystem, it is not sitting in&nbsp; a quiet back alley of the internet anymore. It&nbsp;&nbsp; is suddenly in the shopping mall. But apart from&nbsp; exchanges alone, it is also about currency. Stable&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:45] coins are still overwhelmingly dollar denominated,&nbsp; but Binance Research says non-dollar demand is&nbsp;&nbsp; becoming more visible. Local currency stable&nbsp; coins, including Euri, AUR, and KGST, have passed&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:00] $5 billion in cumulative trading volume on Binance&nbsp; since 2025. The report also says average monthly&nbsp;&nbsp; volume is around $316 million. then that makes&nbsp; sense because let's be real, not everyone earns&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:13] in dollars, pays bills in dollars, or thinks about&nbsp; risks in dollars. For a European user or business,&nbsp;&nbsp; for example, a euro stable coin may simply be&nbsp; more practical than constantly routing everything&nbsp;&nbsp; through a dollar stable coin. Right? So, the&nbsp; takeaway here is that stable coin infrastructure&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:29] is getting deeper in two directions at once. On&nbsp; one side, liquidity is concentrating around major&nbsp;&nbsp; exchange rails. On the other, the currency mix is&nbsp; slowly broadening beyond just the US dollar. Put&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:42] those together and the story of the stable coins&nbsp; seems to be moving towards more distribution,&nbsp;&nbsp; more infrastructure, and gradually more ways for&nbsp; different users around the world to actually use&nbsp;&nbsp; them. Let's make one thing clear. Market&nbsp; cap tells you how many stable coins exist.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:58] Transactions tell you whether people are doing&nbsp; anything useful with them. Think of it like cars.&nbsp;&nbsp; Counting supply is like counting how many cars are&nbsp; in the garage. Transaction data tells you whether&nbsp;&nbsp; anyone is actually driving. According to Binance&nbsp; research, BNB chain averages around 10 million&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:15] stable coin transactions per day with about 15&nbsp; million monthly active stable coin addresses. The&nbsp;&nbsp; report also says BNB chain has processed over 5.3&nbsp; billion stable coin transactions since 2025. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:29] not every transaction equals a coffee purchase&nbsp; or a remittance payment, obviously, but high&nbsp;&nbsp; transaction count and active addresses do suggest&nbsp; that stable coins are being used repeatedly,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:41] not just sitting around looking pretty in wallets.&nbsp; Oh, and then there is Binance Pay. The report says&nbsp;&nbsp; monthly merchant payment volume has grown 114%&nbsp; yearonear and stable coins account for 98% of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:54] total payment volume. Even more interesting,&nbsp; the median merchant ticket size rose from&nbsp;&nbsp; $10 in 2025 to $18 in 2026. That may seem like&nbsp; a small jump, but that's how it starts. People&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:07] usually test new payment tools with small amounts&nbsp; first. It is like trying a new food delivery app.&nbsp;&nbsp; You start with an easy meal. If that works, maybe&nbsp; next time it's groceries. Bigger payments usually&nbsp;&nbsp; mean more confidence. Now, let's focus on the&nbsp; regional layer a bit. And the simple takeaway&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:22] is this. Different regions use stable coins&nbsp; for different jobs. In some places, the main&nbsp;&nbsp; use case is saving. In others, it is transfers.&nbsp; And in more developed trading markets, it can be&nbsp;&nbsp; settlement. For example, East Asia and the Pacific&nbsp; accounts for around 70% of Binance earned stable&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:39] coin balances. MENA is the fastest growing earn&nbsp; region with its share rising from 5.53% to 9.21%.&nbsp;&nbsp; Latin America and the Caribbean saw stablecoin&nbsp; transfer share rise from 17 to 38%. And North&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:54] America excluding the US posted the largest&nbsp; gain in local currency stable coin trading.&nbsp;&nbsp; So the big picture looks pretty simple. Stable&nbsp; coin adoption is becoming more practical but&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:06] also more local. The same asset can be a savings&nbsp; tool in one country, a remittance rail in another,&nbsp;&nbsp; and a trading settlement layer somewhere else.&nbsp; Same stable coin, different job description, and&nbsp;&nbsp; it will be exciting to see how the regions keep&nbsp; evolving. Now, we get to the part of the report&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:23] that feels the most futuristic money that never&nbsp; sleeps. So, we know that traditional finance still&nbsp;&nbsp; has a lot of please come back Monday energy. Banks&nbsp; close, markets pause, and settlement windows still&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:38] behave like they need a lunch break. Stable coins&nbsp; don't really work like that. Binance Research says&nbsp;&nbsp; adjusted stable coin transfers average around $76&nbsp; billion every weekend or about $ 38 billion per&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:51] day. The report compares that with Visa's average&nbsp; daily transaction volume of roughly $40 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp; And speaking of weekends, Financial News does not&nbsp; politely wait for opening hours. A macro shock,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:04] currency move, or market panic can happen on&nbsp; a Saturday. Traditional rails may be asleep,&nbsp;&nbsp; but stable coin rails are still awake, still&nbsp; moving, and probably overcaffeinated as the&nbsp;&nbsp; numbers duly suggest. Oh, and then there are AI&nbsp; agent payments, which sounds slightly sci-fi until&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:22] you see the numbers. The report says the median&nbsp; X42 payment size is just 34, while machine payment&nbsp;&nbsp; protocol transactions are around 8 cents. Credit&nbsp; cards were not really built for one robot paying&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:34] another robot pocket change to complete some tiny&nbsp; internet task. This just makes stable coins so&nbsp;&nbsp; interesting here. For very small programmable&nbsp; payments, traditional fees can be larger than&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:46] the payment itself, which is obviously a problem.&nbsp; It is like paying a $5 delivery fee for one grape.&nbsp;&nbsp; Technically possible, emotionally upsetting.&nbsp; The report also points to onchain FX. Non-doll&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:00] stable coin pairs have reached over $3 billion&nbsp; in volume year to date in 2026, up 670% versus&nbsp;&nbsp; the comparable period in 2024. Now, compared with&nbsp; the global FX market, which turns over more than&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:15] $7.5 trillion per day, that is still tiny. But&nbsp; I believe that when tiny things are growing this&nbsp;&nbsp; fast, they are on their way to something big. And&nbsp; finally, Binance Research sketches out the bigger&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:29] idea, a payment stack with fewer intermediaries.&nbsp; That means savings, trading, paying, borrowing,&nbsp;&nbsp; transferring, and swapping currencies without&nbsp; constantly jumping through banks, card networks,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:42] and FX middlemen. That is not guaranteed,&nbsp; and regulation still has its say, but it is&nbsp;&nbsp; clearly the direction that the report wants us&nbsp; to pay attention to. So when the report calls&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:54] this money that never sleeps, that may sound like&nbsp; some catchy phrase, but it is actually describing&nbsp;&nbsp; money that can move when banks are closed, when&nbsp; markets are shut, and even when the user is not&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:06] a person at all. So is this a mic drop or what?&nbsp; So after all of that, the big takeaway from this&nbsp;&nbsp; Binance research report is pretty simple. Stable&nbsp; coins are no longer just sitting in the background&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:18] of crypto. They are being used to save value, move&nbsp; value, and settle value. Or in even simpler terms,&nbsp;&nbsp; people are holding them, sending them, spending&nbsp; them, and building financial workflows around&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:30] them. And what makes this interesting is that&nbsp; these use cases are not all coming from the same&nbsp;&nbsp; place. In one region, stable coins may be about&nbsp; protecting savings. In another, they may be about&nbsp;&nbsp; cheaper transfers. For traders, they may be about&nbsp; 24/7 settlements. And for AI agents, apparently&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:47] they can be about paying each other tiny amounts&nbsp; of money to do tiny robot things. But of course,&nbsp;&nbsp; none of this means stable coins are risk-free.&nbsp; Peg stability, reserve transparency, regulation,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:00] exchange risk, and concentration across major&nbsp; platforms are all still and all still do have&nbsp;&nbsp; a lot of influence on how things turn out. So&nbsp; the point is not that stable coins magically fix&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:13] finance. The point is that according to Binance&nbsp; research, they are becoming harder and harder&nbsp;&nbsp; for finance to ignore as they become a core part&nbsp; of the global economy. And that is all that we&nbsp;&nbsp; have time for for today. But what do you think?&nbsp; Are stable coins the future of all finance or is&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:30] there a little bit too much hype here? Let us&nbsp; know your thoughts down in the comments below.&nbsp;&nbsp; And if you want to find out why stable coins are&nbsp; prime competitors for the likes of JP Morgan,&nbsp;&nbsp; well, you can watch our video on that right over&nbsp; here. That is all from me for today and as always,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:48] thanks for watching and I'll see you again&nbsp; in the next one. This is Louis signing off.