Stablecoins are no longer a side conversation in digital finance. With transaction volumes rising, regulators moving faster and major institutions building around blockchain-based settlement, the question for investors is now where the pressure lands first.
Dinis Guarda argues that the biggest shift is already under way. As Founder and CEO of ztudium, he has spent more than two decades working across fintech, blockchain, artificial intelligence and digital transformation, with experience spanning financial platforms, advisory work and global technology ecosystems. His work has been recognized by Thinkers360, Forbes and Cryptoweekly, and he is widely positioned as a voice on the future of digital finance and emerging technology.
In this exclusive interview with the Champions Speakers Agency, Guarda discusses why stablecoins are becoming part of mainstream financial infrastructure, which sectors face the most disruption, and why regulatory clarity around the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act could shape the next phase of institutional digital asset adoption.
Q1. Stablecoins are moving closer to mainstream payments and financial infrastructure. Which sectors are most exposed if adoption keeps growing: banks, payment networks, exchanges, remittance firms or fintech platforms?
This question contains its own answer: stablecoins are not moving closer to mainstream — they are already there. The data makes this abundantly clear. Total stablecoin transaction volume hit $33 trillion in 2025, up 72% year on year.
By August 2025, stablecoins accounted for 30% of all on-chain crypto transaction volume — their highest annual share on record — and the Federal Reserve has noted aggregate market capitalisation reaching $317 billion by April 2026, representing more than 50% growth since early 2025.
Citi GPS has revised its 2030 stablecoin issuance forecast upward to a base case of $1.9 trillion, with a bull scenario of $4.0 trillion.
The real challenge is not adoption velocity. It is the way the market is deeply fragmented and there is an alarming absence of coordinated institutional governance.
What we are witnessing is a two-speed adoption dynamic: major institutional players — Visa, Mastercard, JPMorgan, BlackRock, Coinbase, Circle — are building stablecoin infrastructure at scale, whilst regulatory frameworks, interoperability standards, and cross-border settlement corridors remain deeply uneven across jurisdictions.
This creates structural inequality. Those with …
