The map of money is not the map of capital

The asymmetry between where stablecoins are used and where they are built

Caio Barbosa

Founder & CO-CEO

Forbes Under 30. One of the leading voices in Fintech & Crypto in Brazil. Writes weekly about stablecoins, payments, and the future of financial infrastructure in Latin America.

Cover image for Lumx blog article: The map of money is not the map of capital

Stable News is Lumx's weekly curation dedicated to tracking the major moves in stablecoins, digital infrastructure, and the future of global payments.

Building on the points raised in the last edition and the takeaways from the Stablecoin Conference, the week offered a good opportunity to look at the global stablecoin map and notice that it is drawn unevenly. Real volume is in emerging markets, but venture capital and founders remain concentrated elsewhere. In parallel, three major monetary authorities moved at very different speeds, and to close, an interesting story about the relationship between consumers and AI.

The stablecoin founder map doesn't match the volume map

In brief:

Stablecoin volume surpassed $28 trillion in 2025, exceeding Visa and Mastercard combined
Emerging markets generate the majority of real-world usage, but account for only 32% of tracked companies
Analysis by Alex Witt, General Partner at Verda Ventures, in an opinion essay published on Decrypt

Alex Witt, General Partner at Verda Ventures, published an essay on Decrypt that deserves attention. The central argument is a geographic asymmetry: stablecoin transaction volume crossed $28 trillion in 2025, above Visa and Mastercard combined, but real demand is concentrated in markets that most venture funds have never visited. Nigeria has more than 26 million crypto users, with 59% of them holding USDT. In Argentina, stablecoin purchases already account for more than half of all exchange transactions. Brazil recorded $318.8 billion in crypto inflows through mid-2025, with more than 90% flowing through stablecoins.

Witt's construction is direct about where the mismatch lies. The Stablescape platform tracks more than 3,000 stablecoin and crypto-fintech companies, and 1,300 of them are in the United States. Entire emerging markets, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, account for just 32% of companies, despite generating the majority of real-world volume. His reading is that the Western institutional layer is already contested by BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity, leaving little room for startups. Where there is real space is in the on/off-ramp infrastructure of emerging markets, where 57% of companies are founded locally, with corridor knowledge that outsiders take years to replicate.

The point that connects to what is observed week after week is the idea that in these markets, stablecoins do not improve a system that already works. They are the first reliable access to the dollar for people living under triple-digit inflation, currency controls, or failing banks. Witt cites the case of El Dorado, a stablecoin super-app that crossed 600,000 users and became the most downloaded crypto app in Venezuela before receiving capital from funds like Multicoin and Coinbase Ventures. The sequence he identifies, volume first, local validation second, global capital last, is exactly the kind of movement that defines who operates with genuine proximity to the corridor. For those building infrastructure in Latin America, it is more of a thesis confirmation than a revelation.

Worth highlighting in this context: Lumx's Stablecoin Operator Map, an open map built for the community, designed to chart the companies transforming Latin America. Click here to explore it.

People's Bank of China says it needs to watch stablecoins' cross-border role more closely

In brief:

Wang Xin, director of the PBOC's Research Bureau, called for closer monitoring and international coordination
The remarks come months after China banned unauthorized issuance of yuan-denominated stablecoins (Feb/26)
The stablecoin market pulled back to ~$315 billion after reaching $322 billion

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) signaled that it is paying closer attention to stablecoins as they gain weight in the international monetary system. Wang Xin, director general of the PBOC's Research Bureau, called on authorities to closely monitor the impact of stablecoins while improving international coordination and regulation, according to a report by Chinese outlet The Paper. In his words, attention is needed to "whether stablecoins will play a more important role in cross-border payments, and how regulation, coordination, and international cooperation should proceed." He also warned of the risk that potential "weaponization" of payments could disrupt normal cross-border transactions.

Context matters for understanding the significance of the move. Wang advocated stronger supervision and cautious exploration, but did not endorse stablecoins or announce any policy change. The remarks come months after China, on February 6, banned the unauthorized issuance of stablecoins pegged to the renminbi and tokenized real-world assets, a rule that applied to both domestic and foreign entities, covering onshore and offshore versions of the yuan and reinforcing the country's preference for state-controlled digital money.

The relevant reading is one of tone. When the world's second-largest economy, which has historically preferred the sovereign CBDC path, publicly acknowledges that it needs to monitor the role of private stablecoins in cross-border flows, it is an admission that the instrument has already reached global systemic scale. It is worth noting that, according to CEX.io data cited in the report, stablecoin transaction volume surpassed $28 trillion in the first quarter, even as the firm estimates that roughly 76% of that volume is bot-generated. The total market pulled back to around $315 billion after touching $322 billion. China watching from the outside is, in itself, a signal of how central this infrastructure has become.

SBI acquires Bitbank for $289 million and expands its digital asset ecosystem in Japan

In brief:

A ¥46.7 billion ($289 million) deal creates Japan's largest crypto exchange
Combined with SBI VC Trade: ~¥1.1 trillion under custody and ~2.92 million accounts
In the same week, SBI launched the yen stablecoin JPYSC and, with Ripple, brought RLUSD to Japan

As covered in edition #133, the potential acquisition of Bitbank by SBI Holdings was a signal that Japan and South Korea were building parallel positions as Asian stablecoin hubs. Now the move has taken definitive shape: SBI signed agreements to take full control of Bitbank in a ¥46.7 billion transaction, roughly $289 million, creating the country's largest crypto exchange. The deal is expected to close around October, subject to regulatory approval. Combining Bitbank with SBI VC Trade, the group will hold approximately ¥1.1 trillion under custody and around 2.92 million crypto accounts.

The acquisition is the most visible piece of an ecosystem SBI has been assembling in layers. In February, the company launched Strium with Startale, a layer-1 blockchain designed for 24/7 settlement of tokenized equities and real-world assets. And the exchange does not arrive alone at the stablecoin table: in the same week as the announcement, SBI and Startale launched JPYSC, a yen-pegged stablecoin issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, initially restricted to transfers within SBI VC Trade accounts until pending legal and tax matters are resolved for circulation on a public blockchain.

The detail that completes the picture is the arrival of the tokenized dollar through the same door. On the same day, Ripple and SBI Group launched RLUSD in Japan, also via SBI VC Trade, with the token made available to institutional and retail clients following approval under Japan's framework for externally issued stablecoins. The full setup, then, is a single financial group offering a regulated exchange, a settlement blockchain, a local-currency stablecoin, and a tokenized dollar, all under one roof. It is the Asian hub blueprint that Japan has been pursuing for over a year, now with concrete distribution in place.

Bank of England publishes stablecoin rules and opens the door to a 2027 launch

In brief:

Issuers of systemic stablecoins will be able to hold up to 70% of reserves in interest-bearing government debt, up from 60% in the prior proposal
Individual holding limits replaced by a temporary £40 billion (~$52.8 billion) issuance cap
UK aims to finalize the rulebook by end of 2026 for a 2027 launch

Edition #131 noted that the Bank of England had acknowledged being overly conservative and signaled it would loosen its rules. Now the retreat has become text: the BoE published a policy statement and preliminary rules for systemic stablecoins, those widely used in payments and capable of posing risk to the country's financial stability. Issuers will be allowed to hold up to 70% of reserves in interest-bearing government debt, up from 60% in the earlier proposal, and individual holding limits have been replaced by a temporary £40 billion issuance cap, roughly $52.8 billion. The bank indicated this safeguard will be reviewed regularly and removed once risks to credit supply have been addressed.

The move replaces the limits proposed in the November 2025 consultation, which would have restricted individuals to £20,000 and companies to £10 million per stablecoin. At the time, the BoE argued the limits were necessary to prevent a large-scale outflow of deposits from the banking system that could reduce credit supply. The new approach pursues the same policy objective while allowing unrestricted use by households and businesses. Katie Harries, Coinbase's head of policy for Europe, observed that the UK is now the only country to impose an issuance cap on a stablecoin denominated in its own currency — and left two questions open: what "temporary" means in practice, and whether these stablecoins will be usable for settlement in wholesale markets, without which the country's tokenization ambitions will not materialize.

The broader reading connects the UK to the same regulatory chessboard followed over recent weeks. Mark Fairless, CEO of ClearBank, called the retreat from holding limits a positive step, but warned that more work is needed on reserve requirements to avoid restricting sustainable business models, and that a genuinely risk-based framework would be preferable, "or the UK risks leaving sterling stablecoins at the starting line while other markets move ahead." The regime will apply only to stablecoins deemed systemic, with all others remaining under FCA supervision. With the rulebook targeting end of 2026 and a launch planned for 2027, London enters the race more clearly, a race already underway in the US, the European Union, and Asia.

TradFi advisors prefer stablecoins and tokenization over Bitcoin, says Bitwise

In brief:

Matt Hougan, Bitwise CIO, spoke with more than 40 advisors from major institutions
They remain interested in crypto, but with "much more curiosity" about stablecoins and tokenization than about Bitcoin
SEC studying whether to allow trading of tokenized equities, which could further strengthen institutional appetite

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, reported in a note that he recently spoke with more than 40 advisors from some of the largest financial institutions, and that they are "more interested today in stablecoins and tokenization than in Bitcoin." According to him, it was "quite hard to engage advisors on Bitcoin this week," while call after call showed much greater curiosity about the real-world applications of crypto that have been reshaping everything from capital markets to global payments.

The backdrop helps explain why the conversation has shifted. Stablecoins and tokenization captured Wall Street's attention precisely at a moment when Bitcoin has lost momentum, having fallen nearly 30% on the year. Tokenization may gain further traction with the SEC, which is reportedly planning to allow the trading of tokenized equities, a move that would give more confidence to traditional investors. Hougan sums up the environment concretely: it is hard to turn on CNBC without seeing someone like SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, Goldman CEO David Solomon, or BlackRock CEO Larry Fink talking about stablecoins and tokenization, and investors want to be part of that.

The most relevant reading for those building infrastructure is Hougan's thesis that the next wave of adoption may come precisely from advisors and institutional investors forming a new class of crypto capital, with money flowing into stablecoins and tokenization rather than speculative assets. It is the same direction that appears across the week's other stories, now seen from the allocation side: institutional interest is migrating from price exposure to utility exposure. When the US wealth management apparatus starts treating stablecoins as a category of interest in their own right, the layer of competition shifts to whoever provides the rail underneath.

Worth Reading

For anyone who creates content, sells things, or depends on being found, it is worth understanding how AI mechanisms decide what to cite.

SEO consultant Suganthan Mohanadasan spent two days reading the raw network traffic that ChatGPT sends to his own browser, not the output text, but the JSON underneath it, to map how the product chooses its sources. The most useful finding is structural: there is an internal field that stamps each result with the origin of the query, and some questions (those classified as "text") never reach the web at all, being answered directly from the training corpus. In other words, there is an entire layer of queries where no webpage, however good, can get in. He also shows the difference between being searched, being cited, and being mentioned, three distinct things that are won or lost separately.

The parallel with payments is instructive. Just as an "answer engine" layer interposes itself between the user and the source and redefines who captures attention, a machine layer is interposing itself between payer and recipient and redefining who captures value. In both cases, the lesson is the same: the contest is no longer in the product the user sees, but in the infrastructure they don't.

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Story of the Week

Consumers are tired of hearing about AI, and it is already affecting advertisers.

A survey by The Harris Poll with the 4As and Infillion, presented at Cannes Lions and reported exclusively by Marketing Brew, found that more than two-thirds of global consumers see AI primarily as a "marketing gimmick." The number that stands out: 78% feel AI makes ads "less authentic," and the same proportion considers brands "cringe" when they overplay the technology. When it comes to AI-generated advertising, 63% say they would be less likely to buy from a brand using that kind of ad, and 73% would trust a piece of content less if they suspected it had been made by AI.

The underlying data reflects a widespread fatigue. More than half of respondents agree that they hear so much about AI it has "started to bother them," and roughly two-thirds would love brands to never mention "meaningless AI marketing" again. The ironic detail is that all of this is happening while use of the technology surges inside the industry itself: more than half of professionals already use AI for idea generation, and about half for creating visual assets. Some brands have read the signal and gone in the opposite direction, Apple, for example, has started emphasizing the behind-the-scenes story of ads "made by hand."

The contrast is useful for anyone working in financial technology. The ecosystem is building programmable rails and increasingly invisible infrastructure, and the temptation to stamp everything with the trending label is real. The survey is a reminder that user trust does not come from the technology's label, it comes from the problem it solves without making noise. In finance, perhaps the best stablecoin is the one the user never realizes they are using.

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