Hougan described both pilots as small in dollar terms but said they reveal what he called the primary driver behind corporate stablecoin adoption.
Stablecoin News
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan says pilots by large technology platforms testing stablecoin-based payouts are increasing his confidence that the total stablecoin supply will grow from roughly $300 billion today to $4 trillion by 2030. Hougan outlined his reasoning in a note to clients published Tuesday.
DoorDash is currently working with Stripe to test stablecoin payouts for its 10 million Dashers across more than 40 countries. Separately, Meta has begun offering USDC payouts to creators in the Philippines and Colombia via the SOL Solana and Polygon blockchains, targeting a global creator economy Hougan estimates at 200 million contributors.
Hougan described both pilots as small in dollar terms but said they reveal what he called the primary driver behind corporate stablecoin adoption. He argued the main advantage is operational simplicity: one wallet address, no banking infrastructure, and no currency conversions for businesses managing millions of micropayments globally.
Cost savings are a secondary factor, he noted. Stablecoins can settle transactions for cents compared to tens of dollars for a bank wire, but Hougan said that benefit alone does not explain why companies like DoorDash and Meta are running these programs.
"I suspect all global tech companies with distributed gig workers will follow DoorDash and Meta on this path," Hougan wrote. He added that the scaling of such programs would bring millions of new users into the crypto ecosystem as a byproduct.
Dollar-pegged stablecoin supply has already surpassed $302 billion. Tether's USDT accounts for approximately $189.5 billion of that total, while Circle's USDC holds roughly $79 billion.
Traditional payment infrastructure is expanding alongside stablecoin growth. Western Union launched its USDPT stablecoin on Solana on Monday for 24/7 settlement across a network covering more than 200 countries. Visa separately reported that its stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate after expanding to nine blockchains and more than 130 card programs across over 50 countries.
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