Overview of Stablecoin Chains

The stablecoin market just crossed $300 billion in 2025, growing by over $100 billion this year alone. That’s a major jump from 2024, and it’s attracting everyone from crypto natives to traditional banks.

Most stablecoins today run on general-purpose blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. These networks are great for DeFi, NFTs, and gaming, but they weren’t designed specifically for moving digital dollars around. High gas fees, network congestion, and slow transactions during peak times create friction for payment use cases.

Enter stablecoin-centric blockchains—specialized networks built with one goal in mind: making stablecoin payments work seamlessly. Think of them as the express lanes of the blockchain world, optimized specifically for moving digital money.

What Are Stablecoin-Centric Blockchains?

Stablecoin-centric blockchains are Layer 1 networks built specifically for stablecoin payments. Think of them less like a «world computer» (Ethereum’s vision) and more like specialized payment processors on blockchain rails. Instead of adapting general-purpose infrastructure for payments, these chains are purpose-built from the ground up for moving digital dollars efficiently.

Traditionally, stablecoins have been tokens running on general-purpose chains like Ethereum or Solana. While this worked for early adoption, it came with major drawbacks. When Ethereum gas fees spike during network congestion, a simple $10 USDT transfer can become uneconomical. Users also need to hold volatile crypto (like ETH) just to pay transaction fees—an awkward extra step for making payments.

Stablecoin chains solve the above issues by making stablecoins the foundation of the network itself. The key innovation: users pay transaction fees directly in stablecoins like USDC or xDAI, not in volatile crypto tokens. This means predictable, dollar-denominated costs—essential for businesses using blockchain for payroll, invoicing, or cross-border payments.

Why Are Stablecoin Chains Growing in Popularity?

Stablecoin chains solve critical pain points in both traditional finance and existing blockchain networks:

Upgrading traditional finance: These chains enable 24/7 instant settlements (versus days for bank wires), slashing cross-border costs from double-digit percentages to fractions of a cent, and providing dollar access to 1.4 billion unbanked adults worldwide. For citizens in high-inflation countries like Argentina and Turkey, accessing dollar-pegged stablecoins becomes dramatically easier and cheaper.

Fixing blockchain bottlenecks: General-purpose chains like Ethereum suffer from unpredictable gas fees that can spike above $10 during high demand, making small payments uneconomical. Stablecoin transactions also compete for block space with NFT mints and DeFi protocols, causing delays and fee surges. By creating dedicated networks, stablecoin chains eliminate this competition and integrate essential financial tools—like FX markets and compliance systems—directly into the protocol.

Key Features of Stablecoin Chains

These networks are defined by a handful of powerful, purpose-built features that set them apart.

Stablecoins as Native Gas Tokens

Instead of needing to hold a volatile crypto token to pay transaction fees, users can use stablecoins directly. Plasma lets users pay with USDT, while Tempo will support multiple stablecoins for gas payments.

This makes fees predictable, allowing users to know exactly what each transaction costs in dollar terms, removing the need to buy and hold a separate, volatile crypto asset just to use their digital dollars.

Optimized Consensus for Payments

These chains use custom consensus mechanisms built specifically for handling high-volume payments. For example:

• Plasma uses PlasmaBFT consensus, which can process over 1,000 transactions per second with instant finality

• Arc runs on Circle’s Malachite consensus engine, capable of 50,000+ TPS

• Tempo is targeting 100,000 TPS with sub-second confirmation times

The validators on these networks are also optimized to screen transactions efficiently while preventing MEV (maximal extractable value) attacks—basically, making sure no one can game the system to front-run payments.

Interoperability

Most stablecoin chains are EVM-compatible, which means developers can deploy their Ethereum applications without rewriting code. They also include native bridges connecting to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major networks.

This creates a unified liquidity network where stablecoins can flow freely between chains without getting fragmented across isolated ecosystems.

Native Stablecoin Infrastructure

Stablecoin chains integrate specialized features directly into their protocols:

Transaction batching: Networks like Tempo support sending multiple transactions in a single batch, reducing costs and improving efficiency for operations like payroll or recurring payments.

Built-in stablecoin exchanges: Rather than requiring external DEXs, these chains include native swap mechanisms. Arc features an institutional-grade FX engine for converting between USDC and EURC with real-time price discovery. Tempo allows users to swap stablecoins natively with low fees, including custom-issued ones.

Cross-chain bridges: Native bridges connect stablecoin chains to other networks. Gnosis Chain provides integrated bridges to Ethereum and other blockchains, while Plasma includes a Bitcoin bridge. These native integrations are more efficient and secure than third-party bridging solutions.

Because these features are built into the protocol layer, they operate more efficiently and securely than external implementations added on top of general-purpose blockchains.

Stablecoin Chains vs. Traditional Layer 1s

The rise of stablecoin chains highlights a classic engineering trade-off: flexibility versus optimization. General-purpose L1s like Ethereum are the Swiss Army knives of the blockchain world—they can do almost anything, but they aren’t perfectly optimized for a single task.

Stablecoin chains are specialized. They sacrifice the ability to do everything in order to do one thing—process stable value transfers—with unparalleled efficiency.

 

	Ethereum (General-Purpose)	Solana (General-Purpose)	Plasma (Specialized)	Tempo (Specialized)	Arc (Specialized)	Gnosis Chain (Specialized)
Primary Use Case	General-purpose dApps, DeFi, NFTs	High-frequency dApps, DeFi, Payments	High-volume USDT transfers, Payments	Enterprise payments, Payroll, Remittances	Institutional finance, Capital markets, FX	P2P payments, Credibly neutral settlement
Consensus Mechanism	Proof-of-Stake (PoS)	Proof-of-History (PoH) + PoS	PlasmaBFT	Undisclosed (High-Throughput BFT)	Malachite (BFT)	Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
Avg. Transaction Fee (USD)	~$0.45 (highly volatile)	~$0.00064 (stable)	Zero-fee for USDT transfers	Predictable, near-zero (stablecoin)	Predictable, low (USDC)	~$0.0001 (stable)
Gas Token	ETH (volatile)	SOL (volatile)	XPL (for incentives), Configurable	Any supported stablecoin	USDC	xDAI (stablecoin)
Transaction Finality	~12-14 minutes	~400 milliseconds 25	Sub-second (expected)	Sub-second (target)	Sub-second (deterministic)	~5 seconds
EVM Compatible	Yes (Native)	No, operates on SVM (but EVM runtimes exist)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Top Stablecoin Chains to Watch

The race to build the dominant stablecoin chain is heating up. Here are the key players to keep an eye on.

Plasma: The USDT Powerhouse

Launch: September 25, 2025

Backing: Bitfinex, Tether, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Framework Ventures

Plasma is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain built specifically for USDT. It launched its mainnet with an impressive $2 billion in stablecoin liquidity, and within just a few weeks, that number has surged to over $13 billion in bridged total value locked (TVL).

Key Features:

• Zero-fee USDT transfers: Users can send USDT with no transaction fees through the protocol-level paymaster

• 1,000+ TPS: PlasmaBFT consensus processes over 1,000 transactions per second with instant finality

• Full EVM compatibility: Built on Reth execution layer, allowing seamless deployment of Ethereum applications

• Native Bitcoin bridge: LayerZero-powered bridge enables trust-minimized BTC flows into the network

• Confidential transactions: Opt-in privacy features for compliant but private payments (rolling out incrementally)

Use cases: Cross-border remittances, freelancer and employee payroll, microtransactions, and everyday payments.

The token: XPL is Plasma’s native token, used for staking and governance. However, regular users don’t need to hold XPL to use the network—they can pay all fees in whitelisted ERC-20 tokens like USDT and pBTC. 

Tempo: The Enterprise-grade Stablecoin Payments Challenger

Announcement: September 4, 2025
Backing: Stripe, Paradigm, with design input from Anthropic, OpenAI, Deutsche Bank, Shopify, Visa, and more
Status: Private testnet (mainnet launch date TBA)

When Stripe—one of the world’s largest payment processors—teams up with top crypto VC Paradigm to build a blockchain, people pay attention. Tempo is being positioned as the «payments-first» Layer 1 blockchain, built with enterprise needs in mind from day one.

Key Features:

• 100,000+ TPS target: Sub-second finality designed to handle Stripe-scale payment volumes

• Stablecoin-agnostic gas: Users can pay transaction fees in any stablecoin, not just one specific token

• Enshrined AMM: Built-in automated market maker ensures neutrality across different stablecoin issuers

• Native account abstraction: Send multiple transactions in one batch, simplifying complex payment flows

• Opt-in privacy: Confidential transaction features while maintaining regulatory compliance

• Full EVM compatibility: Built on Reth, allowing easy migration of Ethereum applications

Use cases: Global payments and payroll, remittances, embedded financial accounts, microtransactions, agentic payments (think AI agents paying for services autonomously).

Arc: The Institutional Stablecoin Platform

Developer: Circle (issuer of USDC)
Status: In development, mainnet expected in 2026
Consensus: Malachite (high-performance BFT engine)

Circle, the company behind USDC (the second-largest stablecoin), is building its own blockchain. Arc is a high-throughput Layer 1 network powered by USDC and designed specifically for institutional use cases.

Key Features:

• USDC as native gas: Predictable, dollar-denominated fees with no volatile crypto required

• 50,000+ TPS: Malachite consensus engine delivers high throughput with sub-second finality

• Built-in FX engine: Institutional-grade RFQ system for 24/7 price discovery and atomic settlement between stablecoin pairs (USDC/EURC)

• Instant finality: Deterministic settlement ensures transactions are final immediately

• Opt-in privacy: Selectively shield balances and transactions while meeting compliance requirements

• Full Circle integration: Native support for EURC, USYC, Circle Payments Network, CCTP, and more

• MEV mitigation: Encrypted mempools and batch processing to prevent front-running

Target use cases: Cross-border payments, institutional FX trading, stablecoin derivatives markets, tokenized securities (delivery-vs-payment), and programmable credit infrastructure.

Gnosis Chain: The Neutral Alternative

Company founded: 2015
Chain launched: November 2021 (merger of xDAI and GnosisDAO)
Validators: 200,000+ globally distributed

Unlike the other chains on this list, Gnosis Chain wasn’t built exclusively for stablecoins. However, it’s evolved into a neutral, high-performance environment for stablecoin applications.

Key Features:

• Stablecoin-neutral approach: Supports USDC, USDT, DAI, and any other stablecoin without favoring one issuer

• xDAI for gas: Transactions paid in xDAI stablecoin for predictable, dollar-denominated costs

• 200,000+ validators: One of the most decentralized networks in crypto with globally distributed validators

• Native bridges: Integrated bridging to Ethereum and other major blockchains for seamless asset flow

• DAO governance: Community-driven decision making through GnosisDAO ensures credible neutrality

• Mature DeFi ecosystem: Integrated with Aave, Spark, Balancer, and other blue-chip protocols

• Gnosis Pay: Self-custodial Visa debit card for spending stablecoins in real-world settings

What sets it apart: Gnosis took a different approach than Arc, Plasma, or Tempo. Instead of choosing one stablecoin to favor, it created an open platform where any stablecoin can thrive. The chain provides the infrastructure—bridges, advanced smart contracts, liquidity layers—but doesn’t favor a specific stablecoin.

For developers who want to build stablecoin applications without being locked into a specific issuer’s ecosystem, Gnosis offers a credibly neutral alternative.

Challenges Facing Stablecoin Chains

Regulatory complexity: While frameworks like MiCA (Europe) and the GENIUS Act (U.S.) bring clarity, they impose strict compliance burdens for reserves, transparency, and AML/KYC that vary across jurisdictions.

Security and stability risks: Stablecoin chains are prime targets for hackers, with vulnerabilities in smart contracts, cross-chain bridges (the source of crypto’s largest hacks), and user-facing phishing attacks. Even fully-backed stablecoins face de-pegging risks during crises, as seen with USDC during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023.

Fragmentation and competition: As more chains launch, stablecoin liquidity risks becoming trapped in siloed ecosystems. Complex bridges between chains reintroduce the friction these networks aimed to eliminate. Additionally, over 130 countries are exploring Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) that could compete directly with private stablecoins, reshaping the digital finance landscape.

Final Thoughts

Over $50 billion in stablecoin transactions happen every day, with daily trading volume on exchanges averaging $150 billion. The demand is clearly there. But stablecoins have been succeeding despite the limitations of general-purpose blockchains, not because of them. Technical complexity, such as wallet management and gas fees, across all chains create friction that limits mainstream adoption.

Stablecoin-centric blockchains represent a bet that specialization beats generalization. By focusing exclusively on making digital dollars work better, these networks can optimize every part of the stack—from consensus mechanisms to gas payment models to compliance tools.

The big question is whether this matters in practice. Will people actually switch to using specialized stablecoin chains? Or will the network effects of existing blockchains prove too strong to overcome?

Early signs are promising: Plasma attracted $13 billion in bridged TVL within weeks of launch, Tempo has backing from some of the biggest names in both traditional finance and crypto, and Circle is betting its flagship product on Arc’s success.

For stablecoins to truly compete with traditional payment systems, they need to be at least as easy and cost-effective to use. That’s exactly what stablecoin chains are trying to deliver. Whether they succeed will depend on real-world adoption, regulatory developments, and their ability to deliver on the promise of near-instant, near-free payments at global scale.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risks. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.