It’s Stablecoins, not StableUSD — The Untapped Market of USD Alternates

Stablecoins are a trillion dollar opportunity. Not StableUSD, Stablecoins. There is more than one useful peg to attach onchain value to — even if the world’s global reserve currency and the primary unit of exchange in the world’s largest economy was always going to be the natural start.

Of the near-$200 billion dollars of stablecoins currently in the market (up 13% just in the last thirty days), less than 1% are denominated in currencies other than USD. That’s a staggering statistic considering the powerful product-market fit that non-USD stablecoins should seemingly have. The EU is a larger economic zone than the United States, yet EURC — the largest Euro stablecoin — currently has a somewhat measly $84 million supply, compared to market-leader USDT’s $140 billion.

The fact that the supply figure is given in dollars perhaps speaks to the problem. Crypto, far from dethroning USDs global primacy as might be intuitively expected, is actually reinforcing it. A whole generation of foreigners (in US terms) is now habituating the act of defining their portfolio worth in dollars.

This is especially true for populations who are using stablecoins as a safe refuge for their net worth when their own national economies are either newer, more volatile, or simply declining. They are saving their money in USD, remitting their money in USD and maybe even transacting in USD.

The Unspoken Threat of an Onchain USD World

It makes stablecoins a serious extramural threat to all these countries’ national agencies. For all the hullabaloo by the US government attempting to stamp out crypto usage this last decade (a fact that, as we all know, is currently changing and precipitating this latest bullrun), the advance of stablecoins may well utterly reassert US government strength, while demolishing that of local economies issuing different kinds of fiat. If everyone’s savings globally is pegged to the dollar, the Federal Reserve hasn’t so much been weakened by crypto as supercharged by it.

It’s no wonder countries like China, Japan, Bolivia et al’ are seeking to root out the use of fiat (i.e USD) denominated stablecoins altogether. The mooted BRICS-currency as an alternative (and potentially onchain) to the US dollar is just one attempt to break this and stranglehold and the status quo that’s existed since the end of WW2, but India’s recent proclamation that it’s not keen to aggressively forge ahead with such a currency at this point means such alternatives are currently on the backburner.

The Opportunity of Non-USD Stablecoins

Despite all this, non-USD stablecoins are a major opportunity. Local currencies for local markets are essential and as crypto payment rails by major providers continue rolling out in markets like Latin America, the need for appropriately denominated stablecoins for merchants is vital. This could be for regulatory reasons, institutional acceptance, or simply the desire for people on the ground to make purchases using the currency they’ve grown up their entire lives with. A local contractor who wanted Romanian Lei doesn’t want the hassle of USD, why would they? International stablecoins are the solution to that.

Then there is the FX-market, a hitherto untapped goliath that could well prove to be the catalyst for crypto not just being a $4 trillion dollar market cap asset, but a $40 trillion one. Blockchain’s hyper-fast instant settlement decentralized consensus mechanisms are the antidote to the custody and settlement risk that has plagued international money markets since time immemorial and led to creation of the banking industry we have today.

If businesses could invest internationally, settle invoices cross-border, and pay their workers with the speed and efficiency that a true blockchain substrate could provide, the global economy would start booming overnight. $7 trillion is exchanged daily on FX markets to help people swap the value they have for the value they need, and comprehensive multi-denominative stablecoin markets and the frictionless transfer they provide are the ultimate end-game solution to those age old problems.

The FX market is resistant to change, of course, the intermediaries who currently dominate like their positioning. Yet change is coming, and to many not a moment too soon. Particularly FX traders who can leverage those efficiency advantages to earn significant profits arbitraging value between different currencies while not suffering the overhead that the current FX markets are bogged down by.

Non-USD Stablecoins

All this considered, it is surprising that less than 1% of stablecoins are non-USD. Yet growth in the sector is all but guaranteed, and there are some significant players already. Euro is the second largest, with Tether Euro (EURt was abandoned, and replaced with MiCAR-compliant EURq) and the aforementioned EURC from Circle using reserve-backed models to mint their tokens.

For other currencies, there is XSGD tracking the Singaporean Dollar and BRZ which tracks the Brazilian Real, which are also fiat-collateralized. There are also crypto-collateralized stablecoins which, instead of using ‘real world’ reserves, use a basket of crypto currencies to achieve the same aim of keeping the peg (like the Onomy Reserve, and all stablecoins it’ll mint). Celo Euro (cEUR) uses this mechanism, as does BitCNY for the Chinese Yuan and outliers like sJPY on the Synthetix protocol which tracks Japanese Yen.

The transaction volumes for these stablecoins are all completely dwarfed, however, by their USD counterparts — and the largest ones like EURC and cREAL both offered by providers who already have a USD stablecoin as their main value reserve. A truly flexible stablecoin market in terms of denominations has not yet matured — and that represents a spectacular opportunity.

Onomy — Creating Stablecoins

Onomy Protocol’s goal is to create a truly flexible stablecoin market that can evolve with the demands of the international money markets, local economies, and FX traders who need appropriately denominated value. 1% of $1 trillion is still $10 billion and, if that ratio changes — and it will change — then the exponential growth is obvious. Onomy is creating a truly onchain marketplace for FX traders and individuals to transact in their desired local currency and giving institutions the chance to spin up new currency markets for cross-border activities through petitioning the Onomy DAO.

The first few steps will take time as the Onomy Reserve builds collateral through oUSD, oEUR and other major currencies, but the scalability as the system becomes more robust is infinite. Even if a desired currency is not on the market, nothing stops the addition of new currencies as the system evolves, underpinned by the Onomy Reserve’s basket of crypto assets. The model echoes other stablecoin foundries, but the difference is ORES focuses on minting new denominations with multiple collateral types, whilst creating a fully decentralized onchain marketplace for those coins to be traded, remitted, invested, and otherwise deployed in a new internet financial system that is inclusive, permissionless, and free.

The Year of Flexible Value

2025 is the year of the stablecoin. The stablecoin, not just stableUSD. Whereas competitors are hamstrung by reserve-backed models, USD-obsession, and the pain of trying to serve under-served markets and make a profit, Onomy is built from the ground up to be a flexible stablecoin foundry that can replace the current FX-market and give institutions and individuals alike the chance to denominate their holdings and transact their business cross-border in the currency that always makes the most sense and which unlocks the greatest opportunity.