A study conducted in partnership with Visa reveals that a large portion of stablecoin transaction volume is carried out by bots and large investors rather than real users. According to Bloomberg news, of the total $2.2 trillion in stablecoin transfers in April, only $149 billion came from “actual payment activity.” This means that more than 90% of transactions originate from investment or speculative movements.

Research by Visa and data platform Allium Labs suggests that the stablecoin market is not yet widely used as a payment method. In the research, a special method was used to distinguish the transactions of bots and large investors. In this way, “transactions made by real people are isolated.”

Stablecoin supply currently stands at around $150 billion, and the market is dominated by assets such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Each of these stablecoins has a market share of 75% and 22% respectively.

The main purpose of stablecoins is to minimize volatility by being pegged to traditional assets such as the US dollar. In this way, it becomes a safer investment tool for investors who are afraid of the price volatility of crypto currencies. Recently, interest in stablecoins has increased even more as PayPal and some other companies announced that they plan to launch their own stablecoins.

However, this research shows that the stablecoin market may currently be immature and in need of regulation. The fact that laws regulating stablecoins are on the agenda in the US Congress supports this situation.

Visa’s Head of Cryptocurrencies, Cuy Sheffield, points out an important point about the results of the research. Sheffield states that blockchains are general-purpose networks and stablecoins can take part in different use cases. Therefore, it can be difficult to distinguish between transactions initiated manually by users or automatically via bots.

Despite the difference between total transfer volume and bot-adjusted transfer volume, there is a steady growth in the number of monthly active stablecoin users. According to the research, there are 27.5 million monthly active users across all chains. Although this data indicates that the potential of the stablecoin market is high, the actual number of users shows that the transaction volume is still low.

It is a matter of curiosity how the stablecoin market will develop in the future and what direction the real usage rates will follow. This research emphasizes the importance of the steps to be taken towards integrating cryptocurrencies into daily life. The results of the research reveal that cryptocurrencies need to reach more real users in order to become a part of our daily lives. At the same time, regulating the stablecoin market and ensuring transparency can increase the reliability of these assets and enable wider adoption.