Stablecoins will drive a ‘decent amount’ of activity in 2025: Polygon Labs CEO

Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron thinks that yield-bearing stablecoins could be the next big narrative

article-image

ddRender/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


Looking for a new narrative? Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, has one for ya: yield-bearing stablecoins. 

Once these stablecoins are better understood, they’re set for takeoff, Boiron said. In fact, he wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up driving “a decent amount of activity in 2025.”

So far, stablecoins (not just yield-bearing ones) are up to a $207 billion market cap, per rwa.xyz data.

It’s not just the yield that’ll draw stablecoin activity, it’s also the regulatory clarity that we’re seeing over in Europe courtesy of MiCA. It’s even looking more and more likely that the US is on the regulatory path as well.

For companies — like fintechs — watching the stablecoin market from the sidelines, it’s hard to not feel the FOMO when looking at Tether’s attestations. And that’s clear from Boiron’s conversations with non-crypto native folks. 

This, shall we call them, new set of players are telling Boiron, “hey, we want our own stablecoin, because we can see how much money we can make off of it, and we’ve got a boatload of users, it’s really easy to push them into that stablecoin and get a lot of volume, and obviously revenue from that as well.” 

“The second part of it is just having better rails for their users, knowing that there’s a set of users who are [going to want to] send payments, especially remittances, as of right now, and they actually want to make that available rather than incurring” fees, he continued.

I mean, let’s take a look at Tether’s third-quarter attestation from last year. The firm reported a whopping $2.5 billion net profit in that quarter alone, even if it does bundle unrealized gains on bitcoin with other revenue in its disclosures.

No surprise that Tether’s topping the list

“Everybody sees how profitable Tether is, and they’re like, ‘Okay, I can do that with less risk now,’ especially fintechs, right?” He said. Boiron believes we’ll see new entrants that are looking to enter the space because there may be the opportunity to improve the user experience through yield-bearing stablecoins.

This doesn’t mean we’re going to see companies simply launch their own stablecoins. They’ll also adopt other stablecoins as well, Boiron added. 

“They understand that there’s a significant distribution of USDC, and a lot of people hold it. They’ll, for example, want to make that still available through their application, while also launching their own stablecoin,” he noted.

More than that, Boiron thinks that Polygon Labs’ ability to scale and push “massive” amounts of stablecoin volumes onchain means that now is the time for stablecoins to really shine. 

I told Boiron that I thought 2024 was the year of the stablecoin, but I’m beginning to think this is just the start.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

tg trading bot report graphic.png

Research

Telegram trading bots have found their primary niche in highly speculative token launches and retail-dominated memecoin markets, with many features specifically tailored to token sniping and copy-trading strategies.

article-image

Ethereum is hoping that increased DA will grow user demand — and its profits through DA fees

article-image

11 years ago, Bitcoin contributors prevented a supply crisis… two centuries from now

article-image

Both samczsun and ZachXBT have issued warnings after the Bybit hack last month

article-image

The investor criticized Michael Saylor’s plan to render his personal bitcoin holdings inaccessible to anyone else forever

article-image

The exchange has structural defenses and protocols to limit manipulations

article-image

Upshift is being spun out of August, which raised $10 million earlier this month