The Stablecoin Trap: Issuing a Stablecoin Without the Infrastructure to Run One

In recent months, I’ve had a familiar conversation with executives from some of the world’s largest companies. They’re intrigued by stablecoins that move near-instantly and globally, digital dollars and euros like USDC and EURC, and many are wondering if they should issue one themselves.

It’s an understandable impulse. The market has real scale and momentum. In 2025, the stablecoin market cap grew from ~$205 billion as of January 1, 2025 to over $300 billion as of December 31, 2025. Circle’s USDC remains one of the dominant assets in this category, and closed out the year with a market cap above $75 billion on December 31, 2025.

But here’s the question every company should ask before diving in:

Do you want a stablecoin for your business, or do you want to get into the stablecoin business?

This isn’t a technical decision. It’s a strategic one about whether issuing money is core to your business model.

Creating a stablecoin on a blockchain is, relatively speaking, the easy part. At its core, it’s a software exercise: writing and deploying code for a blockchain-based token. With an engineering team and, in some cases, a white-label partner, a token can be launched relatively quickly. But once the product goes live, operating a stablecoin means supporting an always-on financial utility.

Operating a trusted, regulated stablecoin — one that meets the expectations of institutions, regulators, and millions of users — requires real-time reserve management across market cycles, daily reconciliation across multiple banking partners, independent attestations, and regulatory reporting in multiple jurisdictions. It means standing up compliance, risk, treasury, and liquidity operations that run 24/7, with clear escalation paths for stress scenarios and zero tolerance for error. These are not capabilities you outsource once and forget; they compound in cost, complexity, and reputational risk as scale grows.

At the system level, every new proprietary stablecoin also fragments liquidity and trust. Each issuer duplicates reserves, compliance, and redemption rails — reducing the shared depth that makes stablecoins resilient in moments of stress. By contrast, integrating with USDC consolidates liquidity, standards, and operational rigor into a single, widely adopted network from day one.

For executives evaluating this decision, the differences become stark when viewed operationally:

The temptation of the easy route

Today, there’s a rush of new entrants, from fintechs to payment companies to crypto projects, exploring or launching their own stablecoins. The market’s growth in 2025 reflects both advancing regulation and rising institutional interest. But despite hundreds of launches, 95% of stablecoins never achieve durable, global scale.4

Some argue they can capture the same economics without the heavy lift. The reality is less glamorous. When you issue a stablecoin, whether on your own or through a white-label provider, you are stepping into a business where trust, liquidity, and scale are existential.

And sometimes, the consequences of getting it wrong are measured in the trillions. According to media reports earlier this year, one issuer accidentally minted $300 trillion worth of tokens because of an operational mistake. It was fixed in minutes, but not before making headlines. In another instance, a well-known stablecoin briefly lost its peg during a period of market turbulence, underscoring how even small infrastructure weaknesses can cascade under stress.

These incidents were reminders that stablecoins fail, or hold, based on operational rigor under pressure. Markets and policymakers are watching closely.

Trust is the true network effect

Anyone can create a token on a blockchain. Tens of thousands already exist, most minted in minutes and forgotten just as quickly. Even within the stablecoin market, more than 300 projects have launched, yet only a handful account for nearly all real-world usage and value, while the vast majority — approximately 95% — never really succeed.

The difference isn’t about technology, but about scale and trust. Scaling a stablecoin is where the real work begins: maintaining liquidity, redemption capacity, compliance, and uptime as volumes grow across markets and market conditions.

And while you can mint a token in minutes, you can’t mint trust. Trust compounds around transparency, scale, and consistent redeemability across market cycles. That’s why stablecoin markets concentrate around a small number of issuers — and why USDC has facilitated over $60 trillion in lifetime volume as of January 30, 2026.

Partnership over reinvention

For most companies, the right question isn’t, “How do we create our own stablecoin?” It’s, “How do we integrate stablecoins into our business to unlock new growth?”

With USDC and EURC, businesses can embed digital dollars and euros today, gaining benefits like near-instant settlement, global reach, and interoperability across dozens of blockchains, without taking on the complexity of reserve management and regulation.

Building the next chapter together

The stablecoin industry is entering its next chapter. Policymakers are writing clearer rules. Institutions are raising their standards. And the market is converging on a simple truth: trust, liquidity, and compliance are the real moats.

The goal isn’t to have more stablecoins. It’s to have fewer, better ones that meet the moment — with shared liquidity, transparent reserves, and proven performance across market cycles.

For institutions defining their stablecoin strategy, the first move shouldn’t be deciding what to build. It should be deciding who to build with. If you want stablecoins powering your business — without becoming a stablecoin issuer yourself — the durable choice is clear: talk to Circle, use USDC.

Disclaimer:

1. This article is reprinted from [CIRCLE]. All copyrights belong to the original author [Kash Razzaghi]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentioned, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.