Stablecoins such as USDT are already disrupting the traditional financial system, while bringing a more stable & less volatile crypto experience to traders, holders, stakers & unbanked people globally
What are stablecoins?
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged 1:1 to a certain national fiat currency or other asset, and that follows the same fixed value as that asset, such as the US dollar.
Stablecoins has gained immense traction in recent years, as it offers less price volatility than regular cryptocurrencies, agile trading opportunities, immediate processing and security of payments. One of stablecoins’ main hallmarks driving its popularity in the crypto space is that it offers volatility-free and stable valuations of fiat currencies in a digital asset form.
Stablecoins are built on top of various blockchain, with the most important chains in terms of actual stablecoin volume and market cap include Ethereum, Tron and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and others.
What’s important to note is that the value of stablecoins are steady, more like a traditional currency, while enjoying all the benefits of cryptocurrencies such as high scalability and instant delivery.
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Some of the most popular stablecoins today are USDT backed by Tether.io, USD Coin (USDC) backed by Coinbase, and BUSD backed by the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance.
As per CoinMarketCap data, USDT is the stablecoin market leader with $62.98 billion, followed by USDC with $27.98 billion and BUSD with $12 billion.
Having stability as a global feature, stablecoins can be sent instantly across the globe. All you need to have is a crypto wallet like Klever or an account at any crypto exchange to use, trade and hold stablecoins.
The most prominent of the stablecoins that currently exist on the market use the US dollar as their benchmark, but many are also pegged to other fiat currencies such as the euro and yen.
With cryptocurrency adoption on the rise, demand for stablecoins is increasing rapidly.
Use Cases of Stablecoins
Now that we have understood the basics of what stablecoins are, let us explore their use cases.
One such use case is using stablecoins for cross-border payments, which can be sent and received around the world at far greater speed for a fraction of the cost, as compared to traditional money transfer services like SWIFT, MoneyGram or other money transfer methods.
For trading, stablecoins serve the purpose of being able to take profit into a stable fiat-pegged currency on cryptocurrencies after they have rallied in price. Traders can then choose to buy said cryptocurrency after it has presumably fallen in price, in order to expand their holdings.
For investing in various crypto projects today, stablecoin can help you get connected and provide users a gateways into the world of digital asset investments. Many crypto projects require users to use BTC, ETH, TRX, BNB or stablecoins for investing in the project, since you cannot invest with fiat in projects. A user has to exchange fiat to stablecoin or specified crypto for investing.
Where to buy stablecoins
You can easily buy stablecoin directly inside the Klever app with a credit card or by swapping from any cryptocurrency supported in Klever Swap to a stablecoin.
The Klever ecosystem supports the world’s major stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, BUSD and thousands of other cryptos for storing, sending, receiving, charging and swapping.
Klever also offers 300+ trading pairs in Klever Swap, many of which are convertible to and from stablecoins at the click of a button.
Mass adoption
Mastercard has recently announced that it will be testing USDC for payments as a bridge asset for cardholders who want to pay for goods using cryptocurrencies.
Explaining this, the company’s executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products Raj Dhamodharan said that not all crypto companies have the foundational infrastructure to convert cryptocurrency to traditional fiat currency, and that Mastercard aims to make that process easier.
The world’s largest social media platform, Facebook has also announced their own intent to launch a stablecoin called Libra in 2019, but later renamed the project to Diem. The Swiss-based nonprofit that oversees Diem’s development is aiming to launch a pilot with a single stablecoin pegged to the US dollar in 2021, although Diem and Facebook are from becoming a reality due to uncertain regulatory environment in the US around crypto and stablecoins specifically.
Stablecoins to replace existing financial system
The existing financial system has various inefficiencies that include paying middlemen to complete transactions. Stablecoins allow payments to occur directly between buyers and sellers, circumventing the existing system and reducing costs for both merchants and consumers.
With a large number of the population globally still not having access to banking services, stablecoins are an inclusive and accessible platform to provide financial access for everyone. With open, decentralized systems, where miniscule transaction fees open the doors for micropayments, the barriers to access are immediately lowered.
Stablecoins on these high performing networks provide users full custody of their funds. The important aspect of stablecoins is that you can use them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere in the world, without relying on banks.
The basic use cases for the mass adoption of stablecoin is as a potential stable alternative to today’s fiat and will likely function as a fiat currency replacement. It can offer a path to financial inclusion to unbanked people around the world and provide them new financial opportunities, without being exposed to the risks of high market and price volatility among regular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
As digital asset proliferation increases globally, many financially excluded people and segments of today’s societY can adopt both stablecoin and crypto to bypass local, outdated and less resilient financial systems.
