Ever since Ethereum was created, the talk has been that this is the way crypto will scale to billions of people. What we've learned in the last years is that this couldn't be further from the truth. Ethereum’s throughput is constrained and fees spike during congestion. Solana improves speed via parallelism, but it still relies on all validators maintaining a unified state. Look at any other crypto network or asset and you get the same result at scale.
This is not the case with Lightning network. Here's why there is no second best scaling network for crypto. The global shared state approach of Ethereum/Solana requires sequential updates to one common database, which limits concurrency, only one transaction at a time can alter the state, creating a bottleneck under heavy load. This is why Ethereum’s throughput is constrained and fees spike during congestion. Solana improves speed via parallelism, but it still relies on all validators maintaining a unified state.
By contrast, Lightning’s off-chain channels avoid this bottleneck: many payments can occur simultaneously across the network without burdening a global ledger. In effect, Lightning uses local two-party consensus (channels) enforced by the Bitcoin blockchain only when needed. This design dramatically boosts scalability and speed. In fact, Lightning can enable near-instant transfers at millions of transactions per second, far beyond Bitcoin’s blockchain or traditional networks.
For businesses, this peer-to-peer model means instant finality and negligible fees on payments, even at volumes that would overwhelm other public blockchains. Lightning’s architecture thus delivers a more efficient, low-latency payments fabric globally, without sacrificing the decentralization and security of Bitcoin’s underlying network.
Stablecoin Adoption: Past Two Years and the Road Ahead
The last 24 months have seen an explosion in stablecoin growth, particularly in the Americas. Globally, dollar-pegged stablecoins have surged from a ~$120 billion market cap in mid-2023 to over $230 billion in early 2025. That’s nearly a doubling in two years, reflecting how indispensable they’ve become for payments, remittances, and savings. In 2024 alone, Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin, processed over $10 trillion in transactions, approaching the scale of Visa’s $16T annual payment volume. Meaning, stablecoins now rival traditional payment networks in transaction value, a stunning achievement for technology that barely existed a few years ago.
Much of this growth has been driven by everyday users, not just crypto traders. Latin America stands out: faced with high inflation and currency instability, people across LATAM have embraced USD-pegged stablecoins as a safe harbor. A recent report by Bitso, a leading regional exchange, showed that in 2024, nearly 39% of all crypto purchases on its platform were stablecoins, up 9% from the prior year. In Argentina, which has seen inflation above 100%, stablecoins have thrived: USDT made up about 50% of all crypto purchases and USDC another 22%, while Bitcoin was only ~8%. This mirrors an emergent pattern across emerging markets: stablecoins are the new dollar for many, offering stable value in digital form where local currencies falter. Brazil, Mexico, Colombia also saw stablecoins leap to the top of preferred crypto assets.
Looking ahead two years, the stablecoin trajectory points ever upward. Regulatory clarity and broader adoption suggest even faster growth. Industry analysts project the stablecoin market could 5–10× in the next five years, which implies we may see the supply well above half a trillion dollars by 2027. In the near term, even a doubling to ~$500B+ in the next 24 months is plausible, especially if major economies implement favorable rules.
It’s telling that U.S. officials have noted stablecoins already equal over 1% of M2 money supply, and some forecasts see $2 trillion by 2028 given the right conditions. Fueling this growth will be real-world usage: cross-border payments (where stablecoins cut costs dramatically), merchant settlements (businesses accepting stablecoins for speed and predictability), and integration with banking/fintech apps. Notably, stablecoins are extending dollar access to populations that banks have underserved. In the Americas, we expect continued high uptake in Central and South America (where local currencies remain volatile) and increasing acceptance in the U.S. and Canada as well, as stablecoins become a regulated part of the financial system. In summary, stablecoins have moved from a niche experiment to a critical piece of the global financial plumbing in just two years. With their 24/7 availability, low fees, and programmability, they are poised to grow even more ubiquitous, especially as they ride new rails like the Lightning Network.
Tether on Lightning: 2026’s Watershed Moment
Perhaps the most significant development bridging these trends is Tether launching USDT on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network in 2025. Announced on January 30, 2025 at the Plan ₿ Forum in El Salvador, this move is a game-changer. It means the world’s largest stablecoin (over $158B in circulation) will be natively transactable on the Lightning Network. Users will be able to send and receive digital dollars (USDT) over Lightning with instant settlement and tiny fees, combining the decentralized security of Bitcoin with the speed and scalability of Lightning.
For context, stablecoins until now have mostly lived on slower, fee-heavy networks (Ethereum, Tron, etc.). Bringing Tether to Lightning unlocks a new level of efficiency. Cross-border remittances can now happen in seconds for fractions of a cent. That’s an enormous improvement over traditional remittance corridors, or even current stablecoin rails. “Millions of people will now be able to use the most open, secure blockchain to send dollars globally,” said Elizabeth Stark, CEO of Lightning Labs, underscoring how this taps Bitcoin’s censorship-resistant infrastructure for dollar payments. Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, emphasized the practical impact, saying the goal is to offer “practical solutions for remittances, payments, and other financial applications that demand both speed and reliability”. In other words, this isn’t just a tech demo, it’s about solving real-world payment frictions.
The integration is powered by the new Taproot Assets protocol (formerly Taro) developed by Lightning Labs. This protocol uses Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade to securely issue and move assets like USDT on Lightning without bloating the blockchain. Once fully rolled out, any Lightning-enabled wallet or merchant can support USDT transactions alongside BTC using the same channels and nodes. Imagine an online store or a point-of-sale terminal that today accepts Bitcoin via Lightning, soon it can accept Lightning USDT just as easily, with instant finality. Payment gateways and processors already supporting Lightning for BTC will simply add stablecoin capability. This lowers the barrier for merchants who want the benefits of Lightning (speed/cost) but need to avoid Bitcoin’s short-term volatility by settling in dollars. It effectively marries Bitcoin’s network with dollar stability.
Early Adopters Prove the Model: Cash App, Exchanges, and Amboss
Many major players aren’t waiting for Lightning’s future, they’re already using it to reduce costs and unlock new revenue. Cash App integrated Lightning back in 2022, allowing users to send BTC instantly and for free. Now they’re rolling it out across Square’s 4 million merchant terminals by 2026, replacing costly card fees with instant settlement. Block’s Miles Suter put it clearly: “This is about bringing fast, low-cost payments to sellers everywhere.” Jack Dorsey has long championed Lightning as an open protocol for money, and Block is now proving that vision at scale.
Exchanges are following suit. Kraken already supports Lightning withdrawals and deposits, and Coinbase has integrated this last year as well. Beyond lower fees and faster transfers, there’s a new incentive: yield. Cash App disclosed it’s earning a 9.7% yield on BTC by routing Lightning payments, no lending risk, just infrastructure yield. Exchanges and fintechs can do the same, turning their Bitcoin holdings into productive assets.
New tools like Amboss Rails now let businesses earn yield on Lightning without giving up custody of their BTC. It’s a self-custodial service where firms “rent” out Bitcoin liquidity in payment channels and collect routing fees. As Amboss CEO Jesse Shrader said, “Rails enables businesses to strengthen the network while earning on their Bitcoin.” And with stablecoins coming to Lightning, the total addressable market is about to expand dramatically, making this the most practical moment for businesses to plug in.
These real use cases and foundational applications of lightning have established the peer to peer network as critical next step infrastructure to bring stablecoins to trillions of users globally.
Wrapping up
Stablecoins on Lightning combine the best of crypto and fiat: the instant, borderless power of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network with the stable value of the dollar. This blend is poised to transform merchant settlement and SME banking around the world.
Transactions will be faster, cheaper, and more accessible—giving businesses of all sizes tools that were once reserved for large enterprises. Financial inclusion expands as anyone with a smartphone can access stable digital dollars on a permissionless network. Built on Bitcoin’s foundation, this system is not just quick—it’s secure, resilient, and censorship-resistant.
Crucially, stablecoins will not scale globally on networks with shared state like Ethereum or Solana. These platforms face congestion, high fees, and central points of failure. Lightning’s peer-to-peer design solves this, enabling billions of payments to flow without relying on a single, fragile ledger.
The early adopters are already benefiting. As stablecoins on Lightning go live, they will change how value moves globally—ushering in real-time commerce, modern tools for SMEs, and a financial system ready for the digital era. Now is the time to plug in. This lightning-powered future is coming fast, and those prepared to embrace it will lead.
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