WTO: Stablecoins account for only 3% of global payments, and the fragmented regulatory framework is a major constraint

According to Cointelegraph, Juan Marchetti, the Director of the Trade in Services and Investment Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO), stated at the event in Geneva for the release of the WTO stablecoin trade research report that the key obstacle to the widespread adoption of stablecoins in international trade is not technology, but rather the lack of a regulatory framework and its fragmentation.

He cited a report from the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in October 2025, which indicated that among the 28 jurisdictions surveyed, only 11 (about 39%) have completed the establishment of a regulatory framework for stablecoins.

The WTO report shows that stablecoins currently account for only 3% of the total global international payments, but from 2020 to mid-2024, the scale of stablecoin cross-border payments has grown by 35 times. The report also points out that stablecoins are expected to improve five major pain points in international trade financing: high costs, low speed, limited access, lack of transparency, and foreign exchange conversion.