In 2026, approximately 600 million people globally hold some form of digital asset — a figure that has grown from roughly 100 million in 2020. Ownership is no longer concentrated in technology-forward demographics or in countries with unstable fiat currencies.
Stablecoin Utility and Remittances
In Argentina, Turkey, Nigeria, and dozens of other countries where local currency depreciation is routine, USDC and USDT are practical stores of value that protect savings from inflation. For the 200 million+ people globally who send money across borders to support family members, the difference between a 5–8% Western Union fee and a near-zero XRP transfer is not an abstraction. It is money that either goes to a family’s food budget or to a financial intermediary.
The Consumer Culture and the Institutional Infrastructure
The consumer culture and the institutional infrastructure are not separate stories. They are the same story, viewed from different scales. The millions of people globally who have normalized digital asset use are the foundation of the institutional-scale digital asset economy. We operate at the institutional layer of a system that is being built, in part, by and for consumers.