🦅 Stablecoins and the American Techno-economic Conquest of the 21st Century

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And don't miss this week's guest podcast with Zack Abrams, Co-Founder at Bridge, where we dive into how Latin America fueled their $1.1B Acquisition.

This Edition is Presented by Bitso’s Stablecoin Conference

Frontera is an official media partner of Bitso’s Stablecoin Conference 2025.

We’ll be on the ground in Mexico City this August 27–28, covering the builders, the breakthroughs, and ideas reshaping LatAm’s financial future.

Use the code FRONTERA10 for 10% off your ticket here. See you there.

This is the conclusion of our two-part series on stablecoins and the American techno-economic conquest of the world. Read Part 1 here.

🌐 The Current Reality

It’s easy to see how, if stablecoin adoption goes truly global, the demand for U.S. Treasuries could scale almost without limit, regardless of interest rate levels. 

Governments typically raise yields to attract buyers as debt supply grows. But if billions of people want digital dollars no matter what, then even low-yield Treasuries (held via  stablecoin reserves) will find takers.

In essence, stablecoins could create an infinite bid for U.S. debt, because the demand is no longer just from traditional investors but from ordinary citizens around the world seeking dollar stability.

The thing is… it's not a matter of if or when. It's already underway.

As of mid-2025, stablecoin issuers collectively hold over $180B in short-term U.S. Treasuries. That’s about 0.5% of total U.S. debt, enough to rank them as the 17th-largest holder of Treasuries globally. 

In 2024, Tether was the 7th-largest buyer of U.S. Treasuries, out of everyone. A position typically held by entire nations, definitely not crypto companies.

As adoption grows, the purchasing power of stablecoin issuers scales exponentially. And projections from both Wall Street and Washington agree, like Orangie says, it's just getting started.

• The Treasury Department expects the stablecoin market cap to reach $2T by 2028.

• Standard Chartered forecasts a similar $2T mark by 2028.

• Citigroup projects a base case of $1.6T and a bull case of $3.7T by 2030, calling stablecoins crypto’s “ChatGPT moment.”

• Former Soros CIO and current Secretary of The Treasury Scott Bessent publicly endorsed Citi’s research.

Stablecoin supply stood at $205B at the start of 2025, that's a 10x jump in just 3 years. Hedge fund managers would laugh at you if you dreamed of those returns.

But were already at $265B, compounding at a pace that would make the forecasts plausible, with a triple-digit CAGR to match.

So when stablecoin are natively integrated into every app on your phone, the demand for Treasuries will become quasi-infinite, even with near-zero yields.

This is it. We're in the endgame now.

🦅 The MAGAfication of the World

The ultimate implication of these trends is the MAGAfication of the world’s financial systems: the spread of America-first monetary dominance through stablecoins.

Which is, in my eyes, a planetary-scale financial colonization.

We are essentially witnessing emerging markets’ fiat deposit bases become the next frontier of U.S. conquest.

In many developing countries, people will keep using local currency for small daily payments (if only out of habit or legal requirement), but their true store of value will shift to U.S. digital dollars, relegating the former to mere payment rails.

Instead of enforcing a colonial currency with an occupying army, the U.S. can induce foreign populations to willingly adopt its currency by offering a technologically superior and inflation-resistant option.

Because, why wouldn't they? It’s no coincidence that Tether and Circle are increasingly targeting regions like Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

The scale of this ambition is breathtaking, and honestly, I respect it. It's a bid to wire the world’s entire digital economy into the U.S. Treasury market. 

Considering that global M2 money supply is around $111T across all economies. If even a fraction of that moves into dollar-backed stablecoins, that’s trillions in new demand.

This is why the U.S. government finally warmed up to crypto after persecuting it for years, and why officials are celebrating each pro-crypto bill that gets passed. You don’t see this on the news, huh?

From their perspective, it’s a grand-slam: the dollar stays dominant and demand for its debt is secured, all under the banner of innovation and freedom (rather than overt coercion).

But of course, for countries on the receiving end, this is a double-edged sword.

On one hand, their citizens gain a stable store of value and a reliable medium of exchange. On the other hand, they’re subjugated to U.S. financial oversight while undermining the country's economic sovereignty.

Feels like one side is heavier.

By this I mean that the U.S. could one day freeze a rogue regime’s national stablecoin reserves at the contract level (like they do with hacks) while also orwellianly (I made up that word) supervising each and every transaction. 

And that this implies forfeiting total monetary control and letting go of the printers.

So everything you’ve read so far leads to one and one question only:

🌎 What Can Frontier Markets Do?

Emerging economies facing this stablecoin-driven dollar onslaught are left with a few strategic options, none of them perfect (well…).

And I’m sure developing world leaders are judging them as we speak:

1. Build a Wall

Aligning with our MAGA theme, this first option is basically to build a wall. To overregulate or ban USD stablecoins in order to protect monetary sovereignty.

Brazil, for instance, has already proposed restrictions on stablecoins payments and transfers to self-custody wallets while also building out their own CBDC, citing worrisome capital flight. And they're partly right, as 20% of the country’s capital outflows in 2024 were done via stablecoins, draining liquidity and creating infinite sell pressure on the real.

The goal here is to defend local currency by force of law. But stablecoins are internet-native, and tech always finds a way. Overregulation tends to be ineffective in the long run because users can just shift to VPNs, DEXs, and P2P networks. 

Nigeria banned crypto banking in 2021 and stablecoin usage went up anyway. 

Overregulation would just stifle innovation, alienate users, and drive activity into the shadows, reducing oversight without solving the core problem: people want stable money.

2. Join the Empire

Another path is the route Ecuador, Panama, and El Salvador have taken in the past: adopt the U.S. dollar as legal tender, abandoning local currency altogether. 

This is the most extreme form of embracing dollar hegemony, and it can indeed kill hyperinflation overnight. But it comes at a steep cost: loss of all monetary policy control.

The central bank is no longer relevant (it can’t print the Fed’s dollars), and the country becomes wholly dependent on U.S. monetary decisions.

It’s effectively putting your economy on the Federal Reserve’s autopilot. This might be acceptable for very small economies or those already heavily tied to the U.S., but for most emerging nations it’s a blow to national pride and flexibility.

A full embrace of the dollar is a last resort trade-off of sovereignty for stability, not something to be done lightly.

3. Take a Chance

The third and last option is to hedge against U.S. dominance and infinite local currency sell pressure by fostering an alternative store of value that isn't the dollar.

This could mean returning to gold, as we’ve seen with China and Russia accumulating reserves at record levels.

Or, my preferred choice, adopting a Bitcoin standard. 

Bitcoin offers what the dollar cannot: monetary independence, censorship resistance, and hard-coded scarcity. It's the first viable alternative monetary system native to the internet, open source and truly global. 

El Salvador led the way in 2021, declaring BTC legal tender in an effort to reclaim monetary sovereignty.

Digital gold they call it. And it might as well be our savior.

Take a hedge. How about you take a chance.

🗽 Endgame Economics

Ultimately, the fate of frontier markets may hinge on their ability to adapt to the dollar’s digital evolution. 

The United States has shown its hand: it intends to win the 21st-century techno-economic game by making the rest of the world use its currency and fund its debt. Stablecoins are the chosen instrument for achieving dollar hegemony through financial conquest.

Developing nations must either innovate and assert monetary independence, or be gradually absorbed into The Empire of the Dollar.

It's a brutally stark reality with no easy exits.

How this story unfolds will shape the global economic order and balance of power for decades to come.

🌐 Frontier Markets Crypto News

🇧🇷 Brazil

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Central Bank president’s first crypto appearance

Central Bank president Gabriel Galípolo will give the opening keynote at Blockchain Rio, marking his first major speech on crypto since taking office this year.

🇸🇻 El Salvador

🇸🇻 El Salvador moves toward Bukele’s indefinite re-election

El Salvador’s Congress approved constitutional changes removing presidential term limits, potentially allowing Bukele to stay in power indefinitely and continue his pro-Bitcoin agenda.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong

🇭🇰 Hong Kong stablecoin stocks tumble

Stablecoin-linked stocks in Hong Kong fell by double digits as the city entered a six-month transition to its strict new stablecoin framework.

🇵🇭 Philipines

🇵🇭 Philippines SEC targets exchanges under new rules

The Philippines SEC named OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, Kraken and six others for operating without authorization under new crypto regulations, warning of legal action and bans.

📊 Analytics

​​📊 Bitget reveals crypto payment trends

Bitget’s new report, PayFi Unlocked, analyzes what people actually pay for with crypto, highlighting regional differences in adoption and use cases.