Stablecoins are becoming a bigger part of the financial lives of many people around the world, according to a new report.
What they're saying: "Our survey results contradict the common belief that stablecoins are exclusively used as a tool for the speculative trading of cryptoassets," say the authors.
"Gaining access to crypto exchanges remains the top use case for those surveyed, but a long tail or ordinary (non crypto) economic activities is evident as well."
47% of crypto users surveyed used it for saving, 43% used it for currency conversion, and 39% used stablecoins to access yield.
Context: The report comes from seven authors including Nic Carter at investment firm Castle Island Ventures; Peter Johnson and Ross Trachtman at institutional investors organization Brevan Howard Digital; and Anthony Yim at data company Artemis.
The bottom line: As is so often true with innovative new technologies, the breakout use case has not been what the inventors intended.
The blockchain made to support bitcoin was meant to be an alternative to the dollar, but the first killer app turned out to be an all new way of using dollars.