The Sunset of Bitcoin? Stablecoins Rise to Dominance in LATAM and Africa

Persistently high inflation across most of Latin America has pushed crypto payments into the mainstream surprisingly fast. The region is now home to a wide range of payment gateways — from Binance Pay and Coinbase to NOWPayments and Cryptomus — alongside regional players like Triple-A and Bitso. The latter recently put out some interesting numbers for 2025.

Despite the bullish outlook for Bitcoin that everyone was talking about last year, users have quietly shifted toward stablecoins. For the first time in LATAM, dollar-pegged tokens accounted for roughly 40% of all purchases.

Bitcoin's share of retail payments dropped to just 18%. Given that BTC has been in a prolonged slump for about six months now, stablecoins could easily hold onto the top spot going into 2026.

A similar trend is playing out in Africa, where chronic inflation has long been a reality. People are parking more of their savings in dollar tokens and relying less on Bitcoin than before.

Over time, this shift is likely to deepen — partly due to the looming threat of quantum computing, and partly because of stablecoin legalization in the US, where authorities deliberately chose not to pursue a CBDC. That decision should strengthen trust in dollar-backed tokens at the everyday consumer level worldwide.