In September 2018, at a debate hosted by KIO Networks in Mexico City, Katie Haun, a former federal prosecutor and Andreessen Horowitz's first female partner, predicted the future of stablecoins when Bitcoin was valued at just $4,000 and most Americans considered cryptocurrencies a passing fad. Against Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, Haun precisely defined stablecoins as digital tokens pegged to the dollar that offer blockchain technology benefits without price fluctuations, specifically stating: Stablecoins are really interesting and really important to this ecosystem to hedge against that volatility. Krugman categorically dismissed this idea, pointing out that Bitcoin had not become a widespread payment method after ten years and saw no advantages in cryptocurrencies over traditional alternatives.
The 2025 data has validated Haun's prediction: the stablecoin market, which barely existed in 2015, has reached a value of $250 billion and become the 14th largest holder of U.S. Treasuries globally. Technology evolution can be quantified: international transfer costs have dropped from $12 to mere pennies, and in 2024, stablecoin transaction volume exceeded Visa's for the first time. Haun Ventures, founded in 2022 with $1.5 billion in assets under management, has continued this vision with numerous stablecoin investments, including Bridge, which was reportedly acquired by Stripe for ten times its forward revenue. In Turkey, the concrete impact is particularly dramatic, where Tether functions not as cryptocurrency but as actual money due to its dollar-denominated stable value.
Regulatory issues came to the forefront in 2025 in the United States with the GENIUS Act, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support: 14 Democrats voted with Republicans, though Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, highlighted corruption risks. Haun refuted money laundering concerns using specific statistics, citing the Treasury Department's testimony that 99.9% of money laundering crimes succeed using traditional bank wires, not cryptocurrency. Their current measured 2% share of global payments is put into perspective by Haun as a typical technology adoption process – stablecoins represent the inevitable transformation of digital payments, extended over time but unstoppable due to the advantages of faster, cheaper, and more accessible money movement.
Sources:
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Connie Loizos
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