The proliferation of different stablecoin tickers and token standards is fragmenting liquidity across the cryptocurrency ecosystem and imposing a poor user experience that is costly, technical, and time-consuming, according to onchain investigator ZachXBT.
Users encounter obstacles when transferring stablecoins across the crypto ecosystem, including cross-chain bridging restrictions, gas and transaction fees that must be paid in the native token of the blockchain being used, and a lack of universal token support across exchanges, ZachXBT stated. He provided the following example:
“Imagine you receive USDPT to your Solana address but realize your wallet doesn’t have USDPT on the default token list. You also need gas, so you bridge ETH from Ethereum and wait several minutes, and want to swap USDPT for USD on a centralized exchange.”
Source: ZachXBT
Subsequently, the user might discover that their chosen exchange does not support the token or a swap for that token. This forces them to bridge to a different blockchain, incur additional gas fees, download another wallet, or sign up for another exchange to complete the transaction.
Industry executives told Cointelegraph that the absence of a smooth user experience and intuitive user interfaces (UI) in crypto remains one of the most significant impediments to achieving mass adoption and parity with Web2 and traditional financial applications.
Abstracting Away Technicality: The Future of Stablecoins
Crypto exchanges will eventually abstract away stablecoin tickers, presenting a front-end interface to users that solely displays the fiat currency underlying the stablecoin, such as the US dollar or British pound, according to Mert Mumtaz, CEO of remote procedure call (RPC) node provider Helius.
Exchanges will handle complex cross-chain swaps and transfers behind the scenes, enabling users to interact seamlessly with stablecoins from any issuer without encountering technical barriers, Mumtaz explained.
Furthermore, AI agents and autonomous AI bots will reduce the technical difficulty of using stablecoins from different issuers or across blockchain networks by managing wallets on behalf of users, Reeve Collins, co-founder of stablecoin issuer Tether, told Cointelegraph.