Stablecoins are quietly revolutionizing the gaming industry, becoming a critical, yet often unseen, engine powering in-game economies and beyond. A new report by the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) highlights how stablecoins are being used and what the future holds for game finance, emphasizing that industry professionals view them not as speculative assets, but as vital economic infrastructure.

The BGA report points out several key benefits of using stablecoins in gaming:

• Stability and Retention: Stablecoins offer the price stability needed to keep players engaged, preventing mass disengagement caused by market volatility.
• Reduced Payment Friction: They act as a next-generation payment rail, significantly cutting processing costs and eliminating foreign exchange friction, which makes micro-transactions more viable. Anton Paramonov from Galaxy 4 Games noted that blockchain helps avoid commissions and allows direct operation, emphasizing the importance of even small savings for studios relying on micro-purchases.
• Accelerated Global Payouts: Stablecoins enable near-instant and lower-cost cross-border payments to staff, creators, and contractors, streamlining cash flow compared to traditional bank transfers. Phil Watkins from Ovi.live highlighted that on-chain settlement is final in seconds, enabling studios to reinvest revenue quickly.
• Legitimized Secondary Markets: By pricing assets in a stable unit, stablecoins allow studios to internalize peer-to-peer trading with verifiable sales and automatically enforced royalties, monetizing value that previously leaked to black markets.
• Programmable Economic Logic: Functioning as an "economic OS," they enable automated revenue sharing, predictable incentive rewards, and cleaner financial splits without complex month-end reconciliation. Sequence's Amber Cortez stated that stablecoins are transforming fragmented, speculative game economies into scalable, player-centric systems.
• Cross-Platform Portability: Stablecoins are considered the foundational monetary layer for the metaverse, allowing assets and value to flow seamlessly across different games and engines without introducing volatility.
• Pragmatic Treasury Management: Studios can use stablecoins to preserve purchasing power in inflationary environments and simplify cross-border flows, potentially generating yield on operating capital. Frederico Kessler from FunFair Ventures suggested that studios could share the yield from parking USDC in money-markets with users.

Rayco Tarrida from Calea emphasized the importance of user experience, noting that players recognize the value of USDC, making it easier for Web2 gamers to understand what they are getting. Daniel Tamas from WAM suggested using stablecoins for transactions and native tokens for value accrual, as mixing them in one asset "literally does not work".

The shift towards stablecoins can be seen as a response to the failures of play-to-earn (P2E) models driven by speculative tokens. Games like Axie Infinity experienced significant user decline after their token values plummeted, highlighting the detrimental effect of financial volatility on user engagement.

Stablecoins are also gaining traction outside of gaming. Wyoming recently launched its FRNT stablecoin across seven blockchain networks, marking the first state in the United States to formally grant a fiat-backed stablecoin. This move signifies a growing acceptance and integration of stablecoins into mainstream financial systems.

While the use of stablecoins in gaming is still in its early stages, it signals a broader move towards programmable, platform-agnostic value transfer. As developers explore new monetization models, stablecoins are emerging as a key infrastructure component. They offer a bridge between digital gameplay and real-world value, paving the way for a more open and interoperable future in game monetization.