SoK: A Structured Analysis of Economic and Technical Stablecoin-Related Research

Stablecoins, with a capitalization exceeding 200 billion USD as of January 2025, have shown significant growth in both supported transactions and volumes, with annual transaction volumes exceeding 10 trillion dollars in 2023 and nearly doubling that figure in 2024. This exceptional growth has attracted the attention of traditional financial institutions, with an increasing number of governments exploring the potential of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Although academia has recognized the importance of stablecoins, research in this area remains fragmented, incomplete, and sometimes contradictory.In this Systematization of Knowledge (SoK), we aim to address the cited gap with a structured literature analysis, correlating recent contributions to present a picture of the complex economic and technical aspects of stablecoins. To achieve this, we identify the main research questions and categorize scientific contributions accordingly, identifying data sources, methodologies, and open research questions. Our analysis reveals numerous significant findings across economic and technical domains. It also highlights significant research gaps, including limited studies on security and privacy, underexplored stablecoins, and unexamined stablecoin failure cases, paving the way for further research in the domain.