- Stablecoin volume projected to quadruple in the next five years.
- Analysts expect most financial institutions to adopt stablecoins.
- Stablecoin companies are launching their own blockchains.
Stablecoins have muscled their way from a rounding error in global finance to a $273 billion market.
But there’s more to come in the next five years, according to analysts at Keyrock, a crypto investment company, and Bitso, a South American cryptocurrency exchange. They argue that stablecoins will soon account for $1 out of every $8 in cross-border payment transactions.
“Assuming today’s challenges around regulation, liquidity, and interoperability are addressed, stablecoins could account for [about] 12% of global cross-border payment volumes by 2030,” the joint Keyrock and Bitso report said.
That’s a lofty target for stablecoins. In 2024, they accounted for less than 3% of the $195 billion global remittance market. But the analysts predict that stablecoin payment volume could reach $1 trillion by 2030.
The analysts highlighted a simple formula for stablecoins reaching that goal: more clarity, more players, and better liquidity integration.
And some of those ingredients are already in the mix.
Regulatory clarity for stablecoins is already emerging in major markets like the US and Europe. In July, President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law, which legally recognises stablecoins.
Jesse McWaters, head of global policy at Mastercard, called the development a “new era for regulatory clarity and confidence in digital assets.”
The Markets in Crypto-Assets regulations in Europe also offer a framework to govern the use of compliant stablecoins within the trading bloc.
These regulatory developments seem to have changed the calculus in terms of attracting market interest from major finance players. Fintechs, payment companies, and even banks are getting involved in stablecoins, vying with crypto-native incumbents like Tether and Circle for market share.
Both Tether and Circle are the two largest revenue-generating crypto businesses.
Stablecoin companies are now pivoting to creating their blockchains as a way to capture more value from settling transactions.
The likes of Tether already run multiple stablecoin blockchains, including Plasma and Stable, while payment firm Stripe is reportedly developing its own blockchain with MetaMask. This week, Circle announced its own blockchain called Arc.
“In the long run, we believe every financial institution will have to support stablecoin infrastructure in some form,” Devere Bryan, general manager at First Digital, the company behind the FDUSD stablecoin, was quoted in the report.
“Whether it’s wallets, onchain settlement, or tokenise deposits, it’s coming,” Devere said.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
