The stablecoin market is increasing sooner than anticipated, with issuance volumes rising from about $200 billion in the beginning of 2025 to $280 billion as of Thursday, based on a report by Citi.
The financial institution has lifted its 2030 forecast for stablecoin issuance to $1.9 trillion in its base case and $4 trillion in a bull case, up from $1.6 trillion and $3.7 trillion respectively.
If stablecoins flow into at a velocity akin to fiat currencies, they might assist as much as $100 trillion in annual transactions by 2030 underneath the bottom state of affairs and double that within the bull case. Citi argued this development displays blockchain’s “ChatGPT second” as digitally native corporations lead adoption in real-world commerce.
But the report suggests stablecoins might not dominate all on-chain finance. Financial institution tokens — reminiscent of tokenized deposits — may finally see greater transaction volumes, pushed by company demand for regulatory safeguards, real-time settlement and embedded compliance. A small migration of conventional banking rails on-chain, Citi estimated, may push financial institution token turnover past $100 trillion by the top of the last decade.
The forecast additionally underscored the continued function of the U.S. greenback. Most on-chain cash stays dollar-denominated, fueling demand for Treasuries, although hubs like Hong Kong and the UAE are rising as facilities of experimentation.
Citi framed the rise of stablecoins not as a battle to interchange banks however as a part of a broader reimagining of monetary infrastructure. Completely different types of digital cash — stablecoins, financial institution tokens and CBDCs — are prone to coexist, every discovering its area of interest.