Market prospects of stablecoins: from payment tools to global financial infrastructure

Stablecoin supply may reach 3.7 trillion US dollars: the industry is entering a period of explosive growth

According to the latest report released by Citibank, the global stablecoin supply is expected to reach 3.7 trillion US dollars by 2030. This means that stablecoins will gradually evolve from the current auxiliary tools for encrypted transactions to important infrastructure in the global financial system.

Citi pointed out that the key driving forces for the growth of stablecoins include:

• Gradual improvement of the regulatory framework: The United States passed the Stablecoin Act in March 2025 to clarify the issuance and reserve standards; the European Union has passed the MiCA regulations to set a unified regulatory system.

• Entry of institutional investors: More and more traditional financial institutions are incorporating stablecoins into payment and settlement systems.

• Increased demand for US dollar digital assets: The global demand to combat currency depreciation has driven the popularity of stablecoins, especially US dollar stablecoins.

Multiple application expansion: Stablecoins not only serve crypto transactions

The Citibank report pointed out that the application scenarios of stablecoins have expanded from cryptocurrency transactions to more fields:

• Main force of crypto transactions: At present, 90%-95% of stablecoin trading volume still comes from crypto asset exchanges.

• B2B corporate payments: When doing business in low- and middle-income countries, traditional banks have low efficiency and other unpredictable situations. Given that global B2B flows are worth tens of trillions of dollars, even a small portion of that money moving to stablecoins could be equivalent to 20-25% of the total stablecoin market in the long run.

• Consumer Remittances: The $1 trillion global remittance market is being reshaped by stablecoins.

• Institutional Trading and Capital Market Settlements: Some banks and financial institutions are exploring the use of stablecoins to settle tokenized securities transactions.

• Interbank Liquidity Management: Although still a small percentage, the potential of stablecoins in internal settlements and liquidity optimization cannot be underestimated.

It can be seen that stablecoins are rapidly transforming from "cryptocurrency assets" to basic financial instruments in the real world.

Significant payment advantages: emerging markets benefit first

In addition to the Citi report pointing out that stablecoins are similar to the bank card industry and cross-border banking industry, they all have strong network effects and self-reinforcing cycles. The Insights4vc report also pointed out that one of the most transformative applications of stablecoins in the real world isinternational remittances.It hasfast speed, low cost, and 24/7 availabilityand other characteristics,It has shown strong growth momentum in regions around the world where instant payments have not yet been popularized.

Specific manifestations:

• In Argentina, Turkey, Nigeria, Kenya, Venezuela and other countries, stablecoins have become an important means of daily payment and asset preservation; (from Citibank report)

• In the field of cross-border remittances, the cost of transferring through stablecoins is about 60% lower than that of traditional channels, and the arrival time is shortened from several days to a few minutes or even seconds; (from Insights4vc report)

• Mexican case: In 2023, Mexico has become the world's largest recipient of encrypted dollar remittances, with an annual receiving amount of up to US$63.3 billion (from Insights4vc report)

Changes in revenue model: Zero-yield stablecoins face the risk of elimination

With the launch of tokenized money market funds (MMFs) by institutions such as BlackRock (BUIDL) and Franklin Templeton (BENJI), users can exchange USDC for assets with a yield of up to 5% in their crypto wallets while maintaining a peg to the US dollar. This puts pressure on traditional "zero-yield" stablecoins.

Circle (USDC issuer) has begun to provide rewards to users through the Coinbase platform, and Tether (USDT) is also considering a feedback mechanism to cope with potential user churn.

At the same time, new players such as PayPal (PYUSD) and Agora (AUSD) continue to pour in, and most of them come with income incentives, further intensifying market competition. If traditional stablecoin issuers cannot provide corresponding incentives, they may lose their competitive advantage in the future market.