The market for stablecoins could balloon in the next five years, according to a new report from Citi.
“Stablecoins are a catalyst for blockchain’s ChatGPT moment in institutional adoption,” wrote Ronit Ghose, global head of future of finance at Citi Institute, and Ryan Rugg, global head of digital assets at Citi Services.
Citi now forecasts stablecoin issuance could reach $1.9 trillion by 2030 in its base case, up from a previous estimate of $1.6 trillion. In a bull case, issuance could soar to $4 trillion. The revision reflects “strong” 2025 growth in the market, plus a flurry of project announcements from crypto-native firms to traditional financial players.
Stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional currencies like the US dollar — are increasingly being used in crypto trading, e-commerce, and by offshore households seeking easier access to dollars. They have grown from a $200 billion market cap to $280 billion this year alone, per Citi.
The expansion could be evidence that blockchain technology is finally breaking through in the way large institutions transact and settle money. The bank compares the moment to the “early days of the dotcom boom,” when skeptics doubted whether the internet would truly reshape commerce.
Read more: How stablecoins work
“We don’t believe crypto will burn down the existing system,” the firm notes. “Rather it is helping us reimagine it.”
The report estimated that $1.9 trillion in stablecoin issuance could support nearly $100 trillion in annual transaction, but notes those numbers remain small compared to the $5 trillion to $10 trillion leading banks already move each day.
Still, Citi is careful to temper its enthusiasm, emphasizing that stablecoins “are not the answer to everything.”
Domestic payments in many countries already function in real time at a low cost. Cross-border transactions remain a pain point, but fintech and banks have made progress in lowering fees and speeding up settlement.
“It is not a digital format war that we foresee,” Citi analysts wrote, “but a continued progress towards smarter, faster finance.”
That skepticism matters as most corporate firms remain “curious rather than enthusiastic” about adopting stablecoins. Many companies prefer so-called bank tokens, otherwise known as tokenized deposits, which mirror the safety and regulatory oversight of existing money in the banking system. Citi said transaction volumes for bank tokens “could exceed stablecoins by 2030.”
