Stablecoins based on national currencies other than the U.S. dollar are expected to occupy a fifth of the global market within the next couple of years.
The prediction comes from an executive member of the team behind one of the main contenders in this category, which has been growing fast, not without controversy.
Cryptocurrencies backed by fiat money not printed by the United States will have around 20% of the whole stablecoin market by 2028. That’s according to Oleg Ogienko, Director for International Development of the A7A5 project.
The latter is a new Russian ruble-pegged coin that has been met with sanctions by the U.S. and its allies, alleging it’s being used by Moscow to finance its war in Ukraine. The stablecoin is issued by a Kyrgyzstan-registered entity, but is linked to Russian actors.
Speaking at the TOKEN2049 international conference in Singapore, Ogienko insisted that stablecoins like his are actively strengthening their positions. Quoted by the Russian business news outlet RBC on Thursday, he also stated:
“One of the stable trends in the crypto industry is the active development of non-dollar stablecoins. Their growth reflects the growing demand for digital assets backed by national currencies, which contributes to market diversification.”
The stablecoin space is now heavily dominated by dollar-denominated currencies like Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC, which account for over 98% of the market.
Ogienko believes this weakens other economies and creates risks for users in different jurisdictions. Employing smart contracts, the issuers of such cryptocurrencies can freeze wallets based on the holder’s nationality, for example.
A7A5 seems to have been created precisely with that in mind – to facilitate international settlements for Russian firms facing financial restrictions which it helps bypass. This week, Russia recognized it as a “digital financial asset,” which opens the door even more for its use in cross-border trade.
The ruble stablecoin was developed by A7, a Russian company majority-owned by a fugitive Moldovan oligarch with Russian citizenship, Ilan Shor, and partially owned by the sanctioned state-controlled Russian bank, PSB (formerly Promsvyazbank).
Allegedly underpinned by 1:1 deposits at the PSB, it was launched in January 2025, and is currently issued by a Kyrgyzstan-based entity called Old Vector. This and other associated platforms have been sanctioned by the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union.
Among them is also Kyrgyz-registered Grinex, the alleged successor of the Russian crypto exchange Garantex, which was taken offline in a U.S.-led operation in March, when Tether froze $27 million worth of USDT in its wallets.
According to a report by the blockchain analysis firm Elliptic examining the rise of A7A5, which was released in July, the coin has been used to transfer more than $41 billion, with the daily volume of transactions sometimes exceeding $1 billion.
The total market capitalization of stablecoins now surpasses $300 billion, as reported by Cryptopolitan. The share of those not linked to the Greenback is only $1.2 billion, of which the ruble-pegged A7A5 accounts for 44%, or about $0.5 billion, as per Oleg Ogienko’s estimates.
He is convinced that alternatives like that will continue to emerge and expects an increase in the offering of regional stablecoins, such as one based on the Indian rupee, for example. At the same time, Ogienko admitted de-dollarization will be a challenging process due to political pressures. Nevertheless, he made a bold prediction:
“Of the total expected stablecoin market of $2 trillion in 2028, non-dollar-pegged tokens will reach 20%. Daily turnover could exceed $50 billion by 2027, driven by demand in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.”
The deficit of stablecoins pegged to currencies other than the dollar was acknowledged by Jesse Pollak, head of Base, the Ethereum Layer-2 network developed by U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase.
While many of them are important for the global economy, they are missing in the crypto economy, Pollak noted, quoted by The Block, in a speech during the same forum in Singapore.
Nine major European banks announced last week they are joining forces to issue a stablecoin tied to the euro, the Eurozone’s common fiat currency.
This week, the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), chaired by ECB President Christine Lagarde, adopted a recommendation to ban stablecoins issued both within the bloc and in other jurisdictions.
