Moody's 2026 Outlook: Stablecoins Will Become Core Market Infrastructure

PANews reported on January 7th that, according to Cointelegraph, Moody's latest cross-industry outlook report indicates that stablecoins are transitioning from a crypto-native tool to a core component of institutional market infrastructure. The report, released Monday, shows that industry estimates of on-chain transactions (not simply interbank fund flows) indicate that stablecoin settlement volume will grow by approximately 87% year-on-year in 2025, reaching a scale of approximately $9 trillion. Moody's believes that fiat-backed stablecoins and tokenized deposits are becoming "digital cash" for liquidity management, collateral transfer, and settlement in an increasingly tokenized financial system.

Moody's ranks stablecoins alongside tokenized bonds, funds, and credit products as part of the convergence of traditional and digital finance. In 2025, banks, asset management companies, and market infrastructure providers piloted blockchain settlement networks, tokenized platforms, and digital custody to streamline issuance, post-trade processes, and intraday liquidity management. As companies build large-scale tokenized and programmable settlement infrastructure, the report estimates that these initiatives will attract over $300 billion in investment to the digital finance and infrastructure sectors by 2030. In this context, stablecoins and tokenized deposits are increasingly becoming settlement assets for cross-border payments, repurchase agreements, and collateral transfers. Moody's emphasizes that security, interoperability, and governance and regulatory clarity are equally important for stablecoins to become reliable institutional settlement assets rather than a new source of systemic vulnerability.