Stablecoins become core market plumbing in Moody’s 2026 outlook

Moody’s says stablecoins and tokenized deposits are evolving into institutional “digital cash,” with trillions in onchain settlement volume and billions in infrastructure investment.

Stablecoins are shifting from a crypto native tool to a core piece of institutional market plumbing, according to a new cross-sector outlook report from Moody’s.

In the report, published Monday, the ratings agency says stablecoins processed an estimated 87% more settlement volume in 2025 than the year before, reaching roughly $9 trillion in activity based on industry estimates of on-chain transactions, rather than purely bank‑to‑bank flows.

Moody’s argues that fiat‑backed stablecoins and tokenized deposits are now evolving into “digital cash” for liquidity management, collateral movements, and settlements across an increasingly tokenized financial system.

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