Citi says stablecoins could hit $4 trillion in issuance by 2030

The stablecoins market could climb to $4 trillion in total issuance by the year 2030, according to a new report from Citi.

The report was written by Ronit Ghose, head of future of finance at Citi Institute, and Ryan Rugg, head of crypto at Citi Services, who both see a base-case of $1.9 trillion and a bull-case of $4 trillion, both up from the earlier projection of $1.6 trillion.

They said the update reflects strong growth expected in 2025 and the recent flood of projects from crypto-native platforms and traditional financial firms.

Ronit and Ryan described stablecoins as the “catalyst for blockchain’s ChatGPT moment” when it comes to institutional use. The two compared it to the dotcom boom in the late ‘90s, saying that what’s happening now with crypto feels a lot like when the internet was still being underestimated.

Their words: “We don’t believe crypto will burn down the existing system. Rather, it is helping us reimagine it.” So far in 2025, the stablecoins market cap has jumped from $200 billion to $280 billion.

The report says if that pace continues, the projected $1.9 trillion in circulation could support up to $100 trillion in transactions each year. But even that number is small when compared to the $5 trillion to $10 trillion in daily transactions moved by top global banks.

Citi questions stablecoins as firms prefer tokenized deposits

Despite the surge in adoption, Citi is still cautious. Ronit and Ryan made it clear that stablecoins aren’t the magic solution for everything. They noted that payments inside most countries already happen in real time and at a low cost, especially in places with advanced fintech systems.

The real issue still lies with cross-border payments, which are slow and expensive. That’s where stablecoins could help. But even there, fintech apps and banks have already started cutting costs and speeding things up.

“It is not a digital format war that we foresee,” the analysts said. “But a continued progress towards smarter, faster finance.” The bank also said most companies are still hesitant. In their words, most firms remain “curious rather than enthusiastic” about using stablecoins in real operations.

Instead, a lot of them prefer bank tokens, also known as tokenized deposits, digital versions of regular bank money that come with regulation. Citi said these might actually handle more transactions than stablecoins by 2030.

Crypto sell-off hits stablecoin firms and bitcoin-linked stocks

While forecasts around stablecoins are growing, the overall crypto market isn’t having a great week. Major coins dropped across the board. Bitcoin slid under $112,000 on Thursday, dropping 2%. Ethereum went down 5% to below $4,000, hitting its lowest price since August.

Other coins like Solana saw even steeper declines. All this came after more than $1.6 billion in long positions were liquidated earlier in the week. CoinGlass data showed $511 million in liquidations in the last 24 hours alone.

That wasn’t the only thing spooking crypto investors. U.S. stock markets are down too. A lot of investors are pulling back over concerns that AI hype pushed prices too far, and that the Federal Reserve might not cut interest rates anytime soon.

September is usually a shaky month for crypto, and this one’s no different. Another issue is the Treasury General Account. The U.S. government has been refilling it by selling T-bills and bonds, which sucks cash out of the market and hurts demand for riskier assets like crypto.

Crypto-related stocks were dragged down too. Robinhood and Coinbase each fell more than 1% on Thursday. MicroStrategy, which holds a large amount of Bitcoin, also took a hit. So did Circle, the firm behind one of the top stablecoins.

U.S. and international regulators are debating new rules for how stablecoins should be issued and monitored. And big names like PayPal have already added more stablecoin offerings, while retailers like Walmart and Amazon are exploring building their own.

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