Standard Chartered Pushes Back $2 Trillion Stablecoin Target to 2030
Standard Chartered has pushed back its $2 trillion stablecoin market forecast to 2030 from 2028, citing stalled supply growth even as actual usage keeps climbing.Standard Chartered Global Head of Digital Assets Research Geoffrey Kendrick wrote in a Wednesday report cited by The Block that stablecoin supply has held steady between $300 billion and $320 billion over the past 12 months, currently sitting near $309 billion.Kendrick called the slowdown cyclical rather than structural, since it coincided with weak broader crypto market activity rather than any fundamental breakdown in demand.Why Stablecoin Usage Still Looks Strong Despite the PauseTransaction activity tells a different story than supply. Kendrick said raw on-chain transfer value hit a monthly record of $19 trillion in May, with monthly volume averaging just under $10 trillion so far this year, up from $4 trillion in 2025.Stablecoin velocity, which measures how many times each dollar changes hands, has also doubled:Overall velocity: roughly 30 times this year, up from 15 times in 2025USDT velocity: stayed flat near 7 timesUSDC velocity: jumped from 45 times to around 80 timesKendrick traced that gap to different use cases. USDT mainly serves as a dollar-savings tool in emerging markets, while USDC sees heavier use in payments and early transactions between AI agents.Kendrick expects the sharpest competition to emerge in developed-market payments and transactions. He flagged three potential challengers worth watching:Open USD (OUSD), similar to Global Dollar Network’s USDG, aimed at trading venuesM^0, a stablecoin infrastructure provider built for longer-run growthA+, a planned network letting banks issue a shared stablecoin while keeping the income from reservesKendrick told The Block this segment is “the most contested going forward,” with yield-sharing terms ultimately deciding the winners.Kendrick named regulation as the primary threat to his $2 trillion forecast.The outcome hinges on whether other countries follow the U.S. GENIUS Act’s lead, set to take effect in January 2027.How This Ties to Kendrick’s Broader Tokenization ThesisAs this month, Kendrick told the Milk Road podcast that stablecoins proving blockchain can replace real-world financial infrastructure convinced him to build cash flow models for tokenization-linked altcoins instead of XRP :Uniswap Aave Arbitrum (CRYPTO: ARB)Chainlink His $2 trillion stablecoin forecast, paired with a matching $2 trillion target for tokenized assets, anchors that entire thesis.Standard Chartered’s revised timeline still sits well below some rival estimates.Meanwhile, as Benzinga reported earlier, could reach $4 trillion by 2035, while Citi’s to $1.9 trillion by 2030, with a bullish scenario reaching $4 trillion over the same stretch.Photo via Shutterstock Read Also: