Standard Chartered Bank Pushes Back $2 Trillion Stablecoin Market Cap Forecast to 2030

S. On October 14, according to The Block, Standard Chartered Bank has delayed its forecast for the stablecoin market reaching a $2 trillion scale from 2028 to 2030. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's Global Head of Digital Asset Research, stated that stablecoin supply has hovered between $300 billion and $320 billion over the past 12 months and is currently around $309 billion, with stagnant growth viewed as a cyclical rather than structural issue.

Despite slowing supply growth, usage continues to climb—monthly average on-chain transfer values in 2026 approached $10 trillion, a substantial increase from $4 trillion in 2025, and single-month on-chain transfers in May hit a record high of $19 trillion. Stablecoin velocity also doubled from 15 times in 2025 to approximately 30 times. USDC's velocity increased from 45 times to 80 times, primarily used for payments and transactions between AI agents; meanwhile, USDT's velocity remained around 7 times, largely catering to dollar savings demand in emerging markets.

Kendrick noted that competition is most intense in developed-market payments and traditional finance alternatives, with potential challengers including OUSD, stablecoin infrastructure provider M^0, and the multi-bank shared stablecoin network A+. On the regulatory front, the U.S. GENIUS Act is expected to take effect in January 2027, and its global adoption impact will be a key risk factor influencing whether the forecast materializes.