Standard Chartered pushes its $2 trillion stablecoin call back two years, to 2030, as supply stalls near $309 billion

Standard Chartered has moved its big stablecoin number back two years. In a report released on Wednesday, Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered's global head of digital assets research, kept his $2 trillion target for the stablecoin market but now expects it to be reached in 2030 rather than 2028, the date the bank gave in April 2025, The Block and Benzinga reported.

The reason is supply. Stablecoins in circulation total about $309 billion and have stayed between $300 billion and $320 billion over the past year, according to the report. Kendrick ties the stall to weak crypto trading and calls it cyclical, noting that earlier flat periods were followed by growth once markets recovered.

Activity tells a different story. Onchain transfer value hit a monthly record of $19 trillion in May and has averaged just under $10 trillion a month this year, against $4 trillion in 2025. USDC changes hands about 80 times a month, up from 45, while USDT, used mostly for dollar savings in emerging markets, has stayed near seven.

Kendrick sees payments in developed markets as the most contested area, with bank-backed and multi-issuer tokens moving in, and names regulation as a major risk to the forecast. The US GENIUS Act takes effect in January 2027, and the question is whether other countries copy it.