Stablecoin Payments Projected to Top $1T Annually by 2030, Market Maker Keyrock Says

Stablecoin payment volumes are projected to exceed $1 trillion annually by the end of this decade, according to a Thursday joint report from crypto market maker Keyrock and Latin American exchange Bitso.

That growth will be driven by institutional adoption across business-to-business (B2B), peer-to-peer (P2P) and card payment rails, sectors which have already showed signs of rapid uptake, the authors said.

The report underscored why stablecoins are gaining ground in finances: they can outcompete traditional payment methods on both speed and cost. Sending $200 through a bank could carry fees equivalent to up to 13% and take days to settle, while stablecoins can complete the transaction in seconds at a fraction of the price, the report said.

Foreign exchange (FX) settlement could be the largest untapped opportunity, according to the report. The $7.5 trillion-a-day FX market still largely settles on a T+2 basis through correspondent banks. Meanwhile, on-chain FX using stablecoins could enable atomic swaps with near-instant settlement and lower counterparty risks, the report suggested.

Such efficiencies could also transform cross-border payments. With more regulatory clarity, greater liquidity and interoperability, stablecoins could handle as much as 12% of all cross-border payment flows by the end of the decade.

Stablecoin transaction volume vs. cross-border payment volume (Visa, McKinsey, Keyrock)

Given the opportunities, the authors forecasted that every major fintech firms will eventually integrate stablecoin infrastructure over the few next years, just as software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools became ubiquitous.

In practice, that could mean wallets and payment platforms moving value on-chain, treasury desks holding stablecoins and deploying for a yield and merchants settling instantly in multiple currencies.

The rapid growth of stablecoins, which have a market cap of $260 billion, could also have ripple effects on monetary policy. Stablecoin supply could reach 10% of the U.S. M2 money supply in a bull case, up from 1% today, and represent roughly a quarter of the U.S. Treasury bill market and influence how the Federal Reserve manages short-term interest rates.

Read more: JPMorgan Sees Stablecoin Market Hitting $500B by 2028, Far Below Bullish Forecasts