The Stablecoin Boom: $2 Trillion by 2028, and It’s Gonna Shake Up Bitcoin!

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  • The U.S. Treasury predicts stablecoin might grow from $239 billion to a jaw-dropping $2 trillion by 2028.
  • One wise crypto exchange exec says, for every $1B growth in the stablecoin market, BTC rallies 8-10%. Hmmm, really?

Well, it looks like the stablecoin market is on a wild ride, and the U.S. Treasury is along for the fun. They’ve forecasted that by 2028, stablecoins could swell to a tidy $2 trillion. If you’re wondering where they’re getting this idea, it’s probably from their own crystal ball (and maybe some regulatory blessings on the side).

The Treasury has even gone as far as calling stablecoins a ‘new payment mechanism.’ I mean, sure, why not? Next, they’ll be calling your grandma’s sock drawer a ‘valuable economic asset.’ But hey, they do acknowledge that stablecoins are increasingly becoming a ‘growing source of demand for treasury bills.’ Go ahead, buy some bonds with that Tether!

“Reserve requirements outlined in proposed stablecoin legislation will provide an additional and growing source of demand for Treasuries.”

Now, before you get too excited, the Treasury did drop a little cautionary nugget about stablecoins that yield interest. Apparently, these things could eventually start competing with good ol’ traditional bank deposits. Who knew? People might actually *choose* stablecoins over the banks. Shocking, I know.

Stablecoin Growth — Will It Make BTC Go to the Moon?

If you’ve been living under a rock (or just hate crypto), you might have missed that stablecoins, led by the heavyweights Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), are the hot ticket in crypto these days. Heck, even the banks are showing interest now—talk about a plot twist! But here’s the kicker: the market size right now is just $239 billion, and the volume of stablecoin transactions hit a record high of $1.82 trillion in April. That’s a lot of cash moving around, folks.

According to venture capital firm a16z, stablecoins are to money what WhatsApp was to texting—completely changing the game. But unlike WhatsApp, which was mostly good for awkward messages and cat pics, stablecoins are spreading their wings into non-speculative uses. Yep, they’re being used for cross-border payments and maybe even saving the economy from traditional financial messes. Maybe.

“And organic, non-speculative uses appear to be growing, even as crypto trading volume fluctuates.”

Tracy Jin, the COO of crypto exchange MEXC, shared her take on this wild ride. She says the expected stablecoin boom could be just the thing that makes Bitcoin prices soar. She even dared to say:

“Fiat inflows converted into Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) are steadily flowing into Bitcoin, remaining the primary driver behind its price growth this year. Right now, every additional billion in stablecoins tends to push the BTC price up by 8-10%.”

That sounds all well and good from the 30,000-foot view, but let’s take a closer look. Between January and April 2025, the USDT market grew by $11 billion, from $137B to $148B. Meanwhile, USDC surged by $20 billion, from $43B to $62B. But guess what? Despite all this growth, Bitcoin only went up a measly 1.7%. Talk about disappointing performance for such a dramatic rise in stablecoin wealth!

So, what does all this mean? Well, stablecoins are certainly growing, and that could be good for Bitcoin. But who’s to say if all this growth is just driven by speculative traders or if people are genuinely finding useful ways to use them? Only time (and maybe a little more regulation) will tell.

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2025-05-01 13:20