Citi Institute’s report, “Stablecoins 2030: Web3 to WallStreet,” lands on a clear conclusion: stablecoins are no longer a crypto niche — they’re becoming financial infrastructure. The headline numbers are eye-opening:• Stablecoin issuance could reach $1.9T (base case) and $4.0T (bull case) by 2030• At realistic velocity assumptions, stablecoins could settle ~$100T–$200T annually• Yet institutional adoption today is still rated ~0.5 out of 10That gap is the story.
1. Stablecoins are winning as money rails, not as products. Citi frames stablecoins as 24x7 settlement infrastructure — programmable, always on liquidity that compresses financial cycles. This mirrors history: cash moves first, then assets follow.
2. Co-existence beats “format wars”. Stablecoins, tokenized deposits, deposit tokens, and CBDCs will all coexist. Institutions will choose formats based on trust, regulatory clarity, privacy, and integration with existing workflows — not ideology.
3. The real constraint isn’t TPS — it’s lifecycle integrity. Citi repeatedly flags the hard problems:- Fragmented ledgers and reconciliation- Integration with ERP, treasury, and compliance systems- Privacy, auditability, and reserve verificationOperational controls that survive real balance sheets and regulators.
In other words: money can move on-chain faster than institutions can operate onchain.