Stablecoins to make up 10% of money in the next decade or so: Circle CEO

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire revealed four of the biggest reasons he’s “more optimistic” about crypto and stablecoins than ever before.

Stablecoins could account for 10% of “global economic money” over the next ten years or more, according to stablecoin issuer Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire.

It’s arguably a bold claim, but Allaire pointed to several factors that could trigger an exponential expansion in stablecoin adoption over the next “10+ years.”

“Most of the world’s largest payments companies are actively using this technology and exploring how to expand their usage as the benefits of public chains and stablecoins become apparent to everyone,” Allaire explained in a June 19 X post.

The addressable market size is in the “billions,” and unleashing digital dollars on blockchains can fulfill the promise of banking the unbanked, lowering remittance costs and allowing seamless cross-border commerce, said Allaire.

He noted that stablecoins are becoming an increasingly accepted form of digital money and that stablecoins will make up a “larger and larger portion” of the world’s $100 trillion market for electronic money by the end of 2025.

“What does it look like when 10% of global economic money is stablecoins and when credit intermediation moves from fractional reserve lending to onchain credit markets”

“[This] is achievable over the next 10+ years,” Allaire said.

The $162 billion stablecoin market is currently 0.2% of the size of the $80 trillion money market, World Population Review data shows.

Savings, money market and checking accounts make up about $26.4 trillion, $25 trillion and $23.6 trillion, respectively, while the remaining $5 trillion comes from mints.

For Allaire’s 10% prediction to come true by 2034, the stablecoin market would need to grow at least at a compounded annual growth rate of 47.7%, though the estimate doesn’t factor in the growth of the $80 trillion money market.

USD Coin

— the United States dollar stablecoin issued by Allaire’s Circle — currently boasts a $32.8 billion market cap, making it the second largest stablecoin behind Tether

Allaire’s bullishness isn’t limited to the stablecoin market either.

Cryptocurrency adoption could increase to “billions of users” across “millions of applications” in the next 10 or more years, with much more commerce and finance being executed by smart contracts on public blockchain infrastructure.

He even thinks some onchain organizations could outperform some multinational corporations over that timeframe — though he didn’t expand on how and in which sectors.