Stablecoin volumes to reach $719T by 2035 as generational wealth shift speeds up crypto adoption
Massive transfer of wealth to younger, crypto-native users and rising payment volumes challenge dominance of Visa and Mastercard
What to know:
- Stablecoins could become a core layer of global finance, with adjusted transaction volumes projected by Chainalysis to reach $719 trillion by 2035.
- Despite moving more than $35 trillion on blockchains last year, stablecoins still account for just a tiny fraction of global payments, leaving significant room for growth.
- Chainalysis expects onchain stablecoin payments to rival Visa and Mastercard volumes by 2039, driven by younger generations’ crypto adoption and the appeal of faster, cheaper, programmable transactions.
Stablecoins moved more than $35 trillion on blockchain rails last year, noting that only roughly 1% was for real-world payments, according to a March report by McKinsey and blockchain data firm Atermis Analytics.
A key catalyst is the looming generational wealth transfer, with as much as $100 trillion expected to pass from Baby Boomers to Millennials and Gen Z over the coming decades. These younger cohorts, far more likely to use crypto as a financial instrument by default, are set to redefine payment preferences at scale, embedding digital assets into mainstream economic activity.
“When crypto becomes the default for the next generation of capital, the question is no longer if stablecoins compete with traditional rails, but how quickly they replace them,” Chainalysis said in its report.
