Citi and Western Union lead Wall Street’s stablecoin charge as Bitcoin miners and lenders shake up the post-halving crypto landscape. The race to develop stablecoin infrastructure is heating up across Wall Street and corporate America. Citigroup is moving ahead with plans to expand its stablecoin payment capabilities, amid growing speculation that major financial institutions are exploring stablecoin initiatives following the passage of the US GENIUS Act — comprehensive legislation expected to take effect in early 2027. The momentum extends beyond banks. Western Union announced plans to build a stablecoin payment network on Solana, underscoring how traditional payment providers are embracing blockchain for faster and cheaper cross-border transactions. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin (BTC) mining landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, with smaller operators rapidly closing the gap on industry leaders. And in digital lending, Ledn reported more than $1 billion in Bitcoin-backed loan originations this year — evi...
Citi and Western Union lead Wall Street’s stablecoin charge as Bitcoin miners and lenders shake up the post-halving crypto landscape. The race to develop stablecoin infrastructure is heating up across Wall Street and corporate America. Citigroup is moving ahead with plans to expand its stablecoin payment capabilities, amid growing speculation that major financial institutions are exploring stablecoin initiatives following the passage of the US GENIUS Act — comprehensive legislation expected to take effect in early 2027. The momentum extends beyond banks. Western Union announced plans to build a stablecoin payment network on Solana, underscoring how traditional payment providers are embracing blockchain for faster and cheaper cross-border transactions. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin (BTC) mining landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, with smaller operators rapidly closing the gap on industry leaders. And in digital lending, Ledn reported more than $1 billion in Bitcoin-backed loan originations this year — evi...
Citi partners with Coinbase to pilot stablecoin payments as the bank forecasts a $4 trillion market by 2030, signaling Wall Street’s growing crypto embrace. Citigroup could become one of Wall Street’s first major banks to offer stablecoin payment services, marking a potential milestone in the broader adoption of tokenized dollars following the passage of the GENIUS Act earlier this year. According to Bloomberg, Citi has partnered with crypto exchange Coinbase to expand its digital asset capabilities, initially focusing on making it easier for clients to move funds between fiat and crypto. Debopama Sen, Citi’s head of payments, said the bank’s clients are increasingly seeking programmability, conditional payments and greater speed and efficiency, alongside round-the-cock payment access. Read more
High stablecoin market growth in 2025 signals a $1.9 trillion base case and a $4 trillion bull case by 2030, Citi's analysts said. Citi, an international banking and financial services company, revised its stablecoin forecast due to the strong growth of the sector in the last six months, and now projects the stablecoin market cap will grow to $4 trillion by 2030. Analysts at Citi project a $1.9 trillion stablecoin market as their “base” case and up to $4 trillion as the “bull” case, up from previous projections of $1.6 trillion and $3.7 trillion, respectively, according to Thursday’s forecast. Analysts at Citi also said stablecoins would not disrupt the banking sector, contrary to concerns voiced by the banking industry, but would help overhaul the financial system, alongside tools like tokenized bank deposits. Citi wrote: Read more
Citi’s Ronit Ghose warned that paying interest on stablecoin holdings could trigger bank outflows akin to the 1980s, driving up funding costs and credit prices. Paying interest on stablecoin deposits could spark a wave of bank outflows similar to the money market fund boom of the 1980s, Citi’s Future of Finance head Ronit Ghose warned in a report published Monday. According to the Financial Times, Ghose compared the potential outflows caused by paying interest on stablecoins to the rise of money market funds in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those funds ballooned from about $4 billion in 1975 to $235 billion in 1982, outpacing banks whose deposit rates were tightly regulated, Federal Reserve data showed. Withdrawals from bank accounts exceeded new deposits by $32 billion between 1981 and 1982. Read more