Stablecoins Caught the Velocity Bug—But That $2T Number Isn't Going Anywhere

So here's a fun development: stablecoin velocity has doubled over the past two years, with coins now flipping hands an average of six times monthly. Standard Chartered looked at the math, scratched their heads, and then did what any respectable bank does—kept the $2 trillion headline number right where it is.

Geoff Kendrick, the bank's head of digital assets research, pointed out that higher velocity theoretically means fewer coins are needed to support the same transaction volume. In normal finance, that's the kind of insight that makes people nervous. But Kendrick still thinks the stablecoin market will hit $2 trillion in total market cap by the end of 2028—because apparently, math is more of a suggestion than a rule in crypto forecasting.

"These new use cases are, so far, additive to overall stablecoin transactions," Kendrick wrote, dropping the kind of corporate-speak that would make a PR department weep with joy. He also noted that higher velocity hasn't cannibalized the low-velocity emerging market savings crowd. So everyone's still getting their bag, apparently.

USDC has been absolutely crushing it as the main driver of new stablecoin activity. The Circle-issued token—roughly 25% of the market—started decoupling from Tether's USDT in mid-2024 as it began eating traditional banking rails for breakfast. That trend hit hyperspeed after the GENIUS Act established a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins last summer. Nothing says "we're legitimate" quite like Congress actually passing something useful.

Then, starting in October 2025, USDC velocity on Solana and Base surged like a degen chasing a fresh airdrop. Kendrick attributes that second leg to early AI agent payments via x402, an open-source payment protocol developed by Coinbase. Those volumes have since pulled back, suggesting the initial surge may have been, you know, just vibes.

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller called stablecoins "incredibly useful"—so much so that he expects them to become the backbone of the financial system in the coming decades. In a newly posted video interview with Morgan Stanley, he casually predicted that "our whole payments system will be stablecoins in 10 or 15 years," calling fiat-pegged tokens highly productive thanks to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Imagine being paid to state the obvious.

The two market leaders have clearly diverged by use case: emerging market savings for USDT, TradFi replacement for USDC. Meanwhile, USDT's velocity has remained comparatively stable, dominated by lower-turnover emerging-market savings. It's the tortoise and the hare, except both are going to the moon—just on different rockets.

"As a result, our $2 trillion market estimate for end of 2028 remains intact," Kendrick wrote, "but we will watch stablecoin velocity more closely going forward." A truly groundbreaking conclusion from the "we're watching it" school of financial analysis.

Elsewhere, investment bank Benchmark initiated coverage of Cantor Equity Partners II with a "Buy" rating. The firm is expected to merge later this year with Miami-based tokenization specialist Securitize, which analysts described as a "compelling pure-play investment on tokenization" building infrastructure for tomorrow's capital markets. Infrastructure for tomorrow's capital markets—that's either visionary or a very expensive way to say "we're still figuring this out."

Publicly traded Bitcoin treasury firm Nakamoto Holdings sold around $20 million worth of Bitcoin