Stablecoins In for a Wild Ride: Chainalysis Sees $1.5 Quadrillion by 2035

Chainalysis is going absolutely unhinged on stablecoins. The blockchain analytics firm estimates adjusted stablecoin volume could hit $719 trillion by 2035 through organic growth alone, up from $28 trillion in 2025. But that's just the baseline—their "we're not crazy, we swear" scenario.

In a report this week, Chainalysis laid out a ceiling scenario that would make even the most degened-out maxi weep tears of joy: if two major catalysts materialize, volumes could reach a staggering $1.5 quadrillion by 2035. The first catalyst is the baby boomer generation passing $100 trillion in wealth to a crypto-friendly younger generation. The second is stablecoins dethroning traditional payment rails to become the default infrastructure. Basically, grandma's inheritance fund meets PayPal's obituary.

For context, $1.5 quadrillion would eclipse today's entire global cross-border payments market, estimated at around $1 quadrillion. It would also dwarf the total value of all global assets across banks, property and cash, which sits at roughly $662 trillion. To put this in perspective: if the global economy were a crypto portfolio, stablecoins would be the one coin that's up 200,000% and everyone would call it a scam.

To hit even the conservative $719 trillion projection, stablecoins would need to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 133% for the next decade. That's not growth—that's hallucination. That's the kind of number that makes VCs say "interesting" while quietly backing away.

Rachael Lucas, crypto analyst at Australian exchange BTC Markets, called the $1.5 quadrillion figure a ceiling-case scenario, not a base case but not impossible. She pointed to the infrastructure being built right now — Stripe acquiring Bridge, Mastercard partnering with BVNK — as operational bets, not experiments. "Add regulatory clarity from the GENIUS Act, and institutional participation can scale in ways that simply were not possible before," Lucas said. "The generational wealth transfer will do the rest. Millennials and Gen Z are the first generations for whom on-chain is a default, not a deliberate choice." Translation: we're not going back to fiat. Ever.

Data backs up the generational divide. A January OKX survey found 40% of Gen Z and 36% of Millennials plan to increase their crypto activity this year, compared to just 11% of Boomers. Meanwhile, stablecoins are already gaining traction with institutions. An EY-Parthenon report found 13% of financial institutions and corporates globally use stablecoins, and 54% of non-users expect to adopt them within 12 months. The banks are coming. They're just taking the scenic route.