Stablecoins are no longer being discussed as a side rail for crypto trading only. Chainalysis now argues they could become something much larger, with annual transaction volume potentially reaching $1.5 quadrillion by 2035 if a few big shifts fall into place.
That is the upper-end scenario in a new Chainalysis report published on April 8. Even without major new catalysts, the firm said adjusted stablecoin volume could still rise to $719 trillion by 2035 based on current growth trajectories. The more aggressive case more than doubles that figure.
The first is demographic. Chainalysis points to the expected transfer of roughly $100 trillion from Baby Boomers to younger generations between 2028 and 2048, arguing that Millennials and Gen Z are materially more comfortable holding and using crypto-linked financial products. The report cites 2025 survey data showing that nearly half of those younger cohorts have held or currently hold crypto.
The second driver is merchant infrastructure. Chainalysis argues that if stablecoin payments become normal at checkout, both online and in-store, transaction volume could expand far beyond current remittance and trading-based use cases. One estimate tied to that scenario suggests point-of-sale adoption alone could add another $232 trillion in annual volume by 2035.
That forecast is obviously ambitious. Still, the direction of travel is harder to dismiss. Chainalysis is effectively saying the stablecoin market may evolve from a crypto-native liquidity tool into a genuine payments layer that starts to rival traditional networks such as Visa and Mastercard sometime in the 2030s.
The core question now is not whether stablecoins are growing. It is whether payments infrastructure, regulation and consumer habits can move quickly enough to support the scale the report is projecting.
