The next five years will likely see stablecoins substitute for some overseas and domestic U.S. currency holdings, according to a Citi Future Finance report. “We’re looking at the integration of stablecoins into what you call the mainstream economy,” Ronit Ghose, the global head of Future of Finance, Citi Institute, said. The stablecoin market size is currently around $240 billion, led by Tether’s $145 billion USDT and Circle’s $60 billion USDC. In Citi’s base-case prediction, stablecoins will grow to $1.6 trillion by 2030, provided regulatory support and institutional integration take hold. In the bank’s more bullish scenario, the market could balloon to $3.7 trillion. (The global cryptocurrency market cap today stands around $3.45 trillion.) “Payment companies are leveraging stablecoins for a variety of pure-play payment flows, including cross-border transfer, remittance, merchant settlements and others,” CEO Michael Shaulov said. “Payment companies represent 11% of all of our clients, but 16% of the overall stablecoin transactions with over 30% growth of Q/Q in volumes. It is likely that this growth will continue, and they will represent 50% of the stablecoin volume within 12 months.”