S&P Global Ratings has projected a monumental expansion for the euro-pegged stablecoin market, forecasting it could grow from approximately €650 million at the end of 2025 to a staggering €1.1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) by 2030. This "upper-bound" scenario represents a 1,600-fold increase and would see euro stablecoins capture roughly 4.2% of all eurozone overnight deposits, transforming them from niche trading tools into a foundational component of European financial infrastructure.
The primary catalyst for this growth is the shift into the "Practical Utility" phase of blockchain, driven by the integration of stablecoins into the regulated real-world economy. S&P's baseline scenario expects €500 billion ($590 billion) in demand from tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), such as government bonds and private credit. An additional €100 billion ($118 billion) is projected to come from retail and corporate payment rails seeking 24/7 settlement and lower cross-border costs.
The full implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in January 2025 has been a key institutional enabler, providing a regulatory framework for banks to issue and hold these digital assets. A major development in 2026 is the planned entry of traditional banks. A consortium of 11 European banks, including ING, UniCredit, and CaixaBank, is preparing to launch a unified, MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026 through a Netherlands-based entity named Qivalis.
This bank-led initiative aims to provide a "sovereign European alternative" to the USD-dominated stablecoin market, leveraging the consortium's existing network of 150 million clients to bridge the liquidity gap. S&P analysts argue that the current dominance of USD-pegged tokens like USDT and USDC, which constitute nearly 99% of the stablecoin supply, is unnatural given the Eurozone's €28 trillion RWA market.
Separately, January 2026 saw a record $10 trillion in total stablecoin transaction volume, according to on-chain data, signaling massive underlying liquidity. Circle's USDC alone processed $8.4 trillion, with a significant $10.5 billion minted on the Solana blockchain. This activity coincided with an 8% increase in Real-World Assets (RWA) Total Value Locked (TVL) on Solana and an 18% inflow across the broader RWA market, pushing its total TVL to a record $24.19 billion.
