Stablecoin supply could surge to $4 trillion by 2030 — a more than tenfold increase from the current $302 billion — driven by major tech platforms adopting stablecoin-based payouts, according to Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan.
In a note to clients on Tuesday, Hougan highlighted pilot programs by DoorDash and Meta as crucial catalysts. DoorDash is partnering with Stripe to enable stablecoin payouts for its 10 million Dashers across over 40 countries. Meanwhile, Meta is using the Solana and Polygon blockchains to pay creators in Colombia and the Philippines, targeting a global creator economy of an estimated 200 million contributors.
While the dollar amounts involved remain small relative to the broader market, Hougan said the pilots have bolstered his confidence that stablecoins will scale dramatically. He stressed that the primary motivation for these companies is not the well-known cost savings — though stablecoin transactions settle for cents compared to tens of dollars for bank wires — but operational simplicity. A single wallet address eliminates the need for local banking infrastructure and currency conversions, making global micropayments vastly more efficient.
“I suspect all global tech companies with distributed gig workers will follow DoorDash and Meta on this path,” Hougan wrote. “In the process, they’d help bring millions of users into the crypto ecosystem.”
The projection comes as dollar-pegged stablecoin supply already exceeds $302 billion, led by Tether’s USDT at roughly $189.5 billion and Circle’s USDC at about $79 billion. Additionally, Western Union launched its USDPT stablecoin on Solana for 24/7 settlement across more than 200 countries, and Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot reached an annualized run rate of $7 billion across nine blockchains and over 130 card programs in more than 50 countries.
For Hougan, the true impact lies in user onboarding: a stablecoin wallet serves as a direct gateway to broader crypto adoption, with bitcoin and DeFi just one click away.
