The original promise of stablecoins sounded almost boring. Peg a token's value to that of a fiat currency like the dollar, and the crypto market gets "digital dollars" that behave like dollars, just as advertised. In practice, they're a bit more interesting. Regulators eye them as systemic risks or threats to the integrity of their own currencies, criminals use them as easily disabled getaway cars, and investors treat them as the closest thing to cash that blockchains can offer.
Stablecoins will only become more important within the financial system over the next five years. Here are three of my predictions for developments that every long-term investor should expect with them before 2030.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Governments will lean on the freeze button more often
Governments like to control money, and stablecoins are no exception.
Stablecoins already include an off switch. Assets such as USDC (USDC 0.01%) and Tether (USDT -0.02%) can freeze any wallet address in seconds, and they do.
Circle, USDC's issuer, froze 75,000 USDC in addresses tied to Tornado Cash within hours of U.S. sanctions on that organization in 2022. A year later, Tether iced 32 wallets allegedly linked to terrorism financing, bowing to law enforcement pressure without fanfare.
Washington just made its power over stablecoins more explicit and expansive. The Genius Act, signed into law on July 18, 2025, requires that every foreign or domestic stablecoin issuer prove it can carry out lawful orders as compelled by the U.S. government, including asset freezes and seizures, as a condition of market access. Expect other jurisdictions to use that same language when they write their own rulebooks.
The trend is clear. By 2030, I predict that freezing and clawing back stablecoins will feel as routine as a bank's fraud alert today, and it'll be a routine form of asset seizure as part of criminal investigations. Investors who prize censorship resistance thus need to understand that stablecoins are, on average, edging closer to traditional banking controls.
And, unfortunately, it is practically guaranteed that governments will use their powers over stablecoins against dissidents so as to prevent them from accessing them as a form of money.
2. At least one major stablecoin will blow up and go to zero
Stablecoins maintain their value via financial engineering that remains under the hood relative to investors. Sometimes that engine breaks down catastrophically.
Recall TerraUSD. In 2022, it experienced a death spiral that vaporized $60 billion in wealth and showed how quickly confidence can evaporate when reserves are thin or poorly constructed. Even fully backed coins wobble sometimes. USDC slipped to $0.88 during the 2023 Silicon Valley Bank crisis before recovering.
Stablecoins now hold roughly $257 billion in circulation. As balances swell, incentives to cut corners or chase yield with reserve assets grow, too. All it takes is one audit gap, custody hack, or bad bond trade to spark a run.
Therefore, I predict that at least one major stablecoin will blow up and go to zero within the next five years.
Long-term investors should hold only the most transparent, fully audited options and avoid holding their life savings in any single coin.
3. Stablecoins will start eating SWIFT's lunch
Once you're set up on the blockchain, stablecoins are a very fast and very convenient way to transfer money across borders without incurring the usual delays and high fees involved with legacy money transfer systems.
Legacy payment systems rely on messaging networks like SWIFT. Those solutions cost tens of dollars, and take a few days for transactions to clear.
Stablecoins are smaller in raw volume at the moment, but are obviously sprinting forward. On-chain transfers now exceed $20 trillion per year, growing by an order of magnitude in just four years.
If the current pace of growth persists, or, more likely, accelerates, I predict that stablecoin corridors will surpass SWIFT for person-to-person transfers well before 2030. For investors, that shift favors blockchains and custodians positioned as low-cost bridges between digital dollars and traditional banks, so invest accordingly.
