Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said stablecoins could grow “a couple of thousand times” from their current size, describing the sector as crypto’s biggest undeveloped opportunity even after i
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said stablecoins could grow “a couple of thousand times” from their current size, describing the sector as crypto’s biggest undeveloped opportunity even after its market value climbed above $300 billion.
Zhao made the comments during a Yahoo Finance podcast appearance, where he argued that the stablecoin market still looks small compared with the size of global payments, foreign exchange, remittances and settlement activity.
The current stablecoin market is already large by crypto standards. DeFiLlama’s stablecoin market data placed total stablecoin capitalization around $313 billion when checked, with USDT holding roughly 59% dominance and USDC remaining the second-largest token in the sector.
Zhao’s growth call is aggressive because a literal thousand-fold expansion would put stablecoins far beyond today’s crypto market. His broader point was about addressable market size: every currency could eventually have stablecoin rails, foreign exchange could run continuously onchain, and payment flows could move through programmable dollars, euros and local-currency tokens instead of slower banking infrastructure.
Stablecoins have already moved beyond exchange collateral. They are now used for cross-border payments, treasury movement, remittances, DeFi settlement, tokenized asset settlement and liquidity routing across blockchains.
The latest data keeps the sector above the milestone that recently put stablecoin liquidity back in market focus. Tether still dominates global supply, while USDC has gained ground in regulated venues, payments products and chains where compliance-focused liquidity is more important than offshore exchange depth.
Stellar shows how stablecoin infrastructure is spreading into payment-oriented chains rather than staying concentrated only on Ethereum and Tron. DeFiLlama’s chain-level stablecoin data showed about $815 million in stablecoins on Stellar when checked, with tokenized dollar and payment assets tied to the network’s remittance and institutional-use focus.
MoneyGram’s stablecoin work on Stellar also points to the same direction. Stablecoins are becoming wallet balances, settlement assets and payout rails rather than only trading pairs. That is the infrastructure layer Zhao is pointing to when he talks about stablecoins growing from a few hundred billion dollars into a much larger financial category.
Zhao also linked stablecoin growth to AI payments. He said AI agents may begin transacting onchain within months, creating demand for payment rails that can operate globally, instantly and without traditional account-opening friction.
AI agents can search, compare and execute digital tasks, but payments still require rails that machines can access programmatically. Stablecoins give software-controlled wallets a way to hold, send and settle value without waiting for bank hours, card networks or regional payment permissions.
That use case connects stablecoins with the wider push into tokenized finance. Public-market investors are already watching the sector through listings and vehicles tied to stablecoin infrastructure, including StablecoinX’s Nasdaq debut and the expansion of yield-bearing dollar products such as Ethena’s USDe.
Regulation is also changing the market. Europe’s MiCA regime has pushed compliant stablecoins into a narrower but clearer legal lane, while the U.S. stablecoin debate continues to pull banks, payment companies and asset managers closer to tokenized dollar rails.
Zhao did not attach a timeline to the “couple of thousand times” call. The stablecoin market remains near $313 billion today, led by USDT and USDC, while payment networks, AI agents, remittance firms and tokenized-asset platforms are still building the infrastructure needed for broader use.
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