Bank adoption of stablecoins is no longer a debate — it’s a $59T race

The debate inside global banking about stablecoins is effectively over. The question was never really settled through argument — it was settled through action. When Standard Chartered announced it would offer institutional clients direct access to minting and redeeming Circle Internet’s USDC, the move landed not as a novelty but as confirmation of a trend already in motion. Bank adoption of stablecoins has shifted from a philosophical question to an operational one, and the world’s largest financial institutions are now racing to define their role in it.

Key takeaways

• Standard Chartered now offers institutional clients direct USDC minting and redemption, becoming the first G-SIB to provide integrated access of this kind with Circle.
• BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custody bank with $59 trillion in assets under management, expanded USDC support for custody, minting, and redemption just days earlier.
• Both banks are classified as global systemically important institutions by the Basel Committee, giving these moves significant institutional weight.
• Chainalysis projects stablecoin settlement volumes could reach a quadrillion dollars annually by 2030.
• A consortium of 37 European financial institutions led by Qivalis is developing the Euro On-Chain (EUOC) stablecoin to offer a regulated euro alternative under MiCA.

Global Banks Embrace Stablecoins with Institutional Access

Standard Chartered’s move this week didn’t happen in isolation. Just days before, BNY Mellon — the world’s largest custody bank, managing $59 trillion in assets — expanded its own USDC infrastructure to let institutional clients custody, mint, and redeem the token using BNY’s existing systems rather than building their own. Two of the most systemically significant banks on the planet, both recognized as global systemically important banks by the Bank for International Settlements’ Basel Committee, moved in the same direction within the same week.

That kind of convergence signals something beyond individual product decisions.

Standard Chartered Enables Direct USDC Minting and Redemption

Standard Chartered’s partnership with Circle gives institutional clients a direct on-ramp and off-ramp to USDC without needing to rely on third-party intermediaries. It marks the first time a global systemically important bank has offered this level of integrated USDC access in partnership with Circle. For institutions managing large cross-border flows, removing that friction isn’t a minor upgrade — it’s a structural change in how they can move value.

BNY Mellon Expands USDC Custody and Settlement Services

BNY Mellon’s expansion is equally telling. Rather than issuing its own stablecoin, BNY chose to plug into an existing, liquid network. That choice reflects a broader pattern: established banks are concluding that building from scratch carries more risk and fewer rewards than connecting to networks that already have scale. The infrastructure already exists. The question now is who controls the access layer.

Shifting Banking Perspective: From Whether to How Stablecoins Fit

“Banks aren’t asking whether they’ll use stablecoins anymore. They’re deciding how they’ll use them,” said Andrew MacKenzie, founder and CEO of Scotland-based stablecoin issuer Agant. That framing captures the industry’s current mood precisely.

The inflection point has been quietly building. Stablecoins began as retail tools — a way for crypto traders to park value without leaving the ecosystem. Their institutional moment has arrived on the back of hard-won regulatory clarity, improved liquidity, and a growing realization that tokenized settlement at scale requires programmable, fiat-pegged instruments.

Industry Voices Highlight Network and Liquidity Importance

The network question has become central to how professionals evaluate stablecoins. Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic, co-founder and partner at Steakhouse Financial, which advises institutions on decentralized finance, put it plainly: “The network is what creates the value. The stablecoin itself becomes almost secondary.”

That view gained added context this week when Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire responded to the introduction of OpenUSD, a rival stablecoin backed by Coinbase, Stripe, and BlackRock. Allaire’s defense of USDC leaned heavily on nearly a decade of accumulated liquidity, banking relationships, and regulatory approvals — all network-layer assets, not token-layer ones. The emergence of OpenUSD also underscores how competitive the stablecoin space is becoming, even as banks rush to embrace it.

The stakes are significant. According to Chainalysis, stablecoin settlement volumes could reach a quadrillion dollars annually by 2030. Whoever controls the infrastructure connecting that volume to traditional finance is positioned at the center of one of the largest payment transformations in modern history.

European Efforts to Develop Euro-Denominated Stablecoins Under MiCA

Europe’s stablecoin conversation is running on a different track — and a more urgent one. Dollar-pegged tokens currently account for more than 99% of total stablecoin market capitalization. For European institutions, that concentration creates a structural dependency they are actively trying to address before tokenized finance becomes the norm.

Qivalis Consortium Leads Euro On-Chain Stablecoin Development

Qivalis, leading a consortium of 37 European financial institutions, is developing the Euro On-Chain (EUOC) stablecoin as a shared infrastructure play rather than a competitive product. CEO Jan-Oliver Sell has been direct about the stakes: “If we don’t have a euro on the blockchain, the banks will use the dollar because it’s there, it’s available and it has a lot of liquidity.”

The consortium model is deliberate. Rather than fragmenting the market with dozens of competing euro tokens from individual banks, Qivalis is pushing institutions to collaborate on a single shared network — capturing the same network effects that have made USDC dominant in dollar terms. “The more banks we have in the consortium, the better. Our network has stronger network effects,” Sell said.

New Stablecoins Aim to Reduce Dollar Dependency with Regulated Euro Tokens

Europe’s regulatory position is, arguably, its competitive advantage here. The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework already provides the oversight that many dollar-backed stablecoins spent years negotiating. What the continent lacks is liquidity depth — and that’s a solvable problem if enough institutions commit to the same network.

Qivalis is not alone. Societe Generale’s EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) and Credit Agricole’s EURXT represent competing approaches from major French lenders, each attempting to anchor euro settlement in tokenized form. The proliferation of euro-denominated tokens reflects genuine institutional urgency — but it also raises the question of whether fragmentation will undermine the very network effects each issuer is trying to capture.

Infrastructure Investments Linking Stablecoins and Traditional Finance

The infrastructure layer is where the real competition is playing out. MacKenzie of Agant, observing the same dynamic in the U.K., notes that banks have moved beyond digital asset strategy into something more foundational: building the plumbing that connects stablecoins to payments, treasury operations, and settlement systems.

Businesses overwhelmingly prefer to settle obligations in their home currencies rather than routing value through dollars and back. That preference is a structural driver for non-dollar stablecoins — but it also sets a high bar for any issuer. Issuing a token is trivial. Getting banks to deploy it actively to clients, and getting clients to actually use it, is not.

As Cachinero Vasiljevic put it: “Anybody can issue a stablecoin. But if nobody uses the stablecoin, the stablecoin is worthless. The value of the stablecoin is the network.”

That distinction — between existing and being used — may ultimately determine which of the current wave of bank-backed stablecoins survives the next phase of tokenized finance, and which simply become infrastructure nobody plugged in.

FAQ

Why have banks stopped debating whether stablecoins belong in finance?

Banks now accept stablecoins as part of financial infrastructure and have moved on to determining how best to integrate them into their payment, settlement, and treasury operations.

What services has Standard Chartered introduced for institutional clients regarding USDC?

Standard Chartered now offers institutional clients direct access to minting and redeeming USDC in partnership with Circle Internet, making it the first global systemically important bank to offer this integrated capability.

Why are European banks developing euro-denominated stablecoins?

To establish a regulated euro alternative under the MiCA framework and prevent settlement activity from defaulting to dollar-backed tokens, which currently represent more than 99% of the total stablecoin market cap.

What determines the value and success of a stablecoin according to industry experts?

According to industry practitioners including Steakhouse Financial’s Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic, the value of a stablecoin is determined by its network — meaning the breadth of adoption and actual usage by banks and customers, not the token itself.

Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.