Bitwise CIO Says Stablecoins Will ‘Dominate’ $44T Cross-Border B2B Payments in Five Years

Within five years, stablecoins will “dominate” the $44 trillion market for businesses buying from one another across borders, says Bitwise Asset Management’s chief investment officer, Matt Hougan.

As those merchants get comfortable with stablecoins via cross-border business-to-business retail transactions, “they will roll out across domestic retail transactions as well,” he predicted in a recent X post.

Hougan pointed to three recent “signposts,” starting with global payments processor Stripe’s acquisition of stablecoin payment platform Bridge, which provides businesses with the tools needed to move, store and accept stablecoins. It also lets merchants issue their own stablecoins.

The second was PayPal’s announcement on Tuesday that it will roll out its PYUSD stablecoin to merchants, enabling them to make B2B payments.

And the third was Bank of America’s CEO announcing that same day that the bank would launch a fully dollar-backed stablecoin once regulations are in place.

Cross-border B2B payments are a ripe target for stablecoin payments as they are currently very slow and expensive, much like remittances, another cross-border payments market considered ripe for stablecoin disruption.

TradFi vs DeFi

Hougan also had a warning for Bank of America’s CEO, predicting that “TradFi stablecoins will find it harder than they think to win market share.”

That’s a fight that Tether’s USDT is winning handily right now, with a market capitalization of $142 billion. However, the other major stablecoin, Circle’s USDC, is an up-and-comer with its U.S. home base, EU compliance and nearly $56 billion market cap. Stablecoin bills before Congress right now would mandate U.S. dollar stablecoins be issued by U.S.-based firms.

Noting that “stablecoins are already proving their value in cross-border payments, adopting them in B2B and retail transactions is a natural progression,” said Sid Powell, co-founder and CEO of institutional DeFi lending platform Maple Finance.

“The competition between decentralized stablecoins and TradFi-backed stablecoins will be fierce,” Powell predicted. “While TradFi institutions bring regulatory credibility, they may struggle with user experience, speed, cost-efficiency, and composability—key advantages of crypto-native alternatives.”

Decentralized derivatives marketplace SynFutures’ CEO and co-founder Rachel Lin agreed, noting that “TradFi stablecoins may have regulatory backing, but capturing market share won’t be straightforward. The real winners will be stablecoins that offer both trust and interoperability, bridging the gap between traditional finance and on-chain economies without compromising on efficiency or accessibility."

As for their place in the payments marketplace, Lin said "Stablecoins are already proving their efficiency in global transactions, and their role in retail and B2B payments will only expand as infrastructure matures.”