À new stage of cryptocurrency transformation
Bitcoin as a strategic asset for big business
Elliot Chan, a partner at investment bank Architect Partners, predicts that by 2030, at least 25% of S&P 500 companies will keep bitcoins on their balance sheet as a strategic reserve. This conclusion is based on an analysis of trends in the behavior of public companies over the past five years.
For example, MicroStrategy, which began actively buying up bitcoins in 2020, will own more than 214,400 BTC by March 2025, or roughly $14 billion at an exchange rate of $65,000 per coin. It is the largest corporate BTC vault in the world.
Tesla also holds a significant share of BTC (approximately 10,500 coins) despite briefly selling some of its reserves in 2022. Less tech-savvy companies have also entered the market in 2024. For example, Q4 2024 reports indicated that General Motors, Aon, and Honeywell have added bitcoin to their portfolios in the 0.5% to 1% of their liquid assets.
The February 2025 Fidelity Digital Assets report indicates that 81% of institutional investors in the U.S. consider digital assets a long-term investment and 65% have already invested in cryptocurrencies. At the same time, 45% of companies in this segment indicated that they use Bitcoin specifically as a savings vehicle, similar to gold.
Stablecoins: the next round of mass adoption
Stablecoins have experienced explosive growth over the past 18 months. According to DefiLlama, by March 2025, the total capitalization of all stablecoins exceeded $210 billion, and the monthly turnover on platforms supporting stablecoins reached $940 billion. David Pakman, managing partner of CoinFund, predicts that by the end of 2025, the volume of daily settlements using stablecoins will reach $3 billion daily, and total annual turnover will reach $1 trillion, compared to $225 billion in 2023.
USDT (Tether) and USDC (Circle) hold the largest market share, which is used for trading, cross-border transfers, and Web3 services. However, new players are emerging: PYUSD from PayPal, FDUSD from First Digital, and USDe from Ethena, targeting DeFi and institutional clients. A growing share of stablecoins is backed by U.S. Treasuries (like Circle and Paxos), which increases regulators' confidence.
Users' shift from traditional currencies to stablecoins is especially noticeable in countries with high inflation: in Argentina, Turkey, Nigeria, and Venezuela, stablecoins are used as a "digital dollar" to protect against depreciation. In Nigeria, Chainalysis reports that 60% of crypto users surveyed use USDT or USDC as their primary currency for online purchases or freelance payments.
Impact on the global market and traditional banking system
The emergence of corporate reserves in BTC and the mass use of stablecoins are transforming the global financial landscape. Banks are losing their monopoly on cross-border transfers: Stablecoins allow international payments within 3-5 seconds at a fee below $0.01, fundamentally different from SWIFT, where an average transaction takes 1-3 days and costs $15-50.
For example, Stripe has already introduced USDC support to 60 countries. In March 2025, Visa announced the expansion of its blockchain initiative with Circle and now services USDC settlement on Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche. JPMorgan Bank is developing its blockchain platform, Onyx, but its use is limited within the corporate network.
Forecast for the coming years
If the current dynamics continue, by 2026, the share of institutional capital in the cryptocurrency market may exceed 30% of the total market capitalization, which is comparable to the position of treasury bonds in companies' portfolios. Ark Invest analysts predict that bitcoin's market capitalization could reach $5-10 trillion by 2030, assuming that 10-20% of corporate reserves move into BTC.
Growth in the use of stablecoins will continue to center around:
- International transfers: platforms such as Worldcoin, Remitly, and Revolut are integrating USDC and USDT;
- DeFi services: over 80% of liquidity on protocols like Aave, Curve, and Uniswap are stablecoins;
- E-commerce: Shopify, Amazon, and eBay are testing the ability to accept payments in stablecoins through partners like MoonPay and BitPay;
- Banking sector: In 2025, at least 10 major banks in Europe and Asia will announce pilot programs to use stablecoins in corporate payments.
Thus, the cryptocurrency sector is already in a phase of mature growth and adoption in key segments of the economy. As a long-term strategic asset, Bitcoin is becoming the digital analog of gold in corporate portfolios, and stablecoins are becoming the digital dollar, displacing traditional payment mechanisms. This transformation is challenging traditional finance, banking, and money circulation models, forming a new digital financial infrastructure on a global scale.