The global stablecoin supply could surge to $1 trillion by the end of 2025, potentially becoming a key catalyst for broader cryptocurrency market growth, according to CoinFund managing partner David Pakman.

“We’re in a stablecoin adoption upswell that’s likely to increase dramatically this year,” Pakman said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X on March 27. “We could go from $225 billion stablecoins to $1 trillion just this calendar year.”

He noted that such growth, while modest compared to global financial markets, would represent a “meaningfully significant” shift for blockchain-based finance.

Pakman also suggested that the rise in capital flowing onchain, combined with growing interest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), could further support decentralized finance (DeFi) activity:

“If we have a moment this year where ETFs are permitted to provide staking rewards or yield to holders, that unlocks really meaningful uplift in DeFi activity, broadly defined.”

https://t.co/v9lOnk00QY

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 27, 2025

Related: BlackRock Bitcoin ETP ‘key’ for EU adoption despite low inflow expectations

The aggregate stablecoin supply stood at an all-time high of above $208 billion across the five largest stablecoins on March 28, according to Glassnode data.

Stablecoins, aggregate supplies. Source: Glassnode 

“This is the major catalyst that’s been missing for over a decade: a major movement of people’s wealth onchain that brings everyone else on,” added Pakman.

The growing stablecoin supply recently surpassed $219 billion and continues to rise, suggesting that the market is “likely still mid-cycle” as opposed to the top of the bull run, according to IntoTheBlock analysts.

Related: Most EU banks fail to meet rising crypto investor demand — Survey

Stablecoin payment adoption on the rise

Stablecoins use for daily payments is on the rise, illustrating the efficacy of blockchain-based transactions.

“We’re up over 22x in stablecoin volume since 2021,” Pakman said, adding:

“We’ve seen a significant decrease in the size of each stablecoin transaction, which points to the fact that they are being used more as payments and less for large transfers.”

BTC-to-stablecoin ratio. Source: Ki Young Ju

That aligns with recent comments from CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju, who said stablecoins are increasingly being used for remittance payments and as a store of value. However, Ju said stablecoin supply won’t pump Bitcoin’s (BTC) price without additional catalysts.

Magazine: Bitcoin $500K prediction, spot Ether ETF ‘staking issue’— Thomas Fahrer, X Hall of Flame

The New York State Attorney General’s (NAYG) recent legal action against Galaxy Digital over its promotional ties to the now-collapsed cryptocurrency Terra (LUNA) was unfair and an abuse of the legal system, says SkyBridge Capital and founder Anthony Scaramucci.

“It’s LAWFARE, pure and simple due to an obscure but dangerously powerful New York law known as the Martin Act,” Scaramucci said in a March 28 X post.

Martin Law can “open the door for abuse”

“The law has no need to prove intent, creating a low standard of proof that can open the door for abuse like this. It shouldn’t exist,” he said.

New York’s Martin Act is one of the US’s strictest anti-fraud and securities laws, allowing prosecutors the power to pursue financial fraud cases without needing to prove intent. The NAYG alleged that Galaxy Digital violated the Martin Act over its alleged promotion of Terra, with Galaxy Digital agreeing to a $200 million settlement.

According to NAYG documents filed on March 24, Galaxy Digital acquired 18.5 million LUNA tokens at a 30% discount in October 2020, then promoted them before selling them without abiding by disclosure rules. 

Scaramucci reiterated that Galaxy CEO Michael Novogratz was under the impression everything he was saying about Luna was true, as he had been deceived by Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon.

Source: Amanda Fischer

Meanwhile, MoonPay president of enterprise, Keith Grossman, said he had never heard of the Martin Act and had to look it up using AI chatbot ChatGPT.

“It is so broad and essentially is the essence of lawfare,” Grossman said. “Sorry you got caught in the crosshairs of it, Mike,” he added.

Related: Sonic unveils high-yield algorithmic stablecoin, reigniting Terra-Luna ‘PTSD’

The filing alleged that Galaxy helped a “little-known” token, referring to LUNA, increase its market price from $0.31 in October 2020 to $119.18 in April 2022 while “profiting in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Asset manager and investor Anthony Pompliano said he isn’t familiar with the details of the lawsuit but vouched for Novogratz, calling him a “good man” who has devoted a lot of time and money to helping others.

The Terra collapse is one of the crypto industry’s most infamous failures. In March 2024, SEC attorney Devon Staren said in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that Terra was a “house of cards” that collapsed for investors in 2022.

Magazine: Arbitrum co-founder skeptical of move to based and native rollups: Steven Goldfeder

Ether’s (ETH) declining appeal as an investment comes from layer-2’s draining value from the main network and a lack of community pushback on excessive token creation, a crypto venture capitalist says.

“The #1 cause of this is greedy Eth L2s siphoning value from the L1 and the social consensus that excess token creation was A-OK,” Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter said in a March 28 X post.

Ether “died by its own hand”

“ETH was buried in an avalanche of its own tokens. Died by its own hand,” Carter said. He said this in response to Lekker Capital founder Quinn Thompson’s claim that Ether is “completely dead” as an investment.

Source: Quinn Thompson

“A $225 billion market cap network that is seeing declines in transaction activity, user growth and fees/revenues. There is no investment case here. As a network with utility? Yes. As an investment? Absolutely not,” Thompson said in a March 28 X post. 

The ETH/BTC ratio — which shows Ether’s relative strength compared to Bitcoin (BTC) — is sitting at 0.02260, its lowest level in nearly five years, according to TradingView data. 

At the time of publication, Ether is trading at $1,894, down 5.34% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Ether is down 17.94% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Meanwhile, Cointelegraph Magazine reported in September 2024 that fee revenue for Ethereum had “collapsed” by 99% over the previous six months as “extractive L2s” absorbed all the users, transactions and fee revenue while contributing nothing to the base layer. 

Around the same time, Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran said Based Rollups could solve the issue of Ethereum’s layer-2 networks pulling liquidity and revenue from the blockchain’s base layer.

Cochran said Based Rollups could “directly impact the monetization of Ethereum by making a pretty fundamental change to incentive structures.”

Related: Ethereum futures premium hits 1+ year low — Is it time to buy the ETH bottom?

Despite optimism toward the end of last year about Ether reaching $10,000 in 2025 — especially after reaching $4,000 in December, the same month Bitcoin touched $100,000 for the first time — it has since seen a sharp decline alongside the broader crypto market downturn.

Standard Chartered added to the bearish outlook via a March 17 client letter, which revised down their end of 2025 ETH price estimate from $10,000 to $4,000, a 60% reduction. 

However, several crypto traders, including pseudonymous traders Doctor Profit and Merlijn The Trader, are “insanely bullish” and argue that Ether could be the “best opportunity in the market.”

Source: Merlijn The Trader

Magazine: Arbitrum co-founder skeptical of move to based and native rollups: Steven Goldfeder