Stablecoins to drive "great rewiring" of wholesale banking as supply expands rapidly

Digital cash instruments are shifting from crypto trading tools to become a critical part of the core infrastructure for global money movement

LONDON and NEW YORK, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The global supply of stablecoins is projected to grow by up to 12-fold by 2030 as digital cash instruments reshape the architecture of global money movement, making plans for their expanding role an urgent priority for banks worldwide, Bain & Company concludes in a report released today.

In a shift Bain calls an emerging "great rewiring of wholesale banking", it finds that stablecoins and tokenized deposits have already become a key component of the global financial system and are quickly moving from being mainly speculative instruments to the core of global finance as strategic liquidity tools for banks. The shift means that the question confronting banking groups is no longer whether stablecoins will matter, but where to move first and how quickly to act, Bain finds.

Bain's analysis says that having begun as a tool for crypto trading, stablecoins are now a strategic priority for banks and multinational corporates looking to address inefficiencies in how money is moved internationally. Institutions are already beginning to deploy stablecoins and related digital money tools in use cases including foreign exchange, collateral management, and treasury operations, the report notes.

Inefficiencies in global money movement remain widespread, with fragmented foreign exchange markets, settlement delays and pre-funding requirements continuing to constrain flows in the financial system, Bain reports. It concludes that friction in wholesale banking, with large volumes of trapped capital, persistent risk exposures, and operational complexities that compound across time zones, creates a significant opportunity for stablecoins and digital instruments that are 'always on' and can move instantly across borders with fewer structural frictions. Bain's research among chief financial officers found that 34% of CFOs cited cross-border complexity as a leading pain point.

Stablecoins and tokenized deposits address many of the inefficiencies inherent to existing systems by enabling near-instant, programmable movement of value between institutions and across borders while reducing delays between transactions and in settlement cycles, Bain finds. As supply and use of stablecoins and digital assets scales, they will allow funds to be reused more quickly across transactions, improving capital efficiency, reducing the need for pre-funded liquidity, and enabling banks to deploy capital more effectively, Bain concludes.

"This is not just about faster payments, it is becoming a strategic question of control over how money moves through the global financial system," said Ricardo Correia, a partner in Bain & Company's Financial Services practice. "As stablecoin adoption accelerates, banks are facing a narrowing window to decide where to play. Those that move early will help shape the emerging settlement networks, while those that delay risk operating on infrastructure defined by others."

Regulatory, compliance and operational integration hurdles will be key factors determining how quickly stablecoins and digital deposits are more extensively adopted, Bain finds. It notes that compliance requirements, including sanctions screening and transaction monitoring, remain a key barrier, particularly across borders. Early use cases are likely to focus on the areas with the highest friction, such as cross-border foreign exchange settlement, collateral management, and corporate treasury operations, the analysis concludes.

In today's report, Bain & Company identifies several key priorities for banks as stablecoin adoption continues to accelerate:

• Focus on high-friction use cases where liquidity improvements deliver immediate value.
• Invest early in compliance, data integration, and operational infrastructure.
• Pilot targeted applications and use cases before scaling broader network participation.
• Approach issuance of proprietary stablecoins or tokenized deposits only once sufficient scale and demand are established.

As digital and traditional financial systems increasingly converge, banks will need to operate across both environments without fragmenting liquidity, Bain's analysis suggests. Stablecoins and tokenized deposits are expected to complement, rather than replace, existing banking infrastructure, creating a dual "two rails, one system" structure in which capital can move seamlessly between the traditional and digital rails. In turn, this will mean that digital asset custody will need to be embedded within existing risk frameworks, Bain adds, with blockchain connectivity and real-time reconciliation between on-chain transactions and internal ledgers required to become standard practice in future.

While regulatory frameworks worldwide and market standards are still evolving, Bain argues that early adopters among banks are already influencing how new settlement networks are designed and governed, and will operate in coming years.  

"As stablecoin supply and use scales, institutions' early participation in these networks will increasingly determine where value accrues in the next generation of wholesale banking," Correia said.

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SOURCE Bain & Company