Bernstein Research forecasts that the global stablecoin market will expand to $4 trillion by 2035, ushering in what it calls the “blockchain utility era” — a phase where blockchain technology reshapes the core infrastructure of global finance.
In a report released Wednesday, the firm said the U.S. is laying the groundwork to become “the crypto capital of the world”, citing the GENIUS Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “Project Crypto” as key regulatory drivers.
“The GENIUS Act has unleashed a stablecoin boom,” wrote analysts led by Gautam Chhugani, highlighting that digital dollar stablecoins in circulation already exceed $260 billion.
Bernstein added, “We see stablecoins growing to a $4Tn market by 2035E, extending into cross-border banking and payments,” emphasizing that the tokenization of real-world assets will “unleash digital-native capital markets.”
The firm characterized the new phase of crypto development as “the blockchain utility era, not speculative boom-bust.”
Bernstein rated several companies as Outperform, including Circle, Coinbase, Robinhood, Figure, IREN, and Strategy, arguing that their “earnings tailwinds are sustainable, driven by regulatory tailwinds, not merely by crypto upside.”
Circle was singled out as “the regulated category leader for stablecoins,” while Coinbase and Robinhood were praised for “leveraging blockchain-native tokenization towards a universal ‘Everything Exchange.’”
The report also highlighted Strategy’s accumulation of Bitcoin, calling it “the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury exceeding $65Bn,” and noted that Figure has “emerged as the leading credit-tokenization marketplace with $13Bn active loans tokenized.”
Bernstein concluded that the rise of regulated, institutional participation signals “a more sustainable digital assets cycle,” likely to be dominated by a handful of new titans of the blockchain era.