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Today in crypto, Standard Chartered pushed its $2 trillion stablecoin market forecast back to 2030, Kraken parent Payward agreed to acquire a Lithuanian bank as it expands into traditional financial services and Ledger suspended reseller sales across parts of Asia amid an investigation into tampered hardware wallets.
Standard Chartered has pushed back its forecast for when the stablecoin market will hit $2 trillion from 2028 to 2030, citing slower supply growth despite rising transaction activity.
The bank previously expected to reach the milestone by 2028, but stablecoin market capitalization has stayed near $309 billion this year. Geoffrey Kendrick, its head of digital assets research, said existing stablecoins are being used more frequently, even as the amount in circulation has leveled off.
Standard Chartered identified four major stablecoin markets. Tether’s USDT dominates savings in emerging economies, while Circle’s USDC leads payments in developed markets. USDC and Ethena’s USDe are prominent in crypto trading, with USDC also leading the smaller market for transactions between artificial intelligence agents.
Competition is expected to intensify in developed-market payments, where newer issuers and banking networks are challenging established providers. Kendrick said the distribution of interest earned on stablecoin reserves could influence which companies gain market share.
Meanwhile, proposed US accounting changes could treat qualifying stablecoins as cash equivalents on corporate balance sheets, potentially encouraging broader use in business payments and settlement.
Payward will buy Lithuania-based Saldo Bank as part of its expansion into traditional financial services, calling it “a deliberate next step in an infrastructure strategy we’ve been building for years.”
Payward signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, a Finnish holding company whose subsidiary, Saldo Bank UAB, is a digital bank licensed in Lithuania, according to a Wednesday announcement.
Payward said Saldo Bank’s EU banking license and footprint will enable it to expand into four operating markets, including Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, where the bank already offers retail term deposits. The bank’s authorization is also passported into the Netherlands.
The acquisition is expected to close in 2027, subject to customary regulatory approvals. It would enable Payward Banking to offer traditional banking services, including interest on deposits, lending products and banking-as-a-service, such as card issuance, passporting and lending capabilities to small and medium enterprises.
Ledger has requested sellers and distributors of its devices in six Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong to suspend sales and remove its hardware wallets from shelves as it investigates reports of tampered devices.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Ledger said the request covers resellers in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
“To be clear, as the investigation continues, the only confirmed incidents remain contained to Southeast Asia. We have not verified a drain linked to a device bought elsewhere,” said Ledger.
“The investigation is ongoing to determine who tampered with these devices and where in the distribution chain it happened,” it added.
The wider sales suspension request expands on Ledger’s earlier request for reseller CryptoBilis to stop sales and shipments. The investigation became public on Oct. 9 after reports of stolen crypto linked to devices purchased through the reseller.
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