The chief executives of two leading banks have signalled growing openness to stablecoins. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser indicated their firms are exploring the use of these digital assets, potentially marking a significant shift in Wall Street’s stance on crypto. Dimon, a longtime crypto sceptic, has previously dismissed Bitcoin as a ‘fraud’.

The CEOs’ comments coincided with efforts by the Trump administration to push through major legislation creating a framework for stablecoins.

Wall Street’s warming to stablecoins likely reflects, at the very least, a recognition that these digital assets aren’t going away anytime soon, and a desire to get ahead of the market rather than be left behind.

From crypto to hard assets

Wall Street’s growing acceptance of cryptoassets would mark a significant convergence between traditional finance and the crypto innovators driving the push toward decentralised finance (DeFi).

At the same time, another convergence is playing out: between crypto and the real economy. Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, recently acquired a South American agricultural firm, Adecoagro, in what Reuters called “a strategic play for the multi-trillion-dollar global commodities trade.”

Tether says the acquisition is part of a broader push to ground stablecoins in real-world use cases. “Tether’s investment approach prioritizes companies that expand our distribution network and enhance the real-world utility of stablecoins,” the company told Reuters, “with Adecoagro as a prime example”.

Make or break time?

Back in January, we titled 2025 ‘The Year of Crypto’, without making any firm projections about the crypto industry’s trajectory. Instead, we pointed to one investor’s trenchant observation: 2025 might be the year crypto projects finally mature and realise their potential. But that optimism came with a caveat. If these projects fail to prove real-world utility, the crypto party could be over, at least for now.

We also flagged a broader concern: the growing entanglement between crypto and traditional finance. As cryptoassets become more embedded in the global economy, a sharp downturn in the sector would no longer be confined to a small group of investors. A crash could trigger systemic risks on a far wider scale.

Policy matters

The appetite for privately issued stablecoins isn’t occurring in isolation. The Trump administration is actively opposed to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), a form of digital money issued by central banks. Instead, the United States is pursuing a legal framework for privately-issued CBDCs, as mentioned above.

In Europe, China and elsewhere, by contrast, policymakers are actively pursuing pilot projects to rest the feasibility of CBDCs. 

This year could yet prove decisive. Stablecoins could emerge as a core feature of global finance, but only if they deliver real-world benefit and sustain investor confidence, with a clear and supportive policy framework.

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