Polygon executive: Stablecoins will enter the "era of 100,000 issuers," forcing banks to restructure their capital models.

Aishwary Gupta, Global Head of Payments and RWA at Polygon, believes that global stablecoins are entering a "supercycle," with the number of stablecoin issuers potentially exceeding 100,000 within the next five years. Gupta points out that Japan's participation in government bond and policy stimulus pilot programs through stablecoins like JPYC demonstrates that stablecoins can serve as a tool of national economic sovereignty, rather than weakening central bank power. He states that stablecoins, like fiat currencies, are subject to monetary policy influences, essentially enhancing global demand for a country's currency, just as stablecoins have driven up the use of the US dollar. Gupta also warns that stablecoin yields are attracting low-interest deposits (CASAs) from the banking system to the blockchain, weakening banks' ability to create credit and maintain low-cost capital. To counter competition, he predicts banks will issue "deposit tokens" on a large scale to retain funds on their balance sheets while allowing customers to use assets on-chain. He believes that as the number of stablecoins rapidly expands, future payment systems will rely on a unified settlement layer, allowing users to pay with any token and merchants to receive payments with another token, with the underlying conversion completed seamlessly in the background. (The Fintech Times)