Today in crypto, Standard Chartered slashed its forecast for US Treasury demand from stablecoins $800 billion-$1 trillion by 2028, but maintained its $2 trillion stablecoin market call. Bitcoin fell 4% in two hours, wiping out all its weekend gains, and staff at the US Securities and Exchange Commission clarified that broker-dealers can apply a 2% “haircut” to their stablecoin holdings without objection from the SEC.
Standard Chartered sticks to $2 trillion stablecoin call, trims T-bill impact
Standard Chartered analysts stuck to their forecast that the stablecoin market will reach $2 trillion by late 2028, despite lowering expectations for short-term US Treasury bill demand.
Stablecoins like Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) are expected to push T-bill demand to $2.2 trillion by 2028, Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendrick and US rates strategist John Davies said in a Monday report shared with Cointelegraph.
Despite the US dollar stablecoin market cap stalling at around $300 billion in recent months amid a broader crypto downturn, the analysts remain bullish since the passage of the US GENIUS Act in 2025.
“We see these issues as cyclical rather than structural, and we continue to expect stablecoin market cap to reach $2 trillion by end-2028,” Standard Chartered’s report said.
According to Standard Chartered, stablecoins are now expected to generate an additional $800 billion to $1 trillion in fresh T-bill demand for use as reserves by late 2028, a hefty reduction from the $1.6 trillion projected in April 2025, despite the passage of the GENIUS Act.
Bitcoin back to record fear levels as it wipes weekend gains
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index fell to its lowest levels on Monday as Bitcoin plunged more than 4% to $64,300, erasing its gains since Friday.
More than 136,000 traders were liquidated over the past 24 hours, with total liquidations sitting at $458 million, 92% of which were leveraged long positions, according to CoinGlass.
Bitcoin saw some gains over the weekend, tapping $68,600 on Saturday, but it now sits at support at the bottom of a range-bound channel that formed after its Feb. 6 wipeout to $60,000.
Bitcoin is now trading 48% below its October all-time high of $126,000 and 5.5% below its 2021 bull-market peak of $69,000.
SEC allows broker-dealers to take 2% “haircut” on stablecoins
Staff at the US Securities and Exchange Commission clarified that broker-dealers can apply a 2% “haircut” to their stablecoin holdings without objection from the SEC.
The clarification, in the form of an FAQs posting, means broker-dealers can hold stablecoins without worrying about excess net capital requirements and can treat the tokens similarly to money market funds, which hold low-risk cash equivalents like US Treasurys and certificates of deposit.
Previously, broker-dealers were uncertain whether to apply a 100% haircut to their dollar-pegged stablecoins, meaning that they did not count the tokens toward their net capital under existing regulations.
In response, Commissioner Hester Peirce said: “In my view, a 100% haircut would be unnecessarily punitive given the underlying reserve assets that back payment stablecoins.”
