Polygon executives: Stablecoins will enter the "era of hundreds of thousands of issuers," and banks will be forced to restructure their capital models

Polygon's global head of payments and RWA, Aishwary Gupta, believes that global stablecoins are entering a "super cycle," with the number of stablecoin issuers potentially exceeding 100,000 in the next five years.

Gupta pointed out that Japan is participating in government bond and policy stimulus pilots through stablecoins like JPYC, proving that stablecoins can become tools of national economic sovereignty rather than undermining central bank power. He stated that stablecoins, like fiat currencies, are influenced by monetary policy and will essentially enhance the global demand for a country's currency, similar to how stablecoins drive the usage of the dollar.

Gupta also warned that stablecoin yields are attracting low-interest deposits (CASA) from the banking system to on-chain, weakening banks' ability to create credit and maintain low-cost capital. To respond to this competition, he expects banks to issue "deposit tokens" on a large scale to keep funds on their balance sheets while allowing customers to use their 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 while merchants receive payments in another token, with the underlying conversion happening seamlessly in the background.