Fed Chair and Bitwise Report Signal Breakout Year for Digital Dollars

• Stablecoin transaction volumes surpassed Visa in 2024.
• The U.S. is anticipated to pass stablecoin legislation as early as July 2025.
• Stablecoins currently comprise a market cap of $233.76 billion.

The stablecoin sector is set for a breakout year as favorable regulatory tailwinds, forward-thinking remarks from the U.S. Federal Reserve, and a Bitwise report converge to paint a bullish picture for stablecoins in 2025.

Stablecoin Summer

Speaking at The Economic Club of Chicago on April 16, 2025, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell posited that these stable value digital assets “actually have a fairly wide appeal.”

Powell remarks that cryptocurrencies overall have gone through waves of “failures and fraud,” and that they (the Fed) had been attempting to work on a legal framework for stablecoins over the past couple of years.

He explains it would have “been a nice place to start,” but it was unsuccessful. Now, Powell believes that sentiment has shifted more favorably towards crypto and stable tokens, so long as legislation contains consumer protections and transparency.

Powell admits that banks and the Fed took a rather conservative approach to the “guidance and rules imposed on banks” and anticipates this position relaxing over time.

“We’ll try to do it in a way that preserves safety and soundness, but that, you know, permits and fosters appropriate innovation.”

His comments come as legislation, namely the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act, gain momentum in Congress with bipartisan support.

A Big Year Ahead

Powell’s remarks come in tandem with Bitwise’s Q1 2025 Crypto Market Review , which, whilst noting a rather bearish quarter, also posits that “Stablecoin Summer” is on the way with the U.S. expected to pass legislation on stablecoins by July 2025.

Biwtise anticipates major banking institutions, FinTechs, and payment providers will “rapidly” roll out stablecoin support following this, bringing significant benefits to adjacent sectors.

In 2024, stablecoins handled roughly $35 trillion in transaction volumes, more than double that of leading payment provider Visa, and this is without the necessary frameworks in place for them to truly flourish.