Welcome to the institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week:
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Insights on the next big step for stablecoins (hint: it’s not another USD token) by Martin Bruncko of Schuman Financial
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A vibe check on the post-holiday crypto selloff, the upcoming Fusaka upgrade, and why ETH’s role is crucial in leading any broader market recovery by Andy Baehr
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Top headlines institutions should read by Francisco Memoria
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“Hyperliquid Weekly Volumes v/s HYPE/BTC” in Chart of the Week
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Expert Insights
– By Martin Bruncko, CEO & co-founder, Schuman Financial
Stablecoin rankings are overwhelmingly dollar-based. USDT, USDC and other USD tokens dominate supply and usage, with dollars representing around 99% of a $300+ billion market. Euro stablecoins, at roughly $600 million, appear insignificant, especially at a time when Europe’s public debate focuses more on CBDC than on privately issued euro stablecoins.
However, today’s numbers can be misleading. Stablecoins already settle real economic activity at scale. In 2024, they processed roughly $28 trillion, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined. This signals the emergence of a parallel settlement rail that already functions at a systemic scale.
The problem for Europe is that almost all of this activity settles in dollars rather than euros. Euro stablecoins aren’t small because the euro leg is unnecessary. They’re small because Europe hasn’t connected its currency to infrastructure that is already operating, but the shift to tokenized finance is irreversible.
Traditional payment rails still rely on cut-off times and reconciliation cycles measured in days. Around this ageing stack, a new one is forming in which assets and payments settle directly on-chain. Stablecoins are becoming an essential core infrastructure of financial services. Standard Chartered projects $30 trillion in tokenized real-world assets by 2034; Citigroup predicts up to $5 trillion in tokenized digital securities by 2030, with tokenized assets potentially reaching 10% of global GDP. None of this works without on-chain fiat, the world’s second-largest currency is too important not to play a part. The eurozone is a $16 trillion economy and the world’s second-largest currency bloc.
Suppose we accept two simple facts: 1. the euro is not going to disappear, and 2. Europe is not going to dollarize, so then a globally significant euro stablecoin is a logical outcome. The underlying euro economy is enormous. In 2023, the Eurosystem’s T2 platform processed roughly €2.2 trillion per day. According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), average global FX turnover reached $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025, with the USD on one side of about 89% of all trades; the euro ranked as the second most-active currency globally. If even 0.1% of euro flows move on-chain, that implies €2.2 billion settling daily, or more than €800 billion per year. This is more than enough to support a euro stablecoin ecosystem worth hundreds of billions.
