Turkish lira stablecoins surpass euro tokens at Zodia

Zodia Markets, the crypto unit majority-owned by Standard Chartered, processed $3.4 billion of transactions in Turkish lira stablecoins in 2025. That volume made the lira the firm’s second-most-used stablecoin currency after dollar-pegged tokens and ahead of euro-pegged tokens.

Dollar-pegged tokens accounted for $110.5 billion of Zodia’s processed volume in 2025. Euro-pegged stablecoins registered only in the tens of millions of dollars at Zodia. Europe represented about 38% of global stablecoin transactions overall, while euro-denominated stablecoins made up roughly 0.3% of total stablecoin supply.

Clients routed lira through lira-pegged tokens rather than using correspondent banking to reach Zodia’s bank accounts. Nick Philpott, Zodia’s co-founder and interim chief executive, said clients chose the tokens because they settled faster, were more reliable and cheaper, and because Zodia could liquidate them on receipt. Zodia handled the lira flows as a bridge into dollar settlement rather than as a vehicle for storing value in lira.

Standard Chartered research estimated that up to $1 trillion could move from emerging-market bank deposits into stablecoins over several years. The bank named Turkey among 16 high-risk economies where residents may use dollar stablecoins as a substitute for dollar bank accounts. The IMF reported Nigeria as a sub-Saharan cross-border stablecoin corridor with about $59 billion in inflows.

On the supply side in Turkey, local stablecoin issuers have set up reserve arrangements with Turkish banks and connected to large over-the-counter trading desks. Global issuers have also entered the market: one dollar-backed token was launched into Turkey through partnerships with local firms. BiLira’s TRYB stablecoin, for example, is backed by reserves held in Turkish banks. Turkey processes roughly $200 billion in annual crypto volume, which supports local liquidity and cross-border token flows.

Regulators and central banks in countries with local-currency stablecoins face operational and supervisory questions. Some lira token reserves sit in Turkish banks, linking token stability to bank balance sheets. Rapid conversion between lira and dollar tokens in periods of currency stress could change the speed and scale of withdrawals from banks. A widely used local-currency token could also affect a central bank’s monetary transmission if it becomes a significant payments rail.

In Europe, a consortium of 37 banks across 15 countries is working to issue a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026 while the European Central Bank continues development of a digital euro. European authorities have also moved to tighten rules around dollar-pegged tokens. Zodia’s processing volumes provide a ranking of on-chain currency use at the firm, with the lira second after the dollar in 2025.