Stablecoin adoption saw a surge in activity last year, with over $11 trillion in value settled and over 25 million blockchain addresses holding more than $1 in stablecoins. According to a report from European hedge fund manager Brevan Howard, the majority of non-speculative activity uses fiat-backed stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, BUSD, and TUSD.The report found that stablecoin usage had decoupled from crypto exchange volumes, with stablecoin volumes only falling 11% since December 2021, and weekly stablecoin transactions rising by 25%. This is in contrast to broader CEX and DEX volumes, which fell by 64% and 60%, respectively.The total value settled through stablecoins last year was comparable to Visa’s $11.6 trillion figure and dwarfed PayPal’s $1.4 trillion figure. PayPal has since launched its own stablecoin, PYUSD, in an effort to popularize low-cost merchant payments worldwide.Most stablecoin users are likely small or retail users, as 75% of weekly active stablecoin addresses transact less than $1000 per week. Over two-thirds of stablecoins are held outside of both exchanges and smart contracts.Ethereum is the most popular blockchain for stablecoin usage, accounting for 50% of stablecoin volume, but only 3% of total transactions. This is due to the network’s higher transaction fees, which make smaller transactions unfeasible. Tron and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) account for 75% of stablecoin transactions and 41% of volume.Tether’s USDT remains the most dominant stablecoin, accounting for 69% of stablecoin supply, 80% of weekly active addresses, and 75% of transactions. Circle’s USDC once rivaled USDT in market dominance, but lost market share after a loss of confidence during a brief dollar-de-pegging event in March. Tether recently cut support for three blockchains that lacked significant stablecoin activity or adoption.
| Information |
Details |
| Geography |
Europe |
| Countries |
|
| Sentiment |
neutral |
| Relevance Score |
9 |
| People |
Peter Johnson, Sai Nimmagadda, Visa, PayPal, None |
| Companies |
Tether, Circle, Visa, PayPal, Brevan Howard |
| Currencies |
USDT, USDC, BUSD, TUSD, Bitcoin |
| Securities |
None |
