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The stablecoin market in 2026 is no longer an emerging category, it is foundational financial infrastructure. Transaction volumes have reached $33 trillion annually, market capitalization has crossed $312 billion, and stablecoin issuers collectively hold more U.S. Treasuries than most sovereign nations.
Chiara Munaretto, Managing Partner of Stablecoin Insider, has been tracking this transformation through data published by Visa, Artemis Analytics, TRM Labs, Circle, and BVNK, among others. In this guide, she highlights the statistics that matter most, and what they reveal about where the market is heading for the rest of 2026 and beyond.
Stablecoin Insider’s ongoing market analysis shows that stablecoins have decisively graduated from a crypto-native trading tool into a programmable, borderless layer of global finance. The numbers below tell that story.
Key Takeaways
- $33 trillion in annual transaction volume: Stablecoin transactions grew 72% year-over-year in 2025, now rivaling the throughput of major card networks.
- $312 billion market cap: Circulating supply continues to climb, with projections pointing toward $1 trillion by late 2026.
- Institutional adoption is accelerating: Visa’s stablecoin settlement hit a $4.5 billion annualized run rate by January 2026. B2B stablecoin payments surged from under $100 million monthly in early 2023 to over $6 billion by mid-2025.
- Lending has scaled into a mature market: Total stablecoin loans originated over the past five years reached $670 billion, with $51.7 billion in monthly on-chain lending volume.
- USDT and USDC dominate: Together they account for 93% of stablecoin market capitalization, with over 90% of all fiat-backed stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Transaction Volume and Market Scale
The headline number is $33 trillion in stablecoin transactions during 2025, a 72% increase from the prior year. To put that in perspective, this exceeds PayPal’s annual volume by more than 20x and approaches the throughput of Visa’s global network.
Monthly volumes peaked at $969.9 billion in August 2025, with USDT alone averaging $703 billion monthly and hitting $1.01 trillion in June 2025. Stablecoins now comprise 30% of all on-chain crypto transaction volume, and retail stablecoin transactions rose over 125% between the first three quarters of 2024 and the same period in 2025.
USDC circulation grew 78% year-over-year, with monthly transaction volume reaching $1 trillion in late 2024 and all-time on-chain volume surpassing $18 trillion. Stablecoin issuers held approximately $155 billion in U.S. Treasury bills by October 2025, making them collectively one of the largest holders of U.S. government debt globally.
Payments and Commerce
Visa’s stablecoin-linked card spend reached a $3.5 billion annualized run rate in Q4 of fiscal year 2025, marking 460% year-over-year growth. By January 2026, Visa’s stablecoin settlement volumes hit $4.5 billion annualized. Broader crypto card spending, often backed by stablecoins, exceeded $18 billion on an annualized basis in early 2026.
On the B2B side, stablecoin payments surged from under $100 million monthly in early 2023 to over $6 billion by mid-2025, a trajectory that reflects genuine commercial adoption rather than speculative activity. BVNK processed $30 billion in annualized stablecoin payment volume in 2025, up 2.3x from the prior year, with one-third of that volume coming from the U.S. market alone.
Total stablecoin payments volume across the ecosystem hit a $122 billion annualized run rate in 2025, and 226 new businesses integrated stablecoins for payroll and other operational uses during the year.
Lending and Credit
Stablecoin lending has matured into a structured market. Total stablecoin loans originated over the past five years reached $670 billion. Monthly on-chain lending volume hit $51.7 billion in August 2025, with $14.8 billion in outstanding loan balances and $17.5 billion in protocol liquidity.
There were 81,000 unique stablecoin borrowers in August 2025, with an average loan size of $121,000 and an average borrower APR of 6.4%. Aave and Compound accounted for 89% of stablecoin lending volume, a concentration that reflects where institutional trust and liquidity depth are highest.
As Stablecoin Insider has reported, tokenized real-world assets backed by stablecoins reached $12.7 billion in 2025, with projections pointing toward $1–4 trillion by 2030.
True market adoption of stablecoins begins when users no longer treat them as temporary parking lots for capital, but as primary instruments for saving, spending, and settling value globally. – Chiara Munaretto, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Stablecoin Insider
Remittances and Cross-Border Payments
Stablecoin remittances and peer-to-peer payments hit a $19 billion annualized run rate by August 2025. The average stablecoin P2P transfer size on platforms like Sling was $47, compared to $250 for traditional remittances, reflecting a fundamentally different use pattern focused on smaller, more frequent transfers.
In specific corridors, stablecoins are settling transactions 500x faster than traditional systems. South Asia saw stablecoin-driven crypto volumes rise 80% to $300 billion between January and July 2025. Industry projections suggest stablecoins could handle 5–10% of all cross-border payments by 2030, equivalent to $2.1–4.2 trillion annually.
What These Numbers Mean for the Rest of 2026
The data points to three structural shifts. First, stablecoins are becoming payment infrastructure, not just trading instruments, Visa, Stripe, and Shopify are all building stablecoin settlement into their core products. Second, the lending market has achieved enough scale and consistency to function as a genuine floating-rate money market, with Aave and Compound serving as the primary venues. Third, the geographic expansion into emerging markets through remittances and payroll is creating adoption that is driven by utility rather than speculation.
Stablecoin circulation is projected to exceed $1 trillion by late 2026. Euro-pegged stablecoins, while still small at a $500 million market cap in mid-2025, represent an early signal of multi-currency expansion that will reshape how European users interact with on-chain finance.
Conclusion
The statistics paint an unambiguous picture: stablecoins have matured into a cornerstone of modern finance. With $33 trillion in annual transaction volume, $670 billion in cumulative lending origination, and institutional infrastructure from Visa to BlackRock building directly on stablecoin rails, the category has moved permanently beyond its crypto-native origins.
What defines 2026 is not growth alone, it is the nature of that growth. Stablecoin adoption is now driven by payments utility, lending demand, and cross-border efficiency rather than speculation or token incentives. The businesses integrating stablecoins for payroll, the merchants accepting USDC at checkout, and the protocols facilitating billions in overcollateralized loans represent real economic activity flowing through programmable, borderless dollar infrastructure.
Stablecoins in 2026 are not a crypto story. They are a financial infrastructure story, and the institutions, platforms, and merchants building on them now are positioning for a market that is still in its early innings of global adoption.
