Stablecoin Transaction Volume Surges to $35 Trillion: A Year in Review

As of February, the total market supply of stablecoins increased by 63% over the past year, while the monthly transaction volume surged by 115%. According to a report from Artemis and Dune, the total figure reached $35 trillion.

For comparison, Visa processed $15.7 trillion in payments in 2024, while Mastercard handled $9 trillion in just the fourth quarter.

The number of active wallets utilizing stablecoins rose from 19.6 million to 30 million since February 2024, marking a growth of 53%.

«Stablecoins have become a vital part of the digital financial infrastructure, acting as a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto economy,» the authors of the report noted.

When examining individual assets, the USDC from Circle doubled its market capitalization to $56 billion over the year. Key factors contributing to this growth included:

The USDT from Tether maintained its leading position with a total supply of $146 billion, although it lost market share and institutional adoption. The focus of its use has shifted towards P2P money transfers.

Since February 2024, the market capitalization of USDe from Ethena Labs has risen from $146 million to $6.2 billion, placing it in the third position in market capitalization within the segment. This growth was attributed to «innovative yield strategies and delta-neutral hedging,» experts pointed out.

The rebranding of MakerDAO to Sky, the launch of USDS, and the implementation of compliance controls have bolstered the competitiveness of the stablecoin associated with the DeFi project. As of February, the coin’s market capitalization reached $2.6 billion.

The majority of stablecoin supply is concentrated on Ethereum, which holds a 55% share.

Both Base and Solana have significantly increased their metrics. These two networks have dominated transaction volumes due to DeFi activities and meme coins. Tron remains a «critically important» blockchain for informal P2P transfers.

«The majority of stablecoin liquidity is concentrated on centralized exchanges, but decentralized finance—via DEX, lending, and yield farming—contributes significantly to transfer volumes, highlighting dynamic capital utilization and innovation,» the report stated.

It’s worth mentioning that in March, the total market capitalization of stablecoins surpassed that of Ethereum.