Artemis Analytics: total stablecoin transaction volumes rose 72% YoY to a record $33T in 2025, led by Circle's USDC at $18.3T and Tether's USDT at $13.3T
Stablecoin transactions reached unprecedented heights last year, buoyed by favorable policy in the US under pro-crypto President Donald Trump.
Context & Ripple Effects
The record follows a 2025 acceleration in activity: Artemis had previously reported that monthly stablecoin transfers exceeded $10B after a policy shift that coincided with faster transfer growth.
The market remains concentrated in its two largest issuers. Tether had already reported a USDT supply nearing $182B and 500M users in its October user and supply update, while this dataset assigns most 2025 transfer volume to USDC and USDT.
First-order effects
- Circle and Tether are the immediate beneficiaries of a $33T stablecoin-transfer market, with USDC's $18.3T and USDT's $13.3T accounting for nearly all of the reported total.
- The figures strengthen USDC's position as the leading stablecoin by 2025 transaction volume, despite Tether's larger reported supply in prior coverage.
Second-order effects
- The gap between transfer activity and outstanding supply raises the competitive value of payment, exchange, and settlement integrations that can generate repeat on-chain use rather than simply attract balances.
- Other stablecoin issuers and crypto platforms face pressure to compete on liquidity, distribution, and transaction utility as the two incumbents absorb the bulk of measured flows.
Third-order effects
- If elevated volumes persist, stablecoins increasingly become transaction infrastructure rather than a crypto-trading adjunct, making issuer concentration and the policy framework around dollar-backed tokens more consequential.
- The concentration of activity in USDC and USDT could make market access and interoperability a central competitive fault line, though transaction volume alone does not establish the underlying mix of payments, trading, or internal transfers.
The trend: Stablecoins are moving toward a concentrated, policy-enabled on-chain settlement market led by a small number of dollar-token issuers.