CryptoSlate
Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume has climbed above $1 trillion per month, against a market capitalization that has roughly doubled since January 2024, according to Coinbase Institutional data cited by CryptoSlate. The gap between the two growth rates is the story: each unit of supply is circulating several times faster than it did two years ago, and stablecoin velocity has effectively detached from the float.
Why it matters
Visa's Economic Empowerment Institute put total stablecoin velocity at 13.56 in Q4 2025, against US M1 velocity of 1.65 over the same period. Stablecoins clear transactions more than eight times as intensively as the cash and checking balances that make up America's narrow money aggregate. The comparison is not apples-to-apples (M1 captures consumer spending, stablecoin volume is dominated by trading, treasury and settlement flows) but the magnitude reframes the asset class. Stablecoins now behave more like wholesale settlement infrastructure than a digital version of pocket money.
Market impact
USDC has pulled ahead in throughput even as USDT retains the larger float. Coinbase's July analysis put USDC at roughly 70% of entity-adjusted stablecoin volume, up from the mid-20% range in 2024, with activity concentrated on Base and Ethereum. The split splits stablecoin leadership into two separate races: dollars held, dominated by Tether, and dollars moved, dominated by Circle.
Weekends now carry about a fifth of adjusted weekly stablecoin volume across several years of data. Fedwire still treats Saturday and Sunday as holidays, while card authorizations and stablecoin transfers run continuously. The persistence of that weekend share shows continuous settlement has become a recurring institutional use case rather than a curiosity. Visa's Stablecoin Platform launch on July 16, with Open USD as the first supported token, signals that the major payment networks now want to own a layer of that throughput.
The read splits the competitive landscape along two axes. Issuers earn reserve yield on the float, so Tether's supply advantage keeps feeding Treasury demand and issuer profitability. Service providers, custodians, payment processors and the blockchains that carry high-quality settlement flows compete on how often the tokens move. The next phase of stablecoin adoption will reward whichever businesses can combine deep liquidity with reliable, recurring throughput.
Frequently asked questions
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What is stablecoin velocity and how is it measured?
Velocity divides entity-adjusted transaction volume by outstanding stablecoin supply, capturing how often each dollar changes hands. Visa's Q4 2025 reading of 13.56 means the average stablecoin moved more than 13 times that quarter.
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How do stablecoins compare to US cash and Fedwire on velocity?
Visa put total stablecoin velocity at 13.56 in Q4 2025, against US M1 velocity of 1.65 and Fedwire velocity of 93.84. Stablecoins clear more than eight times as intensively as narrow money but still far below the wholesale settlement system.
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Why is USDC ahead on volume while USDT leads on supply?
Coinbase's July analysis put USDC at roughly 70% of entity-adjusted stablecoin volume, up from the mid-20% range in 2024, even though USDT still holds the larger circulating float. USDC's share tracks regulated financial activity, payments and treasury operations.
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Why do stablecoins dominate weekend settlement?
Stablecoin transfers run on public blockchains continuously, while Fedwire treats Saturday and Sunday as holidays and ACH runs on defined processing windows. Weekend activity has held around a fifth of adjusted weekly stablecoin volume for years.
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What is Visa's Stablecoin Platform and why does it matter?
Visa launched an enterprise service on July 16 that gives financial institutions, fintechs and crypto businesses access to wallet infrastructure, minting, redemption and bank-account links for stablecoins. It signals that major payment networks want to capture throughput, not just issuance.
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