Stablecoins moved a record $1.79 trillion across networks in June, payments giant Visa reported. That is up 63% from May's $1.1 trillion and above the previous record of $1.78 trillion set in February. For traders, exchanges, and crypto exchanger users alike, this points to one thing. Stablecoin money is moving faster and in far bigger volumes than it was just half a year ago.
Who benefited more from the record volume, USDC or USDT?
By market cap, Tether (USDT) remains the largest stablecoin. But by transaction volume in June, USDC from Circle took the lead, accounting for roughly 67% of total flow, or $1.21 trillion. USDT handled about 32%, or $576 billion, while third-placed PayPal USD added just $2.42 billion.
The gap shows a simple point. Network activity and market cap size are not the same thing. Capital can sit in the largest token by issuance for years while actually moving mostly through a different one. Grayscale's head of research Zach Pandl noted the same trend on Sunday, calling June another record month for stablecoin volume that came in even ahead of February.
Why Base overtook Ethereum in stablecoin volume
The most stablecoin activity in June ran through Base, Coinbase's layer-2 network ($565 billion, or 31.5% of total volume). Ethereum itself came next with $562 billion, and Tron placed third with $320 billion, about 18% of the total. Together, these three networks carried more than 80% of total volume, with the rest spread across smaller chains.
For the Ukrainian market, that is not an abstract number. Tron has long stayed the cheapest network for USDT transfers, which is why TRC20 carries much of the P2P exchange activity in Ukraine, since transaction fees rarely exceed a few cents and confirmation takes only seconds. That is why selling USDT for hryvnia on this network remains one of the most popular directions even during a market downturn.
What it means for traders and payments beyond speculation
LVRG Research's Nick Ruck told Cointelegraph why the record volume matters now, with the market stuck in a prolonged downturn. Year over year, volume climbed 125%, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum prices mostly fell for much of that stretch.
"This surge shows the growing role of stablecoins as infrastructure for value transfer, liquidity provision, and decentralized finance activity that persists independently of speculative price movements."
- Nick Ruck, Director at LVRG Research, comment to Cointelegraph
Put simply, even when Bitcoin or Ethereum prices drop, stablecoin transfers keep going. People keep paying, exchanging, and sending money across borders, just not through spot trades with volatile coins anymore.
The counting method deserves attention too. Visa built it with analytics firms Artemis, Allium Labs, and Castle Island Ventures to filter out "noise" from genuine activity: high-frequency bot trading, exchange treasury rebalancing, and repeated smart contract calls. So the $1.79 trillion figure is not raw blockchain data anymore. It is a cleaned-up version closer to real, organic user activity.
New players and disputes in a growing market
At the same time, competition between networks benefits everyday exchanger users too. As Base, Ethereum, and Tron compete for volume, stablecoin transfer fees stay low, and the choice of route for an exchange remains up to the user.
Rapid growth is drawing in new competitors too. On Tuesday, the Open Standard consortium announced its own stablecoin, Open USD (OUSD), backed by more than 140 payments, banking, and technology companies, including Visa and Mastercard. For users, heavier competition in the market usually means lower transfer fees and a wider choice of networks for exchange.
The consortium's scale immediately triggered disputes. According to The Block, South Korea's Samsung and Dunamu said they were listed as OUSD participants without formal consultation. The episode shows that even large alliances don't always keep coordination in step with their ambitions.
- The stablecoin market stays concentrated around USDT and USDC despite new entrants like OUSD.
- Disputes around consortiums show that large alliances are not always aligned with every listed member in advance.
- Growing volume on Base and Tron deepens the market's reliance on specific networks, not just token issuers.
- Regulators in the EU and US are watching stablecoins' payment role more closely because of exactly this kind of growth.
What comes next for stablecoins
Ruck expects the trend to hold. Stablecoins are gradually becoming a base layer of the Web3 economy and will pick up more use cases as the market matures. For everyday users, that means something simpler. The more stablecoins circulate across networks, the steadier liquidity gets on exchange platforms, and the less exchange rates depend on headline swings around Bitcoin or Ethereum. For anyone who regularly exchanges crypto for hryvnia and back, that steadiness is ultimately what makes tomorrow's rate easier to predict.
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