Stablecoin Transfer Volume Hits $10.5 Trillion in January — Highest Since April 2022

Stablecoin transfer volume topped $10.5 trillion in January 2026, marking the highest monthly total since April 2022, according to Dune Analytics data. The milestone points to a major rebound in activity across the fixed-value digital asset sector.

USDC Dominates Transfer Volume, Dwarfing USDT by a Wide Margin

Circle's USDC drove the bulk of the activity, accounting for $8.3 trillion — nearly 80% of all stablecoin transfers for the month. That dominance in transaction volume is especially striking given that USDC trails USDT significantly in market capitalization.

Tether's USDT came in far behind at $1.7 trillion, while DAI rounded out the top three with $138 billion.

February is still underway, but stablecoin transactions have already hit $7.8 trillion with the same three tokens leading the pack — a sign that the elevated activity is carrying over into the following month.

Base Overtakes Ethereum and Tron in Transfer Volume

Among blockchain networks, Layer 2 solution Base handled the most volume in January, processing $5.9 trillion in transfers. Ethereum took second place at $2.5 trillion, while Tron accounted for $691 billion.

Base's lead underscores the growing role of L2 solutions in crypto. Low fees and high throughput make these networks attractive to both retail users and large-scale protocols. A similar push toward payment infrastructure is playing out in other ecosystems — Solana, for instance, recently launched its own payment hub complete with a transaction simulator.

DEXs Dwarf CEXs in Stablecoin Usage

Liquidity pools on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) were the primary use case for stablecoins during the period, channeling $5.9 trillion in volume. Centralized exchanges (CEXs) processed just $612 billion by comparison — nearly ten times less.

The gap highlights a massive shift in liquidity toward decentralized protocols. Users are increasingly turning to DeFi tools for swaps, liquidity provision, and yield generation.

USDT Still Holds the Market Cap Crown

Despite its lower transaction volumes, USDT remains the largest stablecoin by market capitalization at $183.5 billion, commanding over 59% of the total sector. The overall stablecoin market stands at $311 billion.

USDC holds a 24.3% market share with a capitalization of $75.3 billion.

Tether, meanwhile, continues to deploy capital aggressively. On February 25, the company took a $200 million stake in online marketplace Whop, which has integrated an open toolkit for building wallets that support USDT and USAT payments. Earlier in January, Tether also invested in interoperability protocol developer LayerZero Labs and the Hyperliquid application Dreamcash.