A new report from blockchain analytics firm Artemis has adjusted the narrative around stablecoin transaction volumes, revealing that real payments and transfers are approximately $400 billion per year—a figure far lower than previous estimates of $10 to $30 trillion that rivaled credit card networks.
The core finding is that a significant portion of on-chain stablecoin activity does not represent genuine economic transfers. The Artemis data filters out technical movements such as routing between counterparties, unspent transaction outputs, smart contract interactions, and high-volume trading to isolate payment-like behavior. This adjusted methodology shows that while total on-chain volumes are massive, the actual value transferred for payments is a fraction of that.
Despite the lower baseline, the report highlights strong growth. Stablecoin payments have doubled over the past 12 months, reaching the $400 billion mark. This growth coincides with an increase in active wallets and improved regulatory clarity in some regions.
The breakdown of use cases shows Business-to-Business (B2B) payments as the dominant driver, accounting for $230 billion or 60% of all transfers. Remittances represented $90 billion, while approximately $8 billion was used to settle capital market trades. The most explosive growth came from stablecoin-linked card usage, which saw an 800% year-on-year increase to $4.5 billion.
Regionally, adoption is uneven. Asia leads in real payment traffic, with Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan as key hubs. Adoption in these regions is often driven by local merchant integration, such as apps utilizing Tether (USDT). While stablecoin usage has grown in the US and Europe, the tokens are less frequently used for direct payments there.
The report also notes that non-payment activity remains the backbone of stablecoin demand. Smart contract interactions for DeFi activities like trading and lending constituted nearly 50% of all stablecoin transfers. These transactions typically involve larger "whale-sized" orders compared to smaller-sum payment transfers.
Concurrently, the stablecoin market cap hierarchy shows resilience amid broader crypto volatility. Tether (USDT) maintains its leadership with a market capitalization of approximately $186.7 billion and a daily trading volume near $83.9 billion. USD Coin (USDC) holds second place with a $73.4 billion market cap. The top ten also includes Ethena's USDe ($6.5B), DAI ($5.36B), PayPal USD (PYUSD, $3.68B), and World Liberty Financial USD (USD1, $3.6B), all demonstrating strong pegs to the US dollar.
