Circle’s stablecoin, USDC, has flipped over Tether in transfer volume as the total stablecoin transfers hit $1.8 billion. However, an analyst mentioned that the USDC overtaking USDT in transfer volume necessarily does not mean that the market leadership has shifted. These stablecoins are used for different purposes and in different markets of the world.
As stablecoins slowly diffuse into mainstream markets and stablecoin rails are quietly becoming the backbone of on-chain finance, the stablecoin transfer has hit $1.8 billion. Simultaneously, USDC transfers have exceeded USDT transfer volume.
It’s not just a shift in market leadership
Analyst Lavneet Bansal stated, “The recent spike in USDC transfer volume compared to Tether’s USDT shouldn’t be read as a simple shift in market leadership. USDC tends to dominate institutional settlement flows and activity in Western markets, while USDT remains deeply embedded in retail trading and liquidity across Asia and emerging markets.”
What we are really seeing is the stablecoin market segmenting by user base and geography rather than one asset replacing the other. “It will be interesting to see how USAT, Tether’s genius-compliant stablecoin, evolves, especially given its compliance positioning and launch with regulated partners,” stated Bansal.
Stablecoin payments doubled from 2024 levels
According to data from McKinsey & Co. and blockchain analytics provider Artemis Analytics, stablecoin payments have doubled from 2024 levels as of December 2025 data, as they reached around $390 billion.
Asia spearheads the stablecoin payments
When this is segregated by region, Asia represents the largest source of stablecoin payment volumes, which accounted for $245 billion in payments, or 60% of the total. Further narrowing down into the specific countries in Asia, the report stated that payments were almost driven by Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, McKinsey found.
Particularly, Hong Kong fertilized the stablecoin payment landscape by introducing a bill in 2025. And passing of this law is believed to position the city as a launchpad for bank-grade, interoperable stablecoins and serve as a gateway for regional digital currency initiatives, analysts told Asian Banking & Finance last year. And this has already come to pass as of the time of writing.
In addition, Singapore is also expected to continue increasing adoption of tokenized payment products, including stablecoins, blending traditional finance with crypto-backed offerings.
North America was no match to the South Asian countries, as it made up $95 billion of the payments, while Europe followed at $50 billion; Latin America and Africa account for less than $1 billion.
