USDC Overtakes USDT in Stablecoin Transaction Volume With 67% Share
For years, Tether’s USDT was simply the stablecoin everyone used. That’s no longer true by the metric that actually matters most.
USDC now accounts for roughly 67% of adjusted stablecoin transaction volume, overtaking USDT’s share of active payment and settlement activity even though Tether’s token still commands a larger total market capitalization. Circle’s USDC has grown its supply to around $78 billion, up 220% since late 2023, driven heavily by business-to-business settlement and integrations with major payment networks including Visa and Stripe.
Why is transaction volume a more meaningful signal than market cap alone? Market capitalization measures how many tokens exist in circulation at a point in time, while transaction volume measures how actively a stablecoin is actually being used to move money — a token can have a large market cap simply by sitting unused in wallets and exchange reserves, whereas high transaction volume reflects genuine, repeated economic activity.
Regulation has played a direct role in this shift. USDT is not compliant with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, and Tether opted not to pursue MiCA authorization, prompting European-regulated exchanges to delist the token by July 1, 2026. USDC, by contrast, holds full MiCA authorization through Circle’s Irish entity, giving it a clear regulatory advantage in one of the world’s largest and most closely watched crypto markets.
Tether still holds the larger overall market cap, at roughly $189.6 billion in circulation versus USDC’s $77.6 billion, meaning USDT remains the dominant stablecoin by raw supply even as its share of active transaction volume erodes. The two metrics are telling somewhat different stories about where each stablecoin’s usage is concentrated.
The broader stablecoin market has continued to grow throughout 2026, with total adjusted transaction volume across all stablecoins reaching a record $1.79 trillion, underscoring that this is fundamentally a fight over share of a rapidly expanding pie rather than a shrinking one.
Want to understand what actually backs a stablecoin like USDC or USDT? Learn more in the Bitcoin Academy.