Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) has officially dethroned Tether’s USDT in transfer volume for the first time in seven years. The shift marks a defining moment for digital assets, clearly splitting stablecoin leadership into two distinct categories: total supply and transaction speed.
While Tether remains the undisputed heavyweight in the stablecoin market, USDC has become the primary lubricant for the actual movement of capital within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
According to a recent research note from Mizuho, USDC was responsible for 64% of the transfer volume between the two major stablecoins.
That translates to about $2.2 trillion in adjusted transaction volume for USDC, compared to $1.3 trillion for USDT. Mizuho noted that this is the first time since 2019 that USDC has led the way by this metric.
By February, the divide became impossible to ignore. Data collected by Allium estimates the total stablecoin transfer volume at $1.8 trillion for the month. Within that pool, USDC was responsible for approximately $1.26 trillion, while USDT accounted for only $514 billion.
Still, the broader market’s supply structure remains in Tether’s favor.
Crypto Slates Data shows that USDT has a huge market cap of $184 billion, while USDC’s supply is around $79 billion. According to these figures, the circulating supply of USDT remains 2.36 times that of USDC.
This stark difference between dormant supply and active transfer volume has become the defining characteristic of today’s market. It also highlights the growing importance of underlying settlement rails.
Mizuho researchers attributed the transfer to significantly accelerated on-chain usage, noting that adjusted stablecoin volumes grew by more than 90% year-over-year. According to the company, transaction speeds are increasing rapidly, indicating that stablecoins are changing hands more frequently across a much wider range of financial workflows.
Solana’s statistics highlight record sales
While Circle issues USDC natively across 30 different blockchains, one network is at the undeniable center of this new speed.
Considering the numbers, the Solana blockchain provides the clearest connection between rising USDC transfer totals and the underlying market structure that requires constant, repetitive movement.
Grayscale data illustrates the enormous scale of this activity. Solana processed a whopping $650 billion in stablecoin transactions in February, more than doubling the previous record and leading all competing blockchains for the month.
What makes this total number remarkable is the relatively small capital base parked on the network, a dynamic that points to extreme asset turnover.
According to DeFiLlamaThe entire stablecoin base on Solana amounts to a modest $15.7 billion. USDC represents 53.81% of that local liquidity pool, which amounts to approximately $8.4 billion. Outside of Ethereum, where USDC maintains a massive $55 billion supply, Solana is the network with the token’s largest absolute presence.
The intensity of the USDC circulation on Solana is unprecedented. Token terminal reported that monthly USDC transfer volume on the network skyrocketed 300% year-over-year, reaching $880 billion in February 2026 alone.
These numbers describe a blockchain architecture specifically optimized for repetitive, fast settlement. Token Terminal also noted that Solana’s average transaction fees fell to a one-year low of $0.00047 during the same period.
Ultra-low fees naturally support frequent routing, algorithmic rebalancing and complex settlement strategies between market makers and trading platforms throughout the trading day.
In the meantime, it’s worth noting that USDC transfer activity has also surged on its largest home base. Data from Token Terminal showed that monthly USDC transfer volume on Ethereum exceeded $1.7 trillion in February, reflecting a 250% year-over-year increase.
Essentially, the entire flow picture clearly spans multiple networks. However, the data coming out of Solana immediately catches the industry’s attention, as it puts stationary balances and hyperactive movements in the same framework.
This is because a relatively small pool of stablecoins generates a flood of transfers, which perfectly explains how USDC has built an impressive lead in volume without approaching Tether’s footprint in total supply.
Solana DEXs turn from memes to stables
The spike in Solana transfer volume coincides with a fundamental change in what actually drives activity on the network’s decentralized exchanges.
In late 2024 and early 2025, memecoins were the dominant force. Facts from Blockworks shows that highly speculative tokens accounted for more than 60% of all decentralized exchange activity on Solana during that period.
This retail-driven surge pushed trading volumes to record highs, briefly doubling those on Ethereum.
More recently, the landscape has matured. Blockworks data now indicates that stablecoin-related swaps have taken over, accounting for around 70% of all blockchain activity on the network.
This structural shift aligns perfectly with February’s stablecoin transaction data tracked by Grayscale and the huge jump in USDC transfer volume tracked by Token Terminal.
This change in composition has enormous consequences for the way in which the transmission volume accumulates.
Workflows that rely heavily on stablecoins often involve repeated transfers between a web of intermediaries. Trade flows are routinely split across multiple legs to find the best available price. Every move between exchanges, market makers, hedge funds and payment applications adds to the overall transfer totals as balances rotate relentlessly.
Because Solana’s average transaction costs are virtually zero, these microscopic, multi-step routing strategies can scale without impacting profit margins.
Regulatory moats and traditional financial rails
Meanwhile, blockchain technology is only half the story. Policy shifts and platform regulations have heavily influenced stablecoin routing over the past year, especially for institutions operating under strict compliance frameworks in the United States and Europe.
The United States permanently changed the landscape in July 2025 by enacting the GENIUS Act, which established a comprehensive federal framework for payments stablecoins. On the other side of the Atlantic, Circle acquired a coveted Markets in Crypto-Assets license in Europe in January 2025.
These regulatory milestones had immediate implications for the market. Binance and other leading crypto trading platforms have removed all non-compliant stablecoin pairs specifically targeting USDT by March 31, 2025.
Since then, Tether’s USDT trading access has been severely restricted on some of the world’s largest exchanges within the European bloc. This compliance moat has naturally diverted much of Europe’s currency flow to regulated alternatives such as USDC.
The traditional payments infrastructure is also deeply intersected with the USDC and Solana routing ecosystem.
In December, Visa announced that its US issuer and acquirer partners had begun settling fiat obligations in Circle’s USDC directly via the Solana blockchain. Early participants included Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, with a wider domestic rollout planned in 2026.
Circle is simultaneously driving major cross-border expansion to strengthen its institutional infrastructure.
The company is actively scaling the Circle Payments Network, a system that allows traditional financial institutions to send USDC internationally and convert it directly into local fiat currency through banking partners. The network currently has 55 institutional members and reached $6 billion in volume this year.
These developments show why the USDC competitive signal in the 2026 data is unmistakable. It shows that stablecoin dominance is no longer a one-variable equation, and that the market now measures success against two metrics that can and clearly do diverge for extended periods of time.