USDT Dominates Commerce Payments as Stablecoin Sector Surpasses $315 Billion

Tether's USDT stablecoin has dominated the market in the first half of 2026, processing nearly $95 billion in commerce payments. This is significantly higher than Circle's USDC, which settled around $14 billion during the same period.

The data reveals a functional divide between the two largest stablecoins, with USDT anchoring business-to-business (B2B) payments and USDC fueling decentralized finance (DeFi) activity. On Tron, the token's largest network, over 93% of the USDT supply is held in ordinary wallets rather than on exchanges.

On Coinbase's Base network, USDC processed an astonishing $2.6 trillion in transfer volume in June alone, making it the highest of any token-chain pair tracked by Dune. This intense use in DeFi applications such as liquidity provision and automated trading strategies has driven daily velocity to approximately 20 times USDC's circulating supply.

The stablecoin market is now valued at around $315 billion, with Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC accounting for roughly 83% of the capitalization. The sector has become the largest part of the onchain economy, according to Dune CEO Fredrik Haga, who noted that recent regulatory clarity has enabled a wider range of assets to move onchain.