P2P stablecoins drove $176B of crypto activity in China

Chainalysis estimates China generated at least $176 billion of crypto activity in the 12 months through June 2026. Domestic peer-to-peer transfers accounted for 59.1% of that volume, 3.5 times the share in the prior period. Stablecoins comprised much of the peer-to-peer activity.

Domestic stablecoin payment activity began accelerating around March 2025 and expanded for 13 consecutive months. Monthly new stablecoin activity rose from about $240 million in March 2025 to nearly $5 billion by spring 2026. Growth was concentrated in small and medium transfers: transactions below $100 rose 996%, transfers between $100 and $1,000 increased 1,057%, and transfers between $1,000 and $10,000 climbed 1,321%.

The pattern of token movement in self-custodied wallets indicates high turnover. Chainalysis calculated annual turnover of China-attributed stablecoin holdings at 33.2 times, versus a global benchmark of 9.3 times. Japan recorded 9.9, Hong Kong 6.1, South Korea 5.1 and Taiwan 3.5. China-attributed wallets held an average of about $3.1 billion in stablecoins while moving $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transactions.

Chainalysis attributes the shift partly to restrictions on domestic exchanges and the continued use of offshore services. The firm noted activity has moved into self-custodied wallets, over-the-counter networks and direct wallet-to-wallet transfers.

The firm flagged a working hypothesis that the March 2025 expansion of China’s social-credit integration into financial and online activity may have led some users to settle transactions outside monitored banking and e-commerce channels. The report added that blockchain data can show how assets move but cannot establish individual motivations.

Chainalysis presented these findings as data-driven observations and hypotheses rather than definitive explanations for why individual users choose stablecoins.