Record stablecoin volume as circulating supply falls

Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reached $1.79 trillion in June, according to Visa Onchain Analytics, an adjusted measure developed with Allium, Artemis and Castle Island Ventures that filters out high-frequency bots, exchange treasury rebalancing and repetitive smart-contract calls. That June total was 63% higher than May’s $1.10 trillion and 125% higher than a year earlier. Adjusted volume for the first half of 2026 totaled $8.82 trillion, exceeding the $5.8 trillion recorded in all of 2024.

At the same time, total stablecoin supply contracted. CEX.IO estimated circulating supply near $312 billion and recorded a $7.7 billion decline in June, the largest monthly drop since May 2022. Supply fell more than $3 billion across Q2 from Q1’s record $315 billion, marking the first quarterly contraction since Q3 2023. Adjusted volume across Q2 also declined 5.5% alongside the drop in supply.

June’s adjusted volume equaled roughly 5.7 times the outstanding stablecoin base, using the monthly flow versus a quarter-end stock as a rough measure of turnover. Transaction counts fell by 530 million in Q2 to 4.48 billion, indicating fewer transfers of larger average value.

USDC and USDT accounted for most activity. USDC handled about $1.21 trillion of June’s adjusted volume, or 67%, while USDT processed roughly $576 billion, or 32%. Circulating supply was larger for USDT at about $184 billion versus USDC’s $73 billion.

Supply shifted across networks and product types. Ethereum’s layer-2 networks lost about 24% of their stablecoin stock in Q2, a drop near $4.34 billion, with Arbitrum down about 45%. HyperEVM’s stablecoin supply rose roughly 300% to $5.6 billion, and Tron’s stablecoin stock increased by about $3.4 billion. Ethereum’s base layer recorded the largest absolute decline, losing more than $10 billion.

Product-type changes included a 15% fall in yield-bearing stablecoins, a decline of more than $3.5 billion; Ethena’s sUSDe fell about 52% and Sky’s sUSDS fell about 16%. Treasury-backed stablecoin products increased: BlackRock’s BUIDL rose 2%, Circle’s USYC rose nearly 16%, and Ondo’s USDY grew more than 66%.

Market infrastructure and institutional activity expanded in parallel with the supply contraction. Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate in April across nine networks. Stripe extended USDC-denominated balances to businesses in 101 countries, linking tokenized dollars to ACH, wire and SEPA rails. Nuvei completed a $2.75 billion acquisition of Payoneer.

Regulatory and reserve developments continued. Circle received final OCC approval on July 10 to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, a federally chartered national trust bank to operate as Circle National Trust, with future reserve-management capabilities noted. The Bank for International Settlements has documented that stablecoin reserve flows now register in Treasury bill yields.

Broader market indicators showed reduced demand sources during Q2. Bitcoin fell about 14% in the quarter and traded below $60,000 before recovering to roughly $63,000. Institutional data provider Talos identified three simultaneous drags on demand and liquidity in Q2: declining stablecoin supply, net outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs and slower corporate treasury buying. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of more than $4 billion in June, their largest monthly outflow since launch.

Where tokenized dollars settle varied by infrastructure. Coinbase’s Base processed about $565 billion in adjusted June volume, slightly ahead of Ethereum at $562 billion, with Tron third at roughly $320 billion. Wallet features, fee structures and application integrations influenced where stablecoins were held and used.