Stablecoin payments rise 45% to $482B as supply stalls

Stablecoin payment volumes rose from $331 billion in the first nine months of 2025 to $482 billion in the same period of 2026, according to blockchain analytics firm Allium. Businesses received $246 billion in stablecoin payments, up 37% from $179 billion a year earlier. Business-related transactions accounted for 64% of total dollar volume.

Consumer-to-business transaction counts nearly doubled, while the average payment size declined. Business-to-business payment value grew faster than transaction count. Transfers between consumers represented a larger share of activity during the period.

Payment volume reached a quarterly record of $72 billion in the third quarter. Card-based spending increased tenfold. Purchases of less than $50 accounted for 84% of the growth in visible card purchases, allowing consumers to spend stablecoins in small amounts without requiring merchants to accept the assets directly.

Total stablecoin supply stood at about $304 billion at the end of September. DeFiLlama reported a market capitalization of $302.9 billion, representing less than 1% growth in 2026.

Analysts have forecast that the stablecoin market could reach $2 trillion by 2028. Some industry participants have identified yield on stablecoin balances as a potential source of additional demand.

Olivia Vande Woude of Ava Labs wrote that most of the roughly $305 billion in stablecoins currently earns no yield. She proposed connecting USDC, USDT and EURC to diversified real-world-asset vaults with daily liquidity and on-chain records.

Regulation limits some stablecoin yield models. The European Union has prohibited yield on stablecoins, including through decentralized finance platforms. The U.S. GENIUS Act also restricts some stablecoin yield arrangements. JPMorgan has projected that the market could reach $500 billion to $600 billion by 2028 without a yield incentive.