Stablecoins Process $33 Trillion in 2025 as Institutions Shift Settlement

Stablecoins Process $33 Trillion in 2025 – Institutional Settlement Shifts to Circle and Paxos Infrastructure

Key Takeaways

• Stablecoins processed $33 trillion in 2025, roughly double Visa’s annual payment volume.
• Total stablecoin market capitalization reached $317.89 billion by April 2026, up from about $125 billion in early 2024.
• USDC transferred $8.3 trillion in January 2026, compared with $1.7 trillion for USDT in the same month.
• Circle and Paxos act as the primary minters behind major institutional stablecoins, including USDC, PYUSD, and USDG.
• Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal have integrated stablecoins into their settlement and payment operations.

Stablecoin Transfer Volumes Approach Card Network Scale

Stablecoins have moved from a crypto-native payment tool to a settlement layer used by large financial institutions. In 2025 alone, stablecoins processed $33 trillion in transfer volume. That figure is roughly double Visa’s annual payment volume, according to the data cited in the source material.

Monthly activity highlights the scale. In January 2026, stablecoins transferred $10.5 trillion on public blockchains. For comparison, Visa processed $16.7 trillion in total fiat payment volume across its fiscal year 2025, while Mastercard reported $10.6 trillion in gross dollar volume for the same period. One month of stablecoin transfers approached the annual volume of a major global card network.

At the same time, total stablecoin market capitalization reached $317.89 billion as of April 2026. This represents a significant increase from roughly $125 billion in early 2024. The GENIUS Act, signed into law in mid 2025, created a federal framework for payment stablecoins and is cited as a factor that unlocked institutional adoption.

USDC Dominates Institutional Transfer Activity

Transfer data from January 2026 shows a distinction between supply and usage. USDC moved $8.3 trillion during the month, compared with $1.7 trillion for USDT, despite USDT having a supply approximately 2.7 times larger. According to the figures presented, USDT dominates holdings, while USDC dominates movement.

USDC has been selected for several institutional use cases. Visa settled $3.5 billion annualized in USDC on Solana through Cross River Bank and Lead Bank. JP Morgan settled debt in USDC on Solana in a transaction involving Galaxy. Stripe’s infrastructure also runs on USDC.

Other stablecoins linked to traditional financial institutions have entered the rankings. PayPal’s PYUSD holds a supply of $3.95 billion, while BlackRock’s BUIDL stands at $2.96 billion. USDG, anchored by Mastercard through the Global Dollar Network, has a supply of $1.92 billion. These tokens are issued or connected to established financial institutions rather than crypto-native projects.

Circle and Paxos Control the Minting Layer

Behind the largest institutional stablecoins stand two primary issuers: Circle and Paxos. Circle mints USDC. Paxos mints PYUSD for PayPal and USDG for the Global Dollar Network, which includes Mastercard, Robinhood, Kraken, and DBS Bank.

Arkham Intelligence data shows how minted tokens are distributed. Paxos has pushed $89.2 billion outward across 5,208 mint and burn transactions. Recipients include Binance at $22 billion, Wintermute at $12.77 billion, Jane Street at $6 billion, and Coinbase at $2 billion. These entities are trading firms, exchanges, and liquidity providers rather than correspondent banks.

Circle’s counterparty data reflects a similar structure. It shows $6.17 billion in mint and burn activity, with Wintermute at $1.64 billion and Coinbase at $2.1 billion across multiple deposit addresses. Coinbase appears as a top counterparty for both Circle and Paxos.

Mint and burn operations create new tokens when clients demand them and destroy tokens upon redemption. This on demand issuance differs from traditional correspondent banking, where settlement relies on pre funded accounts and limited operating hours.

Custody Providers Form a Core Part of the Settlement Stack

Between minting and redemption, stablecoins are held by custody providers and exchanges. USDG data illustrates this structure. The largest single holder is Fireblocks Custody, with $150 million, representing 8.97 percent of total supply.

Additional large holders include OKX, with $519 million across three cold wallets, and Kraken, a named partner in the Global Dollar Network, with $128.97 million. Pendle Finance also holds USDG, indicating that the token is used in decentralized finance yield strategies.

Fireblocks plays a central role. It serves as the custody layer for banks using USDC on Solana, including Visa’s settlement activity. As a result, Fireblocks sits at the intersection of USDG linked to Mastercard and USDC linked to Visa.

Arkham data also indicates that Paxos processes payments for Mercado Pago, described as the largest fintech platform in Latin America. This suggests that the same minting infrastructure supports multiple payment networks and regions.

Card Networks and Payment Firms Integrate Stablecoins Differently

Visa has integrated four stablecoins across four blockchains: USDC, PYUSD, USDG, and EURC on Solana, Ethereum, Stellar, and Avalanche. Stablecoin linked cards via Stripe’s Bridge are live in 18 countries and are expanding to more than 100. Visa has also launched an on chain analytics dashboard with Allium Labs, tracking $12.9 trillion in adjusted stablecoin volume.

Solana processed $552 billion in stablecoin transfers in January 2026 alone and serves as a settlement chain for both Visa and PayPal’s PYUSD.

Mastercard enabled four stablecoins on its network: USDC, PYUSD, USDG, and FIUSD. It joined the Paxos Global Dollar Network for USDG. Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1 billion. Bridge powers Visa stablecoin linked cards and Stripe’s own stablecoin financial accounts across 101 countries.

PayPal launched PYUSD, minted by Paxos, across 70 markets. On Solana, PYUSD circulates at 0.6 times daily velocity, four times its Ethereum rate.

Our Assessment

The data shows that stablecoins have reached transaction volumes comparable to major card networks and are now embedded in institutional settlement processes. Circle and Paxos dominate the minting layer, while entities such as Coinbase, Wintermute, and Fireblocks form key parts of distribution and custody. Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal have each adopted stablecoins using different strategies, but rely on the same underlying infrastructure providers. The settlement layer described in the source material is concentrated among a limited number of issuers, distributors, and custodians that support both crypto native and traditional financial institutions.