Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Circle’s USDC has surpassed Tether’s USDT in annual transaction volume for the first time, marking a historic shift in the stablecoin landscape.
For a decade, USDT Dominate as the undisputed king of stablecoins. It still has a market capitalization of $187 billion, nearly 2.5 times the USDC’s market capitalization of $75 billion. However, 2025 revealed a different story beneath the surface: smaller stablecoins now move more money.
Sponsored
Sponsored
USDC advances 39%
According to data from Artemis Analytics, USDC handled it Remittances worth $18.3 trillion in 2025, compared to USDT $13.2 trillion – a 39% gap.
Artemis stablecoin transfer volume filters MEV bot transactions and intra-exchange transfers, isolating the “organic” activity of the on-chain platform. This metric provides an upper bound on actual payments and usage of DeFi, rather than previously inflated transaction numbers from automated trading. In short, real-world payments, peer-to-peer transfers, and DeFi activity counts; Automated bot transactions and wallet reordering on exchanges do not do this.
Why did the USDC advance?
The difference boils down to four factors: how DeFi works, where it happens, the unexpected catalyst, and regulatory timing.
1. DeFi turnover
Analysts attribute the gap largely to how each stablecoin is used. USDC dominates decentralized financial platforms where traders enter and exit frequently. The same dollar is recycled several times through lending protocols and DEX exchanges. USDT, on the other hand, acts more like a store of value and a payment line – users tend to hold it in wallets rather than constantly moving it around.
Sponsored
Sponsored
2. Solana factor
it becomes Solana’s explosive growth in DeFi It is the main engine of USDC. The stablecoin now makes up more than 70% of all stablecoins in the network, while USDT remains focused on Tron. In Q1 2025 alone, the total stablecoin supply at Solana increased from $5.2 billion to $11.7 billion – a 125% increase driven almost entirely by USDC flows.
3. Trump’s token sarcasm
The launch of Trump’s memecoin in January 2025 inadvertently increased USDC adoption. The primary liquidity pool of the token on Meteora DEX is tied to USDC, not USDT. This meant that traders rushing to buy Trump first needed to acquire USDC, which led to a spike in demand that spread across Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.
The irony runs deeper than that: the Trump family has been fired Its own stable currency, USD1via World Liberty Financial in March. However, the Trump token they inspired eventually boosted the competitor’s stablecoin.
4. Regulatory tail winds
A law was established Genius in July in the United States Clear legal rules for stablecoin issuers. Industry observers point out that the USDC’s long-standing focus on regulatory compliance and reserve transparency has made it benefit the most from the new framework. In Europe, granted Compliance with the USDC MiCA standard Advantage in the middle of the delisting pressure many exchanges are facing USDT.
The rising tide
The rise of the USDC contributed to the record activity for stablecoins in general. The total volume of transactions will reach $33 trillion in 2025, up 72% year on year. The fourth quarter alone saw flows of $11 trillion, accelerating from $8.8 trillion in the third quarter.
Bloomberg Intelligence predicts that stablecoin payment flows could reach $56 trillion by 2030, positioning the sector as a major global payment pipeline alongside traditional networks.
