Circle's USDC has, for the first time ever, surpassed Tether's USDT in annual trading volume. This marks a historic turning point in the stablecoin industry.
For the past 10 years, USDT has reigned as the king of stablecoins. The currency still boasts a market value of $187 billion, roughly 2.5 times larger than USDC's $75 billion. However, in 2025, it has become evident that despite its appearance, USDC is actually moving more funds than USDT.
USDC leads by 39%
According to data from Artemis Analytics, annual USDC transfer volume will be $18.3 trillion in 2025, compared to $13.2 trillion for USDT, a difference of 39%.
Artemis' stablecoin transfer metric focuses on unique "organic" on-chain activity, excluding MEV bot transactions and intra-exchange transfers. This value represents a cap on actual payments and DeFi activity, eliminating inflated counts from bots and automated trading. This means it aggregates real payments, peer-to-peer transfers, and DeFi activity, but does not include bot transactions or exchange wallet transfers.
The four factors that led to this difference are the mechanism of DeFi, where it is used, unexpected events, and regulatory trends.
1. DeFi Trading Volume
Analysts attribute this difference primarily to the use of each stablecoin. USDC is a staple of decentralized finance (DeFi), with traders frequently moving funds in and out. The same dollars are used repeatedly through lending protocols and DEX swaps. USDT, on the other hand, is primarily used as a store of value and a means of payment, with a strong tendency to hold it.
2. Solana Factor
The rapid expansion of Solana's DeFi market has been a major driver of USDC growth. Currently, over 70% of stablecoins on the network are USDC, while USDT is concentrated on Tron. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Solana's stablecoin supply surged from $5.2 billion to $11.7 billion, almost entirely driven by USDC inflows.
3. The Irony of Trump Tokens
The emergence of the "TRUMP" meme coin in January 2025 spurred the expansion of USDC usage. The coin's main liquidity pool (Meteora DEX) was denominated in USDC, not USDT. As a result, those wanting to purchase TRUMP had to first raise USDC. This surge in demand spread throughout Solana's DeFi ecosystem.
Ironically, the Trump family launched their own stablecoin, USD1, through World Liberty Financial in March, but their TRUMP token ended up boosting another competing stablecoin.
4. Favorable regulatory trends
In the United States, the Genius Act was enacted in July 2025, introducing clear legal standards for stablecoin issuers. Industry observers say USDC is positioned to be the biggest beneficiary under the new system due to its longstanding emphasis on regulatory compliance and reserve transparency. In Europe, USDC also complies with MiCA regulations, giving it an advantage amid growing pressure to delist USDT.
A growing trend
USDC's surge led to a record-breaking boom for stablecoins overall, with total trading volume reaching $33 trillion in 2025, a 72% increase year-over-year. Q4 alone saw $11 trillion in inflows, accelerating from $8.8 trillion in the third quarter.
Bloomberg Intelligence predicts stablecoin payments will reach $56 trillion by 2030, signaling the sector’s potential to become a major part of global payments infrastructure alongside traditional payment networks.
