In 2025, stablecoin trading volume surpasses $33 trillion, reaching a historic high: An in-depth analysis of USDC's comeback to lead the pack

In 2025, the global stablecoin trading volume reached a record-breaking $33 trillion, a year-over-year increase of up to 72%.

Behind this astonishing data is USDC surpassing USDT with $18.3 trillion in trading volume to become the market leader, marking a significant shift in the crypto market landscape.

01 Trading Frenzy: The Year of Explosive Growth in the Stablecoin Market

The stablecoin market achieved a historic breakthrough in 2025. Data from Artemis Analytics revealed a shocking fact: the total stablecoin trading volume for the year first exceeded $33 trillion.

This stablecoin frenzy shows a clear acceleration trend. In just the fourth quarter of 2025, trading volume reached $11 trillion, a significant quarter-over-quarter increase from $8.8 trillion in Q3.

This growth is not a temporary surge but a clear signal that global digital currency adoption has entered deep waters. From cross-border payments to daily consumption, from institutional settlements to personal finance, stablecoins are permeating all aspects of the financial sector.

In the years leading up to 2025, stablecoins were mostly viewed as “transit stations” within the crypto market, mainly used for trading cryptocurrencies. Today, the $33 trillion trading volume indicates that stablecoins have become an independent and massive financial ecosystem.

02 Driving Forces: Regulatory Breakthroughs and Institutional Influx

The explosive growth of the stablecoin market in 2025 was not accidental but the result of multiple factors working together. The GENIUS Act passed in the United States in July 2025 provided critical regulatory certainty for this market.

This legislation, titled “Guiding and Building a National Innovation for US Stablecoins,” offered the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins.

The law acts as a booster for the stablecoin market. Reeve Collins, founder of Tether, commented, “The passage of such laws paves the way for the global acceptance of stablecoins… All major financial institutions are involved because it is profitable.”

Meanwhile, top Silicon Valley venture capital firm a16z pointed out in its 2026 assessment that stablecoins are initiating a new “bank ledger upgrade cycle.”

Compared to traditional banking systems, stablecoins offer advantages such as 24/7 settlement, programmability, and low-cost cross-border transactions. Their significance has long surpassed “speculative tools,” gradually evolving into a new layer for payments and clearing.

Traditional tech giants are also actively entering the stablecoin space. PayPal has expanded its PYUSD stablecoin for enterprise applications, including partnerships with YouTube to allow creators to receive payments in stablecoins.

Stripe acquired Bridge for over $1 billion and partnered with Visa to launch stablecoin-linked card products, enabling users to spend stablecoin balances directly at Visa-accepting merchants.

03 Reshaping the Landscape: How USDC Became the Market Leader

Among the explosive growth of stablecoin trading volume in 2025, the most notable change was USDC surpassing USDT with $18.3 trillion in trading volume compared to USDT’s $13.3 trillion, becoming the market leader.

This shift reflects increasing market emphasis on transparency and compliance. Anthony Im, co-founder of Artemis, pointed out that decentralized finance (DeFi) traders tend to prefer USDC for frequent position entries and exits.

“Unstable geopolitical landscapes” have accelerated the large-scale adoption of digital dollars, with citizens in inflation-affected countries more inclined to hold stablecoins pegged to the dollar.

Interestingly, despite USDC leading in trading volume, USDT remains more commonly used in daily payments and commercial transactions. Users tend to prefer storing value in wallets rather than frequent transfers.

In the wave of compliance, major trading platforms like Gate have played a significant role. According to Gate’s 2025 annual report, the platform’s global user base approaches 50 million, with an overall market share increase of 1.78%, ranking second worldwide.

04 Infrastructure: How Trading Platforms Support Trillions in Liquidity

Faced with explosive growth in stablecoin trading volume, leading platforms like Gate are continuously strengthening their infrastructure.

As of October 28, 2025, Gate’s total reserves reached $11.676 billion, with a total reserve ratio of 124%, covering nearly 500 types of user assets. Notably, USDT reserves increased by about 300 million tokens, indicating high platform attention to stablecoin liquidity.

Specifically, for core assets, the total BTC holdings are 18,536.99 BTC, with Gate’s reserves at 24,833.00 BTC, an excess reserve rate of 33.96%. ETH holdings total 332,801.81 ETH, with reserves at 419,096.00 ETH, an excess reserve rate of 25.93%.

In terms of trading volume, Gate also performed strongly in 2025. The platform’s monthly spot trading volume once exceeded $160 billion, with its global spot market share rising to 6.04%. Derivatives market share increased to 10.6%.

Beyond centralized trading services, Gate is actively promoting its “All in Web3” strategy. Web3 products like Gate Perp DEX, Gate Swap, and Meme Go had a combined trading volume exceeding $25 billion throughout the year, with over 6.5 million on-chain transactions.

05 Future Outlook: How Stablecoins Will Reshape Global Finance

The explosive growth of stablecoins is just the beginning. Bloomberg Intelligence predicts that by 2030, stablecoin payment flows could reach $56 trillion. This forecast reflects industry optimism about the long-term potential of stablecoins.

a16z offers deeper insights in its forward-looking assessment: “When the legal framework finally aligns with the technological architecture, the full potential of blockchain will be truly unleashed.” This means that crypto and blockchain are no longer in the “gray experimental zone” outside regulation but are gradually entering an institutionalized and infrastructural stage.

This trend is already evident in traditional finance. BlackRock has launched and operates the BUIDL fund, tokenizing U.S. Treasuries on the blockchain to enable 24/7 instant settlement and institutional-level liquidity. JPMorgan, through its Kinetics platform, conducts on-chain trading and settlement, handling over $1.5 trillion in transactions.

For traders, the evolution of the stablecoin market presents new opportunities and challenges. On platforms like Gate, users can not only earn stable returns through products like Gate Earn (with accumulated subscription volume exceeding $41 billion this year) but also participate in early on-chain asset opportunities via products like Gate Alpha (with individual airdrop rewards totaling nearly $7,400).

The growth of stablecoins is also closely linked to AI development. With the rise of AI Agents, traditional “Know Your Customer (KYC)” processes are evolving into “Know Your Agent.” In the future, interactions between humans and systems, and between systems, will increasingly be automated by AI, with stablecoins potentially serving as the fundamental tools for value exchange among these “digital agents.”

Future Outlook

On-chain data shows that stablecoin trading volume continues to accelerate. In just the fourth quarter of 2025, $11 trillion in trading volume already surpassed the total global digital payments for all of 2019.

Stablecoins are no longer just an appendage of the crypto world but are becoming a bridge connecting traditional finance and the digital economy.