Stablecoins set new activity and volume records in May

Stablecoin activity expanded to new record levels in May. A total of 33.1M active addresses used stablecoins, with peak bridging volumes for USDC. 

Stablecoin activity reflected the general crypto market recovery in May. According to Artemis data, a total of 33.1M active wallets transacted in various stablecoins.

Stablecoin usage shifted to faster and cheaper networks. BNB Smart Chain made up 10.1M of all active wallets in early May, with 9.1M for TRON. By the end of the month, the two chains may show even faster development due to demand for payments and DeFi activity.

The growing activity coincided with further gradual expansion of the stablecoin supply. For the past month, the supply reached 244B, for an average growth of 2.88%. However, the various stablecoins had different minting rates. 

Stablecoins are on a surge

Stablecoins also kept gaining ground on other payment tools, including debit and credit cards. In the past 30 days, stablecoins on average carried $2.2T in payment and transfer volumes, surpassing remittances and even VISA payments. 

The top use cases for stable tokens are still centralized exchanges and DeFi, with a growing sector of P2P payments and general transfers between self-hosted wallets. The data for May show stablecoin liveliness coincides with the general market recovery. Stablecoins are also showing signs of being the top use case for crypto, growing despite the potential for heavier regulations. 

The stablecoin market also responded positively to the upcoming US regulation, which may open the doors for a larger number of corporate stablecoins. 

Tether stablecoin grows overall supply, USDC boosts bridge activity

Tether remained the leading issuer of stablecoins, adding 3.9B new tokens in the past month. Most of the mints were on the TRON blockchain, which now carries over 77.7B USDT. The TRON version surpassed Ethereum, which now carries 73B USDT. In total, USDT grew its supply to over 153B tokens, growing almost daily in May.

Circle’s USDC initially benefited from being a fully legalized token, but the asset shrank its supply in the past month. Most of the outflows came from the Solana supply. USDC remains a highly active multi-chain stablecoin, retaining over 60B tokens in circulation.

The USDC stablecoin marked a spike in bridging volumes, with $7.7B volumes moving through the CCTP bridge. On-chain bridging to other networks expanded by 83.3% month-on-month, based on Artemis data. 

Both users and volumes for the CCTP cross-chain bridge increased to a higher baseline in May. For the entire month, bridging activity for CCTP reached an all-time peak.

On 2025, 90.5% of all stablecoins in circulation are carrying a fiat collateral. This type of stablecoin is considered the most secure and is the most likely to be approved by regulators. 

A total of 9% of all stablecoins are over-collateralized by crypto, for a total value of $11.3B. Algorithmic tokens are the smallest category, carrying $752M in value, down from $1.3B in May 2024. Despite the bull market, algorithmic stablecoins remain highly risky, and some of the niche assets have failed. 

However, Ethena’s USDE increased its supply in May, from 4.6B tokens to over 5.5B, following the favorable price gains for Ethereum (ETH). Sky Protocol’s USDS, however, shrank its supply from over 8B tokens to 7B tokens.

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