The total volume of stablecoin transactions in 2024 reached $27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined transfer volume of Visa and Mastercard by 7.68%.
Stablecoins became one of the key sectors in the cryptocurrency industry, acting as a major driver of crypto adoption. This was highlighted by CEX.IO analysts in a report summarizing the results of a comprehensive analysis of changes in the stablecoin sector observed in 2024.
The report presents several key figures:
- the total trading volume of crypto pairs involving stablecoins exceeded $25.8 trillion and continues to grow;
- the average daily trading volume of stablecoins increased by more than 237% over the year;
- USDT accounted for an average of 79.7% of the total stablecoin trading volume;
- the total supply of stablecoins grew by over 59%, reaching 1% of the total U.S. dollar issuance;
- the share of Ethereum and Tron as stablecoin issuance networks declined from 90% to 83%, with Base, Solana, Arbitrum, and Aptos emerging as major competitors;
- approximately 70% of all stablecoin transaction volume was attributed to trading bots, with this figure reaching 98% on Solana and Base.
One of the key conclusions from the report is that stablecoins are increasingly being used for savings and financial transactions due to their cost efficiency compared to traditional payment methods. However, their primary role remains in crypto trading and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Moreover, the report highlights the growth of yield-bearing stablecoins, which accounted for approximately 3% of the total stablecoin market by the end of 2024. These assets were also a major factor behind the 414% increase in the market cap of tokenized treasury bonds. The impact of tokenization and stablecoins on the rising demand for short-term government bonds was even discussed at a U.S. Treasury Department meeting.
