Circle’s USDC stablecoin widened its lead over competitor Tether’s USDT by transaction volume during the first half of 2026, according to recent data from Visa’s on-chain dashboard.
In June alone, stablecoin activity rose to a record $1.79 trillion in adjusted transaction volume, up 63% from $1.1 trillion in May and 125% from about $795 billion in June 2025. Visa removes bot activity, exchange transfers, and other blockchain transactions that do not reflect real economic activity before calculating adjusted volume.
These figures come as banks and other financial institutions expand the use of stablecoins for payments, settlements and treasury operations. Standard Chartered and BNY recently added services around Circles USDC rather than building their own infrastructure, also reflecting a broader shift towards using established stablecoin networks as activity and demand for fiat-pegged digital assets increases.
The first six months of the year totaled $8.82 trillion in adjusted stablecoin transaction volume. This is more than the $5.8 trillion recorded for all of 2024 and $2 trillion less than the record $10.8 trillion recorded in 2025.
USDC accounted for around 70% of adjusted transaction volume during the first half of 2026. USDT accounted for approximately 25%.
