STABLECOINS | New Research Reveals Surprising Trends in Real-World Stablecoin Payments

A new report by Artemis sheds light on the usage of stablecoins in real-world payments, revealing several unexpected trends.

The findings are based on a survey of 31 companies that facilitate mainstream stablecoin transactions. While Artemis estimates that annual sanitized stablecoin payments amount to around $26 trillion – primarily tied to crypto trading – the surveyed companies processed real-world payments at an annualized rate of $72 billion as of February 2025.

Some results aligned with expectations. Business-to-business (B2B) transactions made up half of the $6 billion in real-world stablecoin payments during February, marking a 288% jump from the $772 million recorded a year earlier. On average, B2B payments on Ethereum and TRON blockchains were quite large, with transaction sizes averaging $219,000.

In contrast, networks like Polygon recorded average payments of less than $10,000.

Unsurprisingly, Tether’s $USDT outpaced $USDC in real-world payment volume. However, its dominance – accounting for 90% of such payments in January and 86% in February – was greater than expected, especially considering its market cap is only about 71% of USDC’s. That said, Tether has historically exhibited higher transaction velocity.

In the last 24 hours alone (as of this writing), the volume of Tether payments represented 26.6% of its market cap, compared to 10.8% for USDC. While this makes sense in the context of crypto trading, the trend appears to hold for real-world payments too.

TRON Emerges as the Leading Blockchain for Stablecoin Payments

Perhaps the most surprising finding was TRON’s overwhelming lead in processing real-world stablecoin payments.

While a 2023 Brevan Howard Digital report already highlighted TRON’s dominance in emerging markets across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, its extensive use for payments originating in the U.S. and Europe was unexpected. Despite skepticism from U.S. users – frequently seen on platforms like Reddit – TRON remains widely used, including for Western-origin payments.

This usage pattern suggests that the destination of a payment, not just its origin, heavily influences the choice of blockchain.

For instance, if a payment from the U.S. or Europe is destined for a market that prefers TRON, that preference can determine the blockchain used across the whole payment corridor. A notable example is the Singapore-China corridor. Despite Ethereum making up over 60% of usage in Singapore, TRON’s more than 90% share in China likely drives blockchain choice for cross-border flows.

TRON initially rose to popularity for its low costs and high scalability. However, fees have increased over time. Today, TRON transactions are significantly more expensive than those on other major blockchains, many of which still charge just cents. That said, users can reduce costs by staking TRON tokens to earn gas (energy), which helps offset transaction fees.

Ethereum ranked as the second most used blockchain in the study and held particular strength in Nigeria, where it was the dominant choice. It also accounted for the majority of usage in countries such as Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, as well as Peru and Argentina.

By contrast, TRON was the clear leader in Brazil, where Ethereum saw minimal adoption.

The Artemis report, produced in collaboration with Castle Island Ventures and Dragonfly, concludes that real-world stablecoin payment trends don’t always align with expectations. Tether’s usage significantly surpasses its market share, and blockchain preferences are shaped more by payment corridors and destination country usage than by where the transaction originates.

Stay tuned to BitKE for deeper insights into the evolving global crypto and stablecoin space.

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