Dune Analytics reveals USDT dominates on-chain commerce, while its rival USDC leads in decentralized finance, showing a sharp divergence in stablecoin usage.
The report, titled “Digital Asset Brief” and released on July 7, 2026, shows that Tether’s USDT handled approximately $95 billion in identified commerce payments in the first half of the year, dwarfing the $14 billion settled by Circle’s USDC.
USDT dominates global B2B and remittance payments
This split in utility suggests the stablecoin market is maturing into specialized niches rather than a winner-take-all scenario. While Tether’s USDT remains the preferred medium for cross-border settlements and B2B transactions—accounting for 92% of the $48 billion B2B payment market—Circle’s USDC has become the primary liquidity layer for automated trading.
During June 2026, USDC on the Base network processed a staggering $2.6 trillion in transfer volume, the highest of any token-chain pair identified in the study.
The total stablecoin market capitalization has now reached approximately $315 billion, with Tether and Circle commanding 83% of that entire sector. This growth comes even as market resistance levels in the broader crypto space have occasionally dampened retail speculative appetite. For the major stablecoin issuers, the focus has shifted from mere issuance to ensuring their assets are deeply integrated into specific financial infrastructures.
The dominance of USDT in the payments sector is largely driven by its massive footprint on the Tron network. According to the Dune Analytics report, roughly 93% of the USDT supply on Tron is held in ordinary wallets rather than on exchanges.
This indicates that users are not just holding the asset to trade, but are using it as a functional replacement for fiat in remittances and commercial trade.
Tether has faced pressure in the past regarding the transparency of its reserves, and more recently, some international bodies have urged Tether to transfer frozen funds in specific conflict zones. Despite these controversies, the asset’s liquidity remains its greatest strength in developing markets.
The split of USDT’s supply is currently balanced almost evenly between the Tron and Ethereum blockchains, providing a versatile foundation for global movement of value.
USDC establishes liquidity stronghold in DeFi ecosystems
While USDT wins the “cash” battle, USDC has won the “capital” battle within programmable finance. The data from June 2026 shows that USDC on Ethereum handled $1.6 trillion in volume, while its performance on Layer-2 solutions like Base was even more explosive.
The daily velocity of USDC on Base reached about 20 times its circulating supply last month, a clear signal of its role as the primary pair for decentralized exchanges and lending protocols.
This high velocity suggests that a relatively small amount of USDC is doing a massive amount of “work” within the ecosystem. This trend is bolstered by the shifting technical landscape, where stronger Ethereum network outlooks and the rise of AI-driven decentralized exchanges have increased the demand for a stable, Western-regulated asset like USDC to act as the primary collateral.
Visa data highlights growth in genuine payment activity
Complementing the Dune report, the Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard released data on July 6, 2026, that offers a slightly different perspective using an “adjusted transaction volume” metric. This methodology, developed with Allium Labs and Artemis, attempts to filter out bot activity and internal exchange transfers to isolate genuine economic payments. Under this lens, USDC actually leads the market with a 67% share of adjusted volume.
The total adjusted stablecoin volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June 2026, marking a 63% increase from the previous month. This record narrowly beat the previous high of $1.78 trillion set in February. Over the trailing 12 months, the cumulative adjusted volume has reached $10.2 trillion, putting the stablecoin industry on par with major traditional payment processors in terms of raw throughput.
Retail adoption remains a small fraction of total volume
Despite the headline figures in the trillions, the Visa data suggests that the “man on the street” is still a small part of the ecosystem. Transactions under $250—typically classified as retail—account for less than 1% of the total adjusted volume over the past year. The bulk of the activity remains concentrated in large-scale institutional movements, liquidity provision, and high-value B2B settlements.
Network choices driving stablecoin utility shifts
The choice of underlying blockchain is increasingly dictating how these assets are used. The report notes that Solana and Base are becoming the primary drivers for low-cost, high-speed payment infrastructure. As transaction fees on these networks remain negligible, the barrier to using a stablecoin for everyday commerce continues to drop, even if those “coffee shop” transactions haven’t yet moved the needle on total volume metrics.
For Tether, the reliance on Tron has provided a robust, low-fee environment that fits the needs of the remittance market perfectly. Conversely, Circle’s concentration on Ethereum and its rapid expansion into the Coinbase-backed Base network has cemented its status as the institutional favorite for DeFi.
As the market moves forward, the bifurcation between these two giants appears likely to widen, with each asset carving out a distinct and defensible territory in the digital economy.