Stablecoins Beat Combined Visa and Mastercard in 2024
Stablecoins have become an integral part of the financial world, with their transfer volumes surpassing both Visa and Mastercard in 2024. According to a report from CEX.io published on Jan. 31, stablecoin transactions reached $27.6 trillion, beating the combined volume of the two major payment processors by 7.7%.
Bot Activity Drives Stablecoin Growth
Leading the growth were automated trading bots on chains like Solana and Base. More surprising, perhaps, was that 70% of all stablecoin volume was driven by bots, reaching highs of 98% on some chains.
While bots add to overall market efficiency through arbitrage and gas fee payments, it naturally raises concerns about more manipulative strategies such as frontrunning and sandwich attacks.
USDT Leads Stablecoin Market
This dominance continued as Tether’s USDT represented 79.7% of the combined trading volume. This has been the case despite a 13.5% decline in its market capitalization share as the overall reserves of stablecoin held at centralized exchanges surged.
Ethereum and Tron Retain Market Share
Ethereum and TRON combined for 83% of market share in stablecoins at the end of the year, from 90%, as stablecoin adoption on Solana, Arbitrum, Base, and Aptos continued to gain ground.
In 2024, Ethereum’s stablecoin market capitalization jumped 65% to a new all-time high, amid lower transaction fees after the Dencun upgrade and due to increased market optimism after the U.S. elections.
Stablecoins’ Role in Crypto Trading and DeFi
Even with the growing adoption for savings and remittances, stablecoins have remained important for crypto trading and DeFi. According to CEX.io lead analyst Illia Otychenko, their utility in decentralized finance far outpaces use cases in traditional finance.
With stablecoin supply up 59% last year to reach 1% of the U.S. dollar supply, that trend is very likely to continue well into shaping the digital economy in 2025.
