I just realized that we actually don't fully understand stablecoins yet. Everyone is just talking about the supply surpassing 300 billion, but who actually holds it? How quickly is the money moving? What is it really used for?

Dune recently released a fairly detailed stablecoin dataset, and the results are quite eye-opening. Turns out, the supply landscape is much more complex than the big numbers we see in headlines.

USDT still dominates heavily with over 189 billion, but USDC is now catching up with 77 billion. Looking at the blockchain data, Ethereum still holds the majority of the supply, but Tron and Solana also play significant roles. What's interesting is how challenger stablecoins grew drastically last year—USDS increased by 376%, PYUSD by 753%, and RLUSD from Ripple jumped 1800% from a very low level.

But something interesting is happening here: even though the total supply keeps increasing, its distribution is becoming more concentrated among a few major players. USDT and USDC have very broad holder bases with 136 million and 36 million unique addresses, but other stablecoins like USDS are 90% concentrated in the top 10 wallets. This shows that not all stablecoins are created equal.

The most fascinating part is transaction volume. Last month, stablecoin transaction volume reached $10 trillion—double that of the previous year. The base chain alone handled $5.9 trillion, even though its supply is only 4.4 billion. This isn't random—USDC moves the fastest on layer 2, while USDT is more dominant on Tron and BNB for payment flows.

Token velocity is an underrated indicator. USDC on Base has a daily turnover of 14 times—that means almost the entire supply circulates every two hours. Meanwhile, USDe and USDS move more slowly because they are designed for yield farming, not circulation. This isn't a bug; it's a feature.

The most interesting development for emerging markets is the infrastructure for local fiat stablecoins being built. They've tracked 200 stablecoins across 20+ fiat currencies—euro, Brazilian real, yen, and now also for Africa with Nigeria's naira, Kenya shilling, South African rand. The total supply of non-dollar stablecoins is still only $1.2 billion, but 59 tokens are already live across six continents. This indicates that stablecoin adoption for cross-border payments and remittances is becoming serious, especially in markets underserved by traditional financial systems.

Data like this becomes very important as institutions start to get involved. Meta announced stablecoin integration on their platform, Payoneer enabled stablecoins for 2 million businesses, and banks are beginning to look into this technology. They need more than just supply figures—they need to understand flow, concentration risk, and actual usage patterns.

So next time someone says the stablecoin supply is $300 billion, ask back—what is that money actually moving for? On which chains? Who holds it? The answers to those questions are far more interesting than the supply number itself.