USDC accounted for about 70% of adjusted stablecoin trading volume in the first half of the year, further expanding its lead over USDT.

BlockBeats news, July 7, according to Visa on-chain data, in the first half of 2026, Circle's stablecoin USDC accounted for approximately 70% of adjusted stablecoin transaction volume, further expanding its lead over competitor Tether's USDT. During the same period, USDT accounted for approximately 25%.

Data shows that adjusted stablecoin transaction volume rose to a record $1.79 trillion in June, up 63% from $1.1 trillion in May and 125% from approximately $795 billion in June 2025. When calculating adjusted transaction volume, Visa excludes bot activity, exchange transfers, and other blockchain transactions that do not reflect real economic activity.

The data comes as banks and other financial institutions are expanding the use of stablecoins in payments, settlements, and treasury management. Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of New York Mellon have recently added services around Circle's USDC rather than building their own infrastructure, reflecting that financial institutions are increasingly using mature stablecoin networks amid rising demand and activity for fiat-pegged digital assets.

In the first six months of this year, adjusted stablecoin transaction volume totaled $8.82 trillion, higher than $5.8 trillion for the full year 2024, but still about $2 trillion lower than the record $10.8 trillion in 2025. In 2020, USDT accounted for nearly 90% of adjusted transaction volume, with USDC accounting for less than 10%; by 2022, USDC's share had risen to approximately 45%.