Stablecoin Activity on Blockchain Exceeds $35 Trillion, Yet Actual Payment Use Remains Marginal

Last year witnessed stablecoin transactions on blockchain surpassing $35 trillion in total volume, according to data compiled by ChainCatcher. This figure might suggest massive adoption of digital assets for practical commerce. However, a joint analysis by McKinsey and Artemis Analytics paints a strikingly different picture: merely 1% of this enormous transaction volume served genuine payment purposes.

The Gap Between Volume and Real-World Utility

When researchers examined what actually constitutes legitimate payment activity—including business-to-vendor transfers, international remittances, and salary disbursements—the numbers shrink dramatically. Out of the $35 trillion in total stablecoin transactions, only approximately $380 billion represented authentic payment use cases. This revelation exposes a fundamental disconnect in the industry: while stablecoin volume on blockchain appears astronomical, its practical function in facilitating real-world commerce remains minimal.

What the Numbers Actually Reveal

To contextualize this finding, the $380 billion in genuine payments represents approximately 0.02% of global payment volume, which McKinsey estimates to exceed $20 trillion annually. This metric illustrates that despite stablecoins’ prominence on blockchain networks, they capture an infinitesimal share of worldwide payment activity. The vast majority of the $35 trillion in stablecoin transactions likely encompasses speculation, arbitrage, liquidity management, and cross-exchange transfers—activities that inflate transaction counts without contributing to actual payment settlement.

The research underscores an important reality: blockchain-based stablecoin infrastructure has grown substantially in transaction capacity, but real-world adoption for payments remains nascent and limited relative to the hype surrounding cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.