Changes in the Stablecoin Market Landscape: The Struggle Between New and Old Public Chains

In 2025, stablecoins will become one of the most prominent areas in the cryptocurrency market, with a total market value exceeding $245 billion. Behind this rapid growth, various public chains are engaged in fierce competition. Stablecoins are not only an important indicator of asset liquidity but also a key standard for measuring the market recognition of public chains. This article analyzes the stablecoin data of 12 major public chains, attempting to outline a panoramic view of the development of public chain stablecoins.

Ethereum: Relying on USDC Growth to Maintain Half of the Market Share

The market capitalization of Ethereum's stablecoins reached $122.5 billion, accounting for 50% of the global stablecoin issuance. USDT remains the dominant stablecoin, with a share of about 50%. However, in 2025, the issuance of USDT on Ethereum experienced a decline of 5.07%. In contrast, USDC's issuance on Ethereum grew by 46.4% within six months, reaching 36.9 billion coins, becoming a key factor in Ethereum maintaining its dominant position in the stablecoin market.

A Certain Public Chain: The Largest Issuance Platform for USDT, a Global "Distribution Hub" for US Dollars

The stablecoin of a certain public chain mainly comes from USDT, accounting for over 99%, making it the largest issuing platform for USDT. This chain holds approximately 31.3% of the global stablecoin market share. Data shows that the daily average transaction volume of USDT on this chain reaches 2.4 million transactions, far exceeding Ethereum's 284,000 transactions.

The chain processes an average of $20 billion in USDT transfers daily, accounting for nearly 29% of the global stablecoin trading volume. Over 1 million independent accounts conduct USDT transactions daily, representing 28% of all active stablecoin wallet addresses on the blockchain.

In terms of growth, the on-chain USDT supply increased from $48.8 billion in 2024 to $77.7 billion. Its low fees and high-speed transactions make it the preferred choice for USDT trading, especially favored by retail investors and emerging markets.

In addition, the collaboration between the chain's founder and a certain political family offers more possibilities for its stablecoin prospects. In January of this year, the founder revealed hopes to significantly reduce transaction fees, ultimately achieving free transfers, but specific plans have yet to be announced.

Solana: The Acceleration Engine Under High TPS

As one of the hottest public chains in the past two years, Solana's stablecoin has also seen significant growth. It increased from 1.8 billion dollars at the beginning of 2024 to a peak of 13.1 billion dollars in May, a growth rate of 627%. Although its total market cap is about 11.4 billion dollars, which still lags behind some public chains, Solana has become an emerging force in the stablecoin sector that cannot be ignored.

USDC is the preferred stablecoin on Solana, accounting for 73% market share. USDT accounts for about 20%. A stablecoin issued by a certain payment giant has a market value of 200 million USD on Solana, second only to Ethereum. Solana is becoming one of the preferred choices for new stablecoins.

A Trading Platform Chain: Dual Drive of Zero Gas and Emerging Stablecoins

By May 2025, the chain is expected to account for about 2.4% of the global stablecoin market share. Its stablecoin market capitalization is projected to increase from $4 billion in 2024 to approximately $10 billion, representing a growth of 150%. The growth mainly comes from two surges: from November 2024 to January 2025, it increased from $5 billion to $7 billion; and from the end of April 2025 to May, it rapidly rose from $7 billion to $9 billion. The first increase may be attributed to zero Gas fee activities, while the second is driven by the issuance of emerging stablecoins on the chain.

The issuance of USDT accounts for about 59%, while emerging stablecoins account for about 21%. The two stablecoins previously promoted by this chain have decreased to a combined share of about 3%.

Data shows that as the popularity of the chain wallet increases, the proportion of on-chain stablecoin DEX trading has risen from less than 10% in April to 28%, comparable to the proportion of centralized exchanges.

In addition, in May, the chain accounted for 38.1% of all chains in terms of stablecoin transaction volume, ranking first. In terms of cumulative trading volume of USDT, it reached $358 billion, second only to the two major public chains. This chain and Solana have become the most competitive new forces in the stablecoin sector.

Base: The Growth Champion Empowered by a Certain Exchange

Base, as an Ethereum L2 incubated by a large exchange, has seen significant growth in various metrics. The market value of stablecoins has increased from $177 million on January 1, 2024, to $4.09 billion, a growth rate of 2210%, making it the largest increase among the top five public chains by stablecoin market value.

USDC is the most mainstream stablecoin on Base, accounting for 97.8%. Base is also the public chain with the largest cumulative trading volume of USDC outside of Ethereum.

Hyperliquid: A New Vault for Derivatives Whales

As a new battleground for whale games, Hyperliquid, despite its short launch time, has shown tremendous potential. In less than half a year, its stablecoin market cap has reached $3.26 billion, surpassing several established public chains.

As a decentralized derivatives exchange, Hyperliquid mainly uses USDC as the trading object, which accounts for 97.8%. Recently, Hyperliquid has also added several other stablecoins, opening new avenues for ecological applications.

Arbitrum: Incentive Drop After Big Plunge

As a highly regarded Ethereum L2, Arbitrum's stablecoin market cap has experienced significant fluctuations. In 2024, it increased from $2 billion to a peak of $6.9 billion, but by early 2025, it quickly dropped to $2.73 billion, with a single-day outflow of $2 billion on January 2.

There may be three reasons for the decline: first, the termination of the incentive program, with about 50 protocols' liquidity subsidies "cut off"; second, a certain stablecoin issuer announced the migration to a new cross-chain standard; third, competing chains promise high yields, attracting L2 assets.

Polygon: Stablecoin Migration and Payment Testbed

Since 2024, the market value of Polygon stablecoin has risen from 1.26 billion to approximately 2.15 billion USD, an annual increase of nearly 70%. The growth mainly comes from the native landing of a certain stablecoin and payment giants piloting fiat and stablecoin settlements on the PoS chain.

Currently, the stablecoin share on the Polygon chain is dominated by USDT and USDC, accounting for 40.79% and 47%, respectively.

Avalanche: Cost Reduction Fails to Achieve Explosive Growth

Avalanche's growth has been relatively flat over the past year. While the overall stablecoin market capitalization has increased by 79%, growth has stagnated since May 2024, fluctuating between 1 billion and 2 billion USD. The upgrade at the end of 2024 significantly reduced base fees but failed to sustain momentum, and it may require an overall increase in ecosystem activity to drive stablecoin development.

Aptos: The Dark Horse of the Move Ecosystem

The total market value of stablecoins on Aptos surpassed $1 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with an increase of 2408% since 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing public chains. As a MOVE ecosystem public chain, Aptos and Sui are both emerging competitors. The stablecoins on the Aptos chain are mainly composed of USDT (62.39%) and USDC (32%). Considering that the native USDC just launched on Aptos this January, this growth progress is already quite rapid.

Sui: A High-Growth Chain with 230x Growth

The growth of Sui's stablecoin is the most remarkable, increasing from 5 million USD at the beginning of 2024 to 1.156 billion USD in May 2025, a 230-fold increase. USDC is the most dominant stablecoin on the Sui network, accounting for about 75%.

However, the scale of Sui's ecosystem stablecoin is still not high, and the variety of issuances is also limited. Attracting large capital to enter the market is the main growth challenge faced by Sui, and recent security incidents may also affect confidence, presenting both opportunities and challenges for the future.

TON: Social Support Growth Lacks Momentum

As a new entrant to the battlefield in 2024, TON has achieved rapid growth within a year. In April 2024, a certain stablecoin issuer synchronously issued on the TON chain, becoming its 15th supported network, aiming to bring the 900 million users of a certain social platform into the on-chain dollar payment ecosystem.

However, the growth of the TON ecosystem stablecoin began to decline after a brief rise, falling from $1.4 billion at the beginning of the year to around $900 million, which may be related to the lack of new hotspots in the ecosystem.

Conclusion

The competitive landscape of public chain stablecoins is still rapidly changing. Although public chains like Ethereum maintain their first-mover advantage, popular public chains such as Solana and certain exchange platform chains are gradually eating into market share. The issuance of emerging stablecoins is no longer limited to Ethereum. MOVE ecosystem public chains like Aptos and Sui, although starting later, are experiencing significant growth.

It is foreseeable that the competition for stablecoins will become more intense. Established public chains face the dual pressure of maintaining their market while continuing to grow, while new public chains are entering a period of rapid expansion in the market's wild growth. As global stablecoin legislation gradually takes effect, the story of stablecoins is just beginning.