Tech Insight: Who holds stablecoins and how they are used in the $300 billion market

The stablecoin market has grown to over $300 billion as of January 2026, with Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC representing 89% of the supply. The total stablecoin supply increased by 49% year-over-year, with significant ownership concentration among centralized exchanges and whales. In January 2026, $10.3 trillion was transferred using stablecoins, primarily for decentralized exchange activities and arbitrage, with USDC circulating faster than USDT despite lower supply. The market also includes a growing number of non-dollar stablecoins across multiple currencies and regions.

The stablecoin market has exceeded $300 billion. But little is known about the details behind the $300 billion figure. Many people still do not know who holds the coins, how fast they move and for what purpose they are used.

Against this backdrop, blockchain data analytics platform Dune, working with SteakhouseFi, has drawn attention by taking a deep look into the stablecoin world.

The two tracked 15 major stablecoins at the wallet level across Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) networks, Solana and Tron, and shared their findings.

USDT and USDC dominate 89%

As of January 2026, the fully diluted supply of 15 stablecoins is $304 billion. That is up 49% from a year earlier. Tether's USDT has $197 billion and Circle's USDC has $73 billion, together accounting for 89% of the total. By chain, Ethereum has $176 billion (58%), followed by Tron at $84 billion (28%), Solana at $15 billion (5%) and BNB Chain at $13 billion (4%). The distribution by chain has not changed much as the market has nearly doubled.

The remaining stablecoins narrowed the gap with USDT and USDC over 2025.

According to Dune Analytics, Sky Ecosystem (MakerDAO) USDS rose 376% to $6.3 billion. PayPal's PYUSD surged 753% to $2.8 billion. Ripple's RLUSD jumped 1,803% to $1.1 billion from $58 million. USD1, issued by World Liberty Financial linked to the family of President Donald Trump, was not on the list before and rose to a scale of $5.1 billion. There are still no signs the top-two structure is being shaken, but the layer beneath is clearly thickening.

Deepening concentration risk Dune Analytics also tracked wallet-level balances to identify who holds stablecoins. Across EVM networks and Solana, the biggest holders are centralised exchanges, with holdings worth $80 billion. This is read as meaning stablecoins still function as exchange and payment infrastructure. Whale wallets hold $39 billion, while yield protocols hold $9.3 billion, up about twofold from a year earlier.

Ownership concentration varies widely by coin. For USDT, USDC and DAI, the top 10 wallets account for only 23 to 26% of total supply. By contrast, for the other coins, the top 10 wallets hold 60 to 99%. USDS has a scale of $6.9 billion, yet the top 10 wallets hold 90% of it. USD0's top-10 wallet concentration reaches 99%. This is why supply figures alone cannot be used to judge liquidity depth or de-peg risk, where the dollar peg breaks.

In January 2026, total stablecoin transfers amount to $10.3 trillion. That is more than double from a year earlier. What stands out is the gap by chain. Base has supply of only $4.4 billion, but transfer volume of $5.9 trillion, the highest overall. Ethereum follows with $2.4 trillion, then Tron with $682 billion and Solana with $544 billion. By token, USDC totals $8.3 trillion, about five times USDT at $1.7 trillion. USDT has 2.7 times more supply, but USDC is circulating much faster.

Where and how they are used

Transfer classification data show where and why $10 trillion moved. The biggest share is decentralised exchange (DEX) liquidity provision and withdrawal, at $5.9 trillion. Stablecoins serve as the base asset for on-chain market making. Flash loans total $1.3 trillion and are used for automated arbitrage and liquidation loops. Deposits and withdrawals at centralised exchanges, plus internal transfers, total $599 billion, while bridge deposits and withdrawals total $28 billion. Issuer operations — minting, burning and peg rebalancing — come to $106 billion, nearly five times higher than a year earlier. Some 90% of total transfers fall into identifiable activity categories.

The Dune Analytics dataset also tracks more than 200 stablecoins that represent more than 20 currencies.

Euro-denominated stablecoins total 17 tokens with supply of $990 million. Across six continents, 59 tokens already exist on-chain, spanning the Brazilian real, Japanese yen, Nigerian naira and Kenyan shilling. Total supply of non-dollar stablecoins is $1.2 billion, a small amount compared with the overall market.

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