Research shows only 7% of stablecoin activity ($350–$550B) represents real-world payments; most volume is trading, collateral, and protocol mechanics.
DeFi & Yields ·
Allium Labs and BCG released analysis showing that while stablecoins handled $62 trillion in volume, the vast bulk does not constitute payments. Using onchain attribution methods, the firms built a public dashboard to isolate genuine transaction activity, finding that only approximately 7 percent of total stablecoin activity—valued between $350 billion and $550 billion—represents real-world payments.
The remaining volume stems from trading activity, derivative collateral movements, protocol mechanics, and intermediary routing. This gap between headline volume and actual payment use reflects how stablecoins function across multiple layers of the crypto ecosystem, from speculation and leverage on exchanges to backend settlement and liquidity provisioning.
The research does not detail which stablecoins dominate payment activity versus trading, nor does it specify geographic or sectoral breakdown of the payments identified. The dashboard provides a foundation for distinguishing payment utility from financial infrastructure volume, though longer-term trends in this 7 percent share remain to be established.