Report: 172 Million Stablecoin Holders; Major Currencies Capture Nearly 90% of DEX and CEX Inflows

The stablecoin market is not just about the figure “supply exceeding $300 billion,” as everyone cites. There are deeper questions that need answers: Who holds these assets? How concentrated are the holdings? Which blockchain is central to activity? And most importantly: what do stablecoins actually do within the digital ecosystem?

2026 Stablecoin Market Overview: Supply Reaches $304 Trillion, Up 49%

Latest data from Dune combined with Steakhouse Financial reveals the real picture of the stablecoin market as of January 2026. The total supply of the top 15 stablecoins on EVM blockchains, Solana, and Tron stands at $304 trillion, an impressive 49% increase compared to 2025.

Tether’s USDT remains the dominant leader with a value of $197 billion, followed by Circle’s USDC at $73 billion. Together, they hold 89% of the market share across each blockchain.

The distribution of stablecoins is uneven. Ethereum is the main hub with $176 billion (58% of total), followed by Tron at $84 billion (28%). Solana accounts for 5%, and BNB Chain 4%. However, this distribution has hardly changed since last year, despite total supply nearly doubling.

USDT and USDC Dominate 89% Market: Major Holders and Distribution

An interesting point is that 2025 was a “challengers’ year,” with the altcoin segment of the stablecoin market expanding remarkably.

Sky Ecosystem’s USDS grew 376% to $6.3 billion; PayPal’s PYUSD surged 753% to $2.8 billion; Ripple’s RLUSD increased 1803% from $58 million to $1.1 billion; and USD1 jumped from zero to $5.1 billion.

However, not all grew successfully. USD0 declined 66%, while Ethena’s USDe, despite peaking in October with nearly tripling, ended the year up only 23%. Still, small stablecoin groups show clear growth trends.

High Concentration: 172 Million Addresses, Top 10 Wallets Control Certain Stablecoins

Dune data tracking wallet balances and labels shows a more complete picture.

As of February 2026, there are 172 million unique addresses holding at least one type of stablecoin. USDT alone is held by 136 million addresses; USDC by 36 million; DAI by 4.7 million.

The distribution among these three main stablecoins is broad. The top 10 wallets hold only 23-26% of the supply, with a Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) below 0.03, indicating a fairly dispersed distribution.

In contrast, other stablecoins show much higher concentration. The top 10 wallets hold 60-99% of circulating supply. USDS, with $6.9 billion in circulation, has 90% concentrated in 10 wallets (HHI 0.48). USDF has 99% in the top 10 (HHI 0.54). USD0 is the most extreme, with 99% in the top 10 wallets (HHI 0.84), meaning one or two wallets may control most of the activity.

This doesn’t necessarily mean these coins are problematic. Some are new, some are strategic holdings by institutions. But high concentration increases risks related to price manipulation, liquidity depth, and whether supply reflects natural demand or just large players’ interests.

Inflows to DEX and CEX: 90% of Transfers Reflect Actual Role

On EVM and Solana, CEXs dominate with holdings worth $80 billion, up from $58 billion last year. Stablecoins continue to serve as infrastructure for trading and settlement on exchanges.

Whale wallets hold $39 billion, while protocol yield-bearing assets nearly doubled from $4.7 billion to $9.3 billion, reflecting growth in on-chain yield strategies.

Addresses of issuers (minting and burning contracts) increased from $2.2 billion to $10.2 billion, a 4.6x rise, directly tied to new supply entering the market.

Tagging quality is remarkable: only 23% of supply is in addresses that can’t be identified. The 77% identification rate is very high for blockchain data and crucial for understanding true risk sources of stablecoins.

Transfer Volume $10.3 Trillion: Base Leads Despite Smallest Supply

In January 2026, transfer volume of stablecoins on EVM, Solana, and Tron hit $10.3 trillion, more than double January 2025.

Transaction distribution varies. Base, with only $4.4 billion in supply, leads with $5.9 trillion in transactions. Ethereum’s transaction volume is $2.4 trillion; Tron $682 billion; Solana $544 billion; BNB Chain $406 billion.

USDC’s transaction volume is $8.3 trillion, about five times USDT’s $1.7 trillion, despite supply being only 2.7 times larger. This indicates USDC transfers are faster and more frequent.

Trade volumes: DAI at $138 billion, USDS at $92 billion, USD1 at $43 billion. These figures are neutral and objective, not filtered by assumptions about “real” economic activity. They may include arbitrage, bot traffic, internal transfers, or automated behaviors.

Actual Utility: What Do Stablecoins Really Do in the Blockchain?

Transfer data isn’t just categorized as “trading volume” but also as on-chain activities.

Market infrastructure (DEX and liquidity): Supply and withdrawal on DEXs total $5.9 trillion, the largest use case, reflecting stablecoins’ role as foundational assets for on-chain markets. DEX swaps amount to $376 billion, mainly serving as trading collateral and liquidity infrastructure.

Leverage and capital efficiency: Short-term lending (borrowing and repayment) totals $1.3 trillion, indicating automated trading cycles and position closures. Typical activities include supply, borrow, repay, and withdraw, totaling $137 billion.

Connectivity channels (CEX and bridges): CEX activity includes deposits ($2.24 trillion), withdrawals ($2.24 trillion), and internal transfers ($1.51 trillion), totaling $5.99 trillion. Bridge transfers amount to $28 billion.

Issuance layer: Issuer activities—minting ($280 billion), burning ($200 billion), rebalancing from reference removal ($230 billion), and others—total $1.06 trillion, nearly five times January 2025’s $420 billion.

Yield contracts: Derivative activities amount to $2.7 billion, a small but significant part, closely linked to structured strategies and on-chain asset management.

Overall, 90% of transfer volume flows through identifiable activity categories, providing insight into the flow of stablecoins across blockchain layers.

Turnover Rates: Different Worlds for the Same Coins

Daily turnover rate (transfer volume divided by supply) is perhaps the most overlooked metric for stablecoins. It reflects activity levels as a medium of exchange, not just holdings.

USDC and USDT remain prominent, but their usage patterns differ. USDC on Layer 2 and Solana has the fastest turnover. On Base, USDC’s daily turnover is 14x, mainly driven by high-frequency trading in DeFi on Solana and Polygon, with about 1x on Polygon and 0.9x on Ethereum.

USDT on BNB and Tron shows different speeds. On BNB Chain, the daily turnover is 1.4x, indicating active trading; on Tron, only 0.3x, consistent with its role as a primary cross-border payment channel. On Ethereum, USDT’s daily turnover is just 0.2x, with most of the $100 billion supply inactive.

USDe and USDS are designed for low turnover. USDe on Ethereum has an average daily turnover of 0.09x; USDS about 0.5x. Both are meant to be yield-bearing stablecoins. USDe is locked in sUSDe to capture Ethena’s delta-neutral yield; USDS is deposited in Sky Savings Rate for returns. Low turnover isn’t a drawback but an advantage: these assets are designed to accumulate yield, not for frequent trading.

PYUSD on Solana has a turnover of 0.6x, over four times faster than on Ethereum (0.1x). The same token serves very different roles across ecosystems; blockchain is as important as the token itself.

Beyond the Dollar: Local Stablecoins as Emerging Fields

This analysis focuses on 15 dollar-pegged stablecoins, but the full dataset covers over 200 stablecoins representing more than 20 currencies.

Euro-pegged stablecoins total 17 tokens with a combined supply of $990 million; Brazilian real at $141 million; Japanese yen at $13 million; plus geographically specific tokens from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Turkey, Singapore.

Non-dollar stablecoins currently total $1.2 billion in supply, a small part of the vast market. Still, 59 tokens are spread across six continents, about 30% of all tokens in the dataset. Local currency-based stablecoin infrastructure is being built on chains, and tracking data is available.

The stablecoin market is at a turning point. While USDT and USDC remain dominant, underlying figures reveal diverse usage, varying concentration levels, and specific roles across blockchains. Deep understanding of stablecoin usage is essential for investors, protocols, and policymakers to grasp true risks and opportunities in this rapidly evolving ecosystem.