Stablecoins are moving more money while crypto’s cash pile gets smaller
Stablecoin adjusted transaction volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June, up sharply from May and a year earlier, but circulating supply fell by $7.7 billion to about $312 billion. That means stablecoins are turning over faster inside a smaller liquidity pool, which points more to a liquidity warning than a pure inflow signal. In Q2, total supply contracted for the first time since 2023, while adjusted volume and transaction counts both fell. Yield-bearing stablecoins declined most, while treasury-backed products grew. USDC handled most of June’s volume despite a smaller supply than USDT, showing higher turnover. Liquidity also shifted across chains: Ethereum L2s lost share, while Tron, HyperEVM, and Base gained. The shrinking float matters because stablecoins are crypto’s main deployable dollars for trading, collateral, and DeFi. At the same time, payment and treasury use cases keep expanding, even as market demand and other sources of crypto liquidity weaken.
