Retail stablecoin use surges 10x in 2025
Orbital, a global payment orchestration platform across stablecoins and traditional payment rails, today released its Q4 Stablecoin Retail Payments Index Snapshot. With data sourced from Artemis, the Index reveals that stablecoin use for smaller, retail-sized transactions under $10,000, has increased more than tenfold across 2025.
The Index tracks both the pace and quality of adoption across retail stablecoin payments, offering one of the most comprehensive snapshots of the sector’s evolution. The Q4 snapshot also includes a new section exploring exchange stablecoin flows, which reinforces the emerging specialisation of stablecoins.
Key findings include:
Use cases emerge for specific stablecoins
73% of retail-sized transactions, under $10,000, are made using USDT. The number of daily active users doubled in 2025, from 1.3m to 2.6m. These users are not only holding USDT, they are actively using it for transactions. USDC, meanwhile, has a lower share of transactions, but dominates high-value transactions, suggesting it has a more institutional role.
Supply growth slows, while transactions increase
Stablecoin supply growth slowed to just 1.3% in December. Transaction growth across 2025 was up over 105%, more than double the growth of supply (48%). Each dollar of supply supported more payments activity, signalling a move towards utility over speculation.
Exchange use creates market segmentation
New analysis of payment origination data suggests that approximately two-thirds of consumer-to-merchant stablecoin payments originate from exchange-linked accounts, rather than self-hosted wallets. As a result, exchange withdrawal routes and default network options can materially shape the technical requirements for merchant acceptance.
Observed exchange infrastructure strategies now suggest three distinct categories affecting payment liquidity: Binance (BSC), HTX (Tron) and Coinbase (Base) are frequently observed to prioritise their proprietary Layer-2s/sidechains; Bybit, Bitget, and Gate.io are observed supporting a broader spectrum of chains with comparatively neutral routing across multiple networks; OKX is observed offering a more limited set of rival exchange-affiliated chains (BSC/Base), encouraging users onto neutral rails like Tron or Ethereum.
This result points to market segmentation based on where exchanges are primarily used. A clear divide exists in asset and network preference based on the exchange’s primary geography. In emerging markets, where Binance, OKX, and HTX are widely used, users tend to gravitate toward USDT on low-cost, high-velocity rails like Tron and BSC. In developed markets, where Coinbase and Crypto.com are widely used, users show a stronger preference for USDC and “institutional-grade” networks such as Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Base.
A shifting blockchain landscape
2025 saw big changes in the blockchains used. Aptos increased its share to 22% of the market by Q4, while Binance’s BNB Smart Chain (BSC) remained the largest network by share (35%) with high volatility followed by stabilisation. Plasma, however, saw a 66% drop in activity post-launch.
Traditional L2 chains Arbitrum, Polygon and Optimism saw their combined market share shrink from around 20% to closer to 10% over 2025, reflecting a relative shift in network mix within the Index coverage set. These shifts may be influenced by a range of factors, including changes in fee conditions and broader ecosystem activity.
Stablecoins as a parallel currency
Analysis of retail premiums can help highlight markets where stablecoins serve as critical economic rails, rather than standard settlement tools. Persistently elevated premiums may indicate stablecoin use as a de facto parallel currency for some users.
Algeria (97%), Bolivia (71%), and Venezuela (41%) remained extreme outliers in this metric throughout Q4. These sustained premiums are consistent with macro conditions such as capital controls and sharp currency depreciation, which can increase reliance on USD-linked instruments like stablecoins for payments, effectively creating a parallel financial channel.
