USDC: The Backbone of Onchain Capital Markets
Stablecoins were among the earliest breakout use cases in crypto, evolving from a niche utility into core financial infrastructure. Total stablecoin market capitalization has expanded from under $100 million in 2018 to an all-time high of $315 billion by March 2026. Despite the emergence of over 200 stablecoin tokens, the sector remains concentrated in the two biggest stablecoins including Circle’s USDC.
USDC has accelerated its growth in recent years. In both 2024 and 2025, Artemis data showed that USDC recorded over 70% year-over-year supply growth. Now the largest regulated stablecoin globally, USDC has become the default settlement asset across major ecosystems such as Solana and Base, where it is deeply integrated into decentralized finance and payment infrastructure. This report examines USDC’s expansion across supply, exchanges, decentralized trading, and lending markets.
A breakout growth story
USDC supply increased steadily from $24.2 billion at the start of 2024 to an all-time high of $81 billion by March 2026. Circle’s reserve monthly disclosures show that USDC has consistently maintained highly liquid reserves exceeding 100% of circulating supply in line with regulatory requirements.
According to Artemis, USDC’s year-over-year growth reached 78.77% in 2024 and 76.31% in 2025. From mid-2021 through early 2026, USDC posted an average monthly supply increase of 3.63%. Transaction volume reached $11.9 trillion as of Q4 2025, a 247% boost compared to a year ago, per Circle’s 2025 earnings report.
Exchange liquidity: where capital moves
By the end of February 2026, according to CryptoQuant, USDC balances on major centralized exchanges totaled $12.7 billion. Binance and Coinbase collectively accounted for 81.31% of reserves across tier-one exchanges. Coinbase led exchange reserves from mid-2023 through mid-2024, benefiting from its close association with USDC. However, Binance’s share expanded sharply thereafter, with reserves increasing fourfold from $2 billion in October 2024 to a peak of $8.4 billion in July 2025.
Netflows of USDC on both exchanges became more volatile toward the end of 2024 and throughout 2025, reflecting heightened user activity and larger capital rotations. Coinbase recorded its highest single-day net inflow of $1.03 billion on May 21, 2025, narrowly exceeding Binance’s peak inflow of $1.02 billion earlier that year in February.
The multi-chain power shift
Data from Artemis reveals that Ethereum remains the largest network by absolute USDC supply, yet its market share has been on the decline. Between January 2024 and January 2026, even though USDC supply on Ethereum more than doubled from $20.4 billion to $51.4 billion, the network’s share of total USDC supply fell from 83.5% to a low of 61.2% in October 2025 before recovering to approximately 66%, as capital flowed into faster-growing chains.
Among these, Base emerged as the strongest growth story. USDC supply on Base increased nearly 30 times from $150 million in 2024 to $4.4 billion by December 2025. Solana also experienced rapid expansion, climbing from under $1 billion in 2024 to $10.4 billion by the end of 2025, representing 17.8% of total USDC supply at peak.
In decentralized trading, Birdeye data shows Solana overtook Ethereum in USDC volume despite holding a smaller share of total supply. Across 2024 and 2025, Ethereum recorded approximately $576 billion in USDC DEX volume, nearly half of Solana’s $1.26 trillion over the same period. The discrepancy reflects USDC’s significantly higher turnover rate on Solana, where it functions as the primary settlement asset within a high-velocity trading environment.
Dominating on-chain credit markets
USDC has also expanded its footprint across lending protocols, serving both as collateral and as a borrowable asset.
On Aave V3 (Ethereum), USDC deposits reached $3.9 billion by March 2026, with borrow balances at $2.8 billion. It ranked fourth in deposits and third in borrow volume among assets on the platform. In one year from March 2025 to March 2026, supply APY fluctuated between 1.59% and 6.39%, while borrow rates ranged from 2.77% to 7.62%.
On Morpho, USDC plays an even more dominant role. At peak, USDC borrow volume reached $3.06 billion, accounting for 76.65% of total borrowed value. Supply of the token on Morpho rose sharply in 2025, increasing from $869 million to $3.46 billion by late October.
Within the Solana ecosystem, Kamino has emerged as the leading lending protocol, where USDC surpassed SOL as the most borrowed asset. By the end of February 2026, USDC borrow balances on Kamino reached $433.7 million, further reinforcing its role as core on-chain liquidity infrastructure.
From DeFi to real-world payments
As stablecoins grow towards payments, USDC has become the de-facto payment vehicle across Shopify, Stripe, Mastercard, Visa among others thanks to its deep liquidity and transparency. As of November 30, 2025, Visa reported having processed more than $3.5 billion in annualized settlement volume, mostly in USDC.
| Payment provider | Accepted stablecoins |
|---|---|
| Stripe | USDC (Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base) USDP (Ethereum, Solana) USDG (Ethereum) |
| Shopify | USDC (Base) |
| Solana Pay | USDC (Solana) USDT (Solana) EURC (Solana) |
| Mastercard | USDC USDG FIUSD PYUSD |
| Paypal | USDC USDT PYUSD |
| Visa | USDC (Solana, Ethereum) EURC |
In December 2025, the payment giant launched stablecoin settlement in the U.S. for banks like Cross River Bank and Lead Bank to use USDC on Solana. Circle has further formalized this direction through the launch of the Circle Payments Network (CPN), a framework designed to connect financial institutions and payment providers using USDC as the underlying settlement asset.
Conclusion
USDC’s growth over the past two years reflects more than an increase in supply. Across key verticals, USDC has expanded its multi-chain presence and deepening integration across exchanges, decentralized trading, lending protocols, and payment infrastructure. Its higher growth rates and strong adoption in ecosystems such as Solana and Base signal a shift in how and where stablecoin liquidity is being utilized.
As supply distribution diversifies across chains and use cases, USDC is increasingly functioning as core financial infrastructure rather than simply a trading pair. From high-velocity on-chain markets to institutional settlement and merchant payments, its role continues to expand, reinforcing its position as a programmable digital dollar embedded within the evolving landscape of internet-native capital markets.