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Stablecoins processed $891 billion in adjusted transfer volume during the third quarter of 2026, more than four times the $216 billion recorded in Q1 2023, according to a report commissioned by Coinbase and released on or around October 20, Cointelegraph reported. That works out to more than $400 million moving per hour.
The findings, produced with The Block Research and titled “The Always-On Dollar” per Cryptobriefing, point to banks and businesses adopting stablecoins for settlement rather than for trading. Supply, by contrast, barely changed: Coinbase characterized stablecoin market capitalization as largely unchanged over the past year.
Also read: Visa survey: US stablecoin use could rise to 56% with bank-like cover
Key facts
- Q3 2026 adjusted stablecoin transfer volume reached $891 billion, versus $216 billion in Q1 2023, a compound annual growth rate of roughly 50% per Cryptobriefing.
- 73% of screened stablecoin volume occurred outside US banking hours, including nights, weekends and holidays.
- Seven of the 10 largest US banks have tested stablecoins or tokenized deposits for settlement.
- 30% of mid-market companies doing cross-border business are using or piloting stablecoins, up from 10% in 2024, and business-to-business payment volume rose 36% year over year.
- Cryptobriefing reported that stablecoin supply grew just 0.4% year-to-date through Q3 2026 to $305 billion.
Flat supply, rising usage
The report counted 293 million blockchain addresses holding stablecoins, a figure it compared with the combined number of cards issued by American Express and Discover. Its authors cautioned that addresses do not necessarily correspond to individual users.
On cost, the Coinbase and The Block work says sending $200 in USDC on the Base network costs about 86% less than traditional banking channels, per Cryptobriefing. The two outlets differ on supply: DefiLlama data cited by Cointelegraph put market capitalization at $301.42 billion on Tuesday, down about 0.6% from $303.14 billion on Oct. 20, 2025, while Cryptobriefing cites the $305 billion year-to-date figure from the report itself.
Also read: Citi Taps Coinbase to Convert Corporate Stablecoin Payments Into Fiat
The reports also disagree in framing on one growth projection. Coinbase and The Block estimate quarterly adjusted volume could reach approximately $1.5 trillion by the end of 2027 if current trends hold, and they estimate that shifting 80% of international transactions onto stablecoin networks could add $155 billion to global GDP annually while freeing roughly $3 trillion in liquidity banks hold to support cross-border payments. Cryptobriefing noted those projections come from a company with a clear interest in stablecoin adoption and that the economists’ scenarios are hypothetical rather than observed gains; researchers also acknowledged that wider adoption could reduce bank lending.
Bank demand, and a bank counterweight
Separately, a National Cryptocurrency Association survey released Monday found 42% of US adults, about 112 million people, would be more likely to open an account with a bank offering crypto services, while 18% would like to buy or use stablecoins through their primary bank. The survey also found 64% said their bank, credit union or financial advisor had never raised cryptocurrency, and 43% did not know whether their bank offered crypto services.
Banks may hold leverage over how fast this grows. A Bank for International Settlements working paper published Oct. 18, covered by Decrypt, used weekly US data from January 2019 through June 2025 and found that a one-basis-point rise in deposit rates cut the 10-week stablecoin market cap growth rate from about 15% to roughly 12% under the baseline estimate, or about 6% under a second method. The effect was stronger for Circle’s USDC than for Tether’s USDT, which the authors tied to USDC’s closer links to US users. Decrypt noted the paper reflects the authors’ views, not necessarily the BIS’s.
Why it matters
Stablecoin activity is increasingly tied to settlement and cross-border business payments rather than to speculative trading, which is why volume can climb while total supply stays flat. That puts the technology in direct contact with bank deposit businesses: if customers route payments through dollar tokens, banks face both fee pressure and the prospect of losing deposits, which the BIS authors describe as giving lenders some influence over adoption through deposit pricing.
Regulators are also shaping the terms. Decrypt reported that banks have lobbied to keep stablecoin yield off the table, a fight that loomed over the Clarity Act’s failed Senate vote, while the OCC, FDIC and Treasury write rules to implement the GENIUS Act, which takes effect in January. Standard Chartered pushed its forecast for a $2 trillion stablecoin market out from 2028 to 2030, citing slower supply growth, while Citi has projected $1.9 trillion by 2030 in its base case.
What to watch
The GENIUS Act’s January effective date and the implementing rules from the OCC, FDIC and Treasury are the next concrete checkpoints, along with whether issuers are permitted to pay holders yield. Deposit-rate moves and the next quarterly transfer-volume figures will show whether the volume growth continues without a matching rise in supply.
Figures in this article describing future volume and macro gains are projections, not outcomes. This is not financial advice, and crypto and stablecoin markets are volatile and uncertain.
Reported by cointelegraph.com.
Sources: Cointelegraph, Cryptobriefing, Decrypt