Economy: Stablecoin payments reach $482 billion in nine months

More payments, almost as many tokens in circulation. Between January and September of this year, stablecoin payments reached $482 billion, up 45% compared to the same period in 2025. At the same time, the total supply of stablecoins increased by just 0.4%, reaching $305 billion at the end of September, according to Allium data cited by the press.

The key points of this article

Allium lists $482 billion in stablecoin payments over the first nine months of 2026.

The number of payments increased by 71% to 1.04 billion, while their average amount decreased.

September marked a monthly record, with $72 billion in payments.

The supply of stablecoins changed little over the period, at $305 billion at the end of September.

More and smaller stablecoin payments

The number of transactions recorded by Allium is growing faster than their total value. The average payment amount increased from approximately $544 to $462 in one year. This development indicates that the increase in volumes is due to the multiplication of operations, even though each one mobilizes less money on average.

Perimeter matters. Allium distinguishes flows that it classifies as payments from all transfers recorded on blockchains. The first may correspond to payments between companies, salary payments or remittances abroad.

Gross volumes also include movements such as transfers between wallets on the same platform. According to figures reported by CoinDesk, payments identified by Allium represent approximately 0.5% of these gross volumes over the period.

Why payments can progress without new issuance

Outstanding measures the quantity of stablecoins in circulation on a given date. The volume of payments adds up the amounts transferred over a period. A company can, for example, receive stablecoins from a customer and use these same tokens to pay a supplier. Both regulations increase the volume of payments without changing the outstanding amount.

This distinction also helps in reading Circle numbers. The USDC issuer reported $73.9 billion in circulation at the end of September, unchanged from a year ago. In the third quarter, the volume of USDC transactions on blockchains increased by 49%, to $13.9 trillion. This figure covers a broader set of transfers than the payments recorded by Allium.