Recent blockchain analytics indicate a measurable shift in stablecoin settlement activity, with Circle’s USDC recording higher February transfer volume than Tether’s USDT. Data from Allium showed total stablecoin transfer volume reaching about $1.8 trillion during the month.
USDC accounted for approximately 70% of that activity, moving about $1.26 trillion in value. USDT, despite its larger circulating supply and market footprint, processed about $514 billion over the same period.
Transfer Volume Diverges From Market Cap
The figures mark a notable departure from the usual market-cap narrative. USDT remains the larger stablecoin by circulating supply, but USDC led in reported transfer throughput during February.
CIRCLE JUST MINTED $250M $USDC
Circle just minted another $250M USDC on Solana. They’ve minted over $3 BILLION in just this first week of March.
If Circle continue at this pace, they’re on track to mint over $12 Billion USDC by the end of the month. pic.twitter.com/aoQKi6zbFE
— Arkham (@arkham) March 7, 2026
That distinction matters because transfer volume measures movement, not reserves. A smaller stablecoin can show higher activity if it is used heavily for exchange liquidity, institutional settlement, treasury movement or cross-chain routing.
The shift also coincided with new USDC issuance. Arkham reported that Circle minted more than $3 billion in USDC during the first week of March, including a $250 million mint on Solana.
Those supply adjustments suggest issuers and large participants were aligning liquidity with network capacity, trading demand and settlement efficiency. Solana’s low-cost environment has become especially relevant for high-frequency stablecoin routing.
Volume Does Not Prove Durable Dominance
USDC’s February lead should not be read as proof of a permanent market-structure shift. Transfer volume can rise quickly due to concentrated operational flows, including market-maker activity, bridging cycles, treasury rebalancing or internal platform transfers.
Allium has separately warned that raw stablecoin volume is an incomplete metric without attribution. The firm argues that stablecoin analysis increasingly needs classification by counterparty type, use case, geography and behavior.
Circle’s own corporate usage also illustrates how stablecoin flows can reflect treasury operations. CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company used USDC to settle more than $68 million across multiple internal entities in under 30 minutes, replacing settlement windows that traditional bank wires can take one to three business days to complete.
That example supports the operational case for stablecoins, but it also reinforces the need for caution. A transfer spike can indicate real settlement utility, but it does not automatically show retail adoption or long-term capital migration.
For now, the confirmed signal is that USDC led February transfer volume while USDT retained the larger market footprint. The next useful data will be issuer-level supply trends, chain-level routing, wallet attribution and whether USDC’s volume advantage persists beyond a single reporting window.