Stablecoins are moving beyond cryptocurrency trading desks to become real-world payments, but the convenience comes at a cost.
New data from New York-based blockchain analytics firm Artemis shows rapid growth in stablecoin payments across industries, even though fees often match or exceed those of traditional finance.
Summary
- Artemis reports $136 billion in stable payments from 33 companies between January 2023 and August 2025, with B2B transactions reaching $76 billion annually.
- Tether’s USDT controls 85% of the stablecoin market, primarily on the Tron blockchain, followed by USDC.
- Stablecoin payments are subject to high fees, especially on exchanges, and remain low compared to traditional financial systems, with blockchain congestion further increasing costs.
Artemis surveyed 22 stablecoin payment companies and supplemented estimates from 11 others, attributing $136 billion in stablecoin transactions between January 2023 and August 2025, with an annualized execution rate of $122 billion. In terms of activity:
- B2B payments lead the pack ($76 billion annualized)
- Peer-to-peer ($19 billion)
- Linked to the card ($18 billion)
- B2C ($3.3 billion)
- Pre-financing ($3.6 billion).
Tether’s USDT dominates with 85% of volume, followed by Circle’s USDC, primarily on Tron, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon.
Evolution of the stablecoin
Artemis co-founder Anthony Yim and data scientist Andrew Van Aken note that stablecoins have evolved from trading tools to a mainstream payment method. Large companies like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe integrate them.
The dataset is billed as the most comprehensive to date, covering 33 companies and representing the majority of emerging stablecoin payment volume.
But growth has a downside: While peer-to-peer transfers on efficient blockchains like Solana can cost fractions of a cent, exchange and conversion fees, including trading fees, network transfers, and exchange spreads, can quickly erode this advantage.
Shark Tank judge Kevin O’Leary recently highlighted X’s problem: Ethereum network congestion has pushed fees past $1,000 for small transactions, highlighting ongoing cost issues.
“It’s like paying a thousand-dollar toll to drive on a single-lane highway,” he said. “This proves what I’ve been saying for years: When real traffic hits the system, it cracks under the pressure.”
O’Leary added:
“For over a decade we’ve been talking about going blockchain, and now that real-world adoption is finally happening, the cracks are showing. Innovation isn’t just about hype or speculation, it’s about building infrastructure that can actually handle scale.”
Stablecoin Regulations, Conflicts of Interest
The report comes months after President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act, which established a federal framework for stablecoin issuers. Critics say it did little to address consumer protections or conflicts of interest.
For example, Trump and his family control about 60% of World Liberty Financial, a crypto company that launched its own stablecoin, $1. The company gained momentum recently when a $2 billion investment fund in the United Arab Emirates used $1 to acquire a stake in Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
This week, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served prison time after failing to prevent criminal money transfer activity on his platform.
As with other stablecoins, 1 USD is linked to fixed assets, such as the US dollar, allowing issuers to generate profits by collecting interest on Treasury bills and other reserves backing the token.
Nonetheless, Artemis’ findings illustrate that stablecoin payments are increasing across commercial and consumer channels, although they remain low compared to traditional systems.
