USDT Supply Exceeds $150 Billion, Outperforming Major Players like Visa and PayPal in the Stablecoin Market
Tether USD (USDT) has exceeded a $150 billion circulating supply, coinciding with stablecoins achieving an average of over $521 billion in weekly transfer volumes throughout 2025.
The metrics highlighted by the top stablecoin far overshadow the collective weekly volumes of Visa and PayPal, which stood at approximately $319 billion and $32 billion, respectively.
Tether characterized this achievement as a result of more than ten years of development since its inception in 2014, crediting its growth to the worldwide demand for USDT from over 400 million users.
As of May 12, USDT accounts for 63% of the entire stablecoin market, totaling nearly $238 billion.
Increased Transaction Volumes
Data from Artemis reflects the rising prominence of stablecoins in transactional finance. In the week of January 20, stablecoins facilitated around $654.9 billion in transactions, significantly outpacing the combined volume of Visa and PayPal, which was $351.2 billion, by over $303.7 billion.
Other notable weeks with substantial volume differences included January 13 ($282.1 billion), January 6 ($278.9 billion), January 27 ($266.3 billion), and February 3 ($242.5 billion), highlighting a consistent lead at the beginning of the year.
Throughout 2025, stablecoins averaged $521.3 billion in weekly transactions, exceeding Visa’s volume by 63% and outpacing PayPal by over 1,500%.
This growth has been fueled by traditional financial institutions moving into the stablecoin space, anticipating a more favorable regulatory atmosphere under Donald Trump’s administration.
Market Adaptation
This robust performance follows stablecoins achieving a transfer volume of $24.6 trillion last year, outpacing the combined volumes of Visa and Mastercard by 7.7%.
Nonetheless, major players in the traditional payments sector are rapidly adapting to this evolving landscape and contributing to these changes.
In October 2024, Visa introduced a platform designed to facilitate the tokenization of fiat currencies for banks, which is expected to create more stablecoins. Additionally, the payment giant recently rolled out stablecoin-based cards in Latin America.
Similarly, Mastercard informed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that 30% of its transactions in 2024 involved tokenization. Like Visa, Mastercard also unveiled a card enabling users to make payments using stablecoins.
PayPal introduced its stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), in August 2023. Although PYUSD’s circulating supply exceeded $1 billion by August 2024, its market capitalization gradually decreased to below $450 million by December of the same year.
Recently, however, the adoption of PYUSD has surged, increasing by 95% since February, reaching nearly $930 million by May 12.
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