Stablecoin Supply Barely Grows While Stablecoin Payments Jump 45%: Allium's Q3 Report

Stablecoin Supply Barely Grows While Stablecoin Payments Jump 45%: Allium's Q3 Report

The stablecoin market is changing its character. The number of coins in circulation has barely grown, but they are being used for payments far more often.

That is the takeaway from Allium's third-quarter report, which CoinDesk covered on November 8.

What the report showed

Over the first nine months of 2026, stablecoin supply grew just 0.4%, to $305 billion. Payment volume, meanwhile, rose 45% to reach $482 billion.

The number of payment transactions grew 71%, to 1.04 billion. September was a record month, with $72 billion in payments.

Circle and USDC

Circle Payments Network reached an annualized run rate of $41.3 billion at the end of September. By October 30, it had exceeded $58 billion.

USDC on-chain volume grew 49%, to $13.9 trillion. From what we see, rising turnover with almost unchanged supply means the coins are working rather than sitting idle.

Money has started moving faster

According to Standard Chartered, stablecoin velocity has doubled to roughly 30 turns a month. The same coin now passes through more settlements.

In our view, this is the report's main conclusion. Stablecoins are no longer just a "parking spot" between trades and are turning into payment rails.

AI agent payments

A separate line in the report covers AI agent payments. In the third quarter there were 68.3 million of them, twice as many as the quarter before.

What this means for a trader

• demand for stablecoins depends more and more on payments, not just on trading
• rising turnover with stable supply means coins move between addresses and venues more often
• flows between exchanges and payment services can temporarily shift USDT and USDC rates on individual venues

We believe this is more of a plus for an arbitrageur. The more real turnover there is, the deeper stablecoin liquidity on exchanges becomes.

Our tools

When stablecoins move actively between exchanges and payment services, their rates on different venues diverge, and it is easier to see this across all exchanges at once. Our arbitrage screener keeps dozens of venues in one window, refreshes quotes every second and shows each gap together with the volume actually behind it. The spread calculator helps you check what survives fees, network costs and slippage at your size. The bot is fully manual. It never connects to your exchange API keys.

To test the tools on a live market, ArbitrageScanner offers one day of free access to the whole ecosystem.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. How many stablecoins are in circulation in 2026?

According to Allium's report, supply grew 0.4% over the first nine months of 2026, to $305 billion.

2. What is the volume of stablecoin payments?

According to Allium's report, payment volume grew 45% to reach $482 billion. September was the record month, at $72 billion.

3. What is stablecoin velocity?

It is the number of times a single coin turns over in a period. According to Standard Chartered, it has doubled to roughly 30 turns a month.

4. How many stablecoin payments did AI agents make?

68.3 million in the third quarter of 2026, twice as many as the quarter before.

Conclusion

Allium's report shows a shift: stablecoin supply barely grew over nine months, while payments rose 45% and transactions 71%. Circle's network and USDC on-chain turnover are growing even faster.

Stablecoins increasingly work as payment infrastructure. For the market this means livelier liquidity, and for an arbitrageur it means more coins moving between venues.

IMPORTANT! We are software developers. We do not give recommendations or promises of earnings and we do not advise you to invest your money anywhere. Our software is fully manual, all your money stays under your own control. We show examples of how our clients have earned on arbitrage in the past, but we do not advise repeating those actions one to one. Your earnings depend solely on your own actions and on market factors.