Binance has seen elevated utilization of USDC, as merchants now favor the regulated stablecoin. The shift in stablecoin utilization additionally underscored the rise of Base and Solana, the place USDC is actively minted.
Binance turned the biggest marketplace for USDC, reaching weekly volumes of over $24B in January. The change drew in over 49% of centralized trades for USDC. After the newest surge in USDC buying and selling, Binance returned to its exercise ranges from 2022. Binance itself posted peak buying and selling exercise following a document bull market in 2024 and is finishing its shift from different stablecoins, together with BUSD and FDUSD.
USDC exercise is rising on Binance
Binance carries 9 main USDC pairs, of which the USDC/USDT commerce is essentially the most energetic, reaching over $1B in 24 hours. The necessity to swap USDT could also be the primary supply of exercise, as merchants scramble to maneuver their liquidity. USDT stays broadly used, however centralized merchants goal to shift to USDC, particularly to entry crypto companies for the Euro space.
After Binance posted its newest proof of reserves report, USDC was the one stablecoin with the most important extra reserves. Binance holds 4.34B USDC, with person deposits sitting at 3.073B. The change retains a 141% extra ratio on person reserves, with the potential to spice up buying and selling and supply liquidity.
Along with Binance, Bybit can be drawing in a big a part of the USDC buying and selling exercise. Based on a latest Kaiko report, Bybit carries round 30% of the USDC market. The influx of meme tokens additionally raised the demand for liquidity, along with supplying newly launched rising exchanges.
The USDC stablecoin was considered with some skepticism because of the capability to freeze cash and blacklist addresses. Nevertheless, to this point Circle has locked simply 266 addresses, with 91M USDC frozen. Two of the addresses held 60% of the frozen cash, as a lot of the market stays hassle-free. Stablecoin utilization is watched extra carefully, as exchanges goal to trace the origin of funds and tie them to identified self-custodial wallets.
Stablecoin swaps increase crypto exercise in 2025
Binance’s affect on the USDC market expanded quickly, with inflows going vertical. The growth adopted an influx of USDT to exchanges, one other signal of the continued swap of tokens.
The availability of USDC expanded at the start of 2025, rising to over 56B tokens as extra belongings have been minted on Base and Solana. USDC added 10.2B to its provide up to now 30 days, whereas USDT solely minted 4.6B up to now month.
USDC grows with common mints of 250M tokens on the Solana community, with the tokens flowing into DEXs. Solana now carries over $12B in stablecoin liquidity. The tempo of USDC minting accelerated up to now few days, with an extra 580M tokens minted on the Circle treasury in a sequence of high-value transactions.
💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 106,567,936 #USDC (106,577,208 USD) minted at USDC Treasuryhttps://t.co/Og3PdBITiJ
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 12, 2025
The USDC treasury claims to mint new tokens based mostly on deposits, because the stablecoin fulfills the regulation of getting bank-based fiat reserves.
The shift in stablecoin utilization is occurring as extra USDT-based pairs are dropped by exchanges and brokerages. USDT buying and selling is going through limitations within the Euro space, based mostly on the enforcement of MiCA laws from the top of January. Pairs in opposition to USDT reached 77% of complete listings in 2023 however fell to beneath 63% in 2024. Delistings in 2025 continued, and at the moment, simply 50% of crypto buying and selling pairs are quoted in USDT.
New pair listings for USDT slowed down in 2025, as some merchants deserted the asset and switched to USDC. | Supply: Kaiko Analysis
USDC’s progress in 2025 is because of the influx of latest buying and selling pairs, changing those in opposition to USDT. After peaking in 2023, USDT slowed its progress. For now, the main stablecoin nonetheless has the most important share of newly listed pairs, partially because of its presence on the TRON chain. Nevertheless, USDC-quoted pairs are increasing, taking as much as 20% of all new pairs.
The stablecoin market is shifting towards tighter laws, limiting listings in opposition to artificial stablecoins. The affect of USDC might proceed to develop together with the availability, as predictions for the top of 2025 count on $400B in stablecoin provide.
Stablecoins preserve altering the crypto market, as the general provide expanded to 224B tokens. Stablecoins increase leveraged buying and selling, altcoin markets, and DeFi, however the newest inflows present their fundamental function is on centralized exchanges.
