Retail stablecoin transfers smashed records in 2025, with consumer-sized transactions under $250 totaling $5.84 billion in August alone, according to a new CEX.io report. With several months left in the year, retail stablecoin movement has already exceeded last year’s full-year totals.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to preserve a steady value relative to a fiat currency, most commonly the U.S. dollar. Cited Visa and Allium data in the report show these tokens are increasingly used for everyday payments — from cross-border remittances to microtransactions. A survey of more than 2,600 consumers across Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia found most respondents adopted stablecoins to avoid high bank fees and slow transfers; nearly 70% said they used stablecoins more often than last year and more than three-quarters expect usage to continue rising.
The distribution of activity across blockchains has shifted. Tron, long favored for low fees and broad USDT support, saw monthly transaction counts fall by 1.3 million (around 6%). Binance Smart Chain emerged as the top retail venue, capturing nearly 40% of retail stablecoin activity as transaction counts jumped 75% and transfer volume rose 67% year-to-date — gains the report links to Binance’s March USDT delisting for European users and a resurgence of memecoin trading on PancakeSwap.
The Ethereum ecosystem — mainnet plus layer-2s — accounted for over 20% of transfer volume and 31% of transaction counts. Notably, sub-$250 transfers on Ethereum mainnet rose 81% in volume and 184% in count, helped by a decline in average fees of more than 70% over the past year.
Why it matters: rising retail stablecoin use signals wider crypto-native payment adoption in emerging markets and shifting market shares among networks. That trend affects exchanges, wallets and payment providers adapting to increased microtransaction traffic and changing fee dynamics. At the same time, regulators, custodians and businesses will be watching for compliance and consumer-protection issues.
Risk considerations: users and businesses should note regulatory scrutiny of stablecoins, the importance of peg stability and custody practices, and broader market volatility — all of which can affect availability, costs and user experience.
Source: CoinDesk. Read the original coverage for full details.