Circle’s $USDC had its second most successful year in 2025, comparable only to the expansion during the 2021 bull market. This time, the stablecoin grew into a more mature environment, with more established liquidity hubs.
Circle’s $USDC stablecoin posted robust growth in 2025, comparable only to the 2021 bull market. This time, $USDC started from a higher supply baseline, reaching a record of over 76B tokens in circulation on all networks.
$USDC on Ethereum was the growth leader, with smaller gains on other chains and stablecoins pegged to other currencies. Circle’s stablecoin also benefits from its partnership with Coinbase, as more users are being onboarded to stablecoins as a payment tool.
In 2025, the $USDC supply on Ethereum increased by 6.73%, or around $20B, from $30.9B up to $51.7B. In 2021, the supply expanded by over 819%, but only after starting from a low baseline of $4.1B.
$USDC also saw peak fees in 2025, after becoming one of the main liquidity tokens. In the summer of 2025, $USDC generated over $49M in weekly fees, according to TokenMarket data, bringing the total to $5.1B over the past three years.
$USDC expands activity and user base on Ethereum
The extra supply of $USDC was not just a tool for whales or professional traders. $USDC holders on Ethereum became more active in 2025, doubling their activity in the course of a year.
At the beginning of 2025, just 22% of $USDC holders on Ethereum were active on a monthly basis. Activity rose to 44% by the end of the year, while asset senders expanded from 2.1M at the start of 2025 to around 4M by the end of the year.
The shift in $USDC usage was caused by multiple factors, including the record-low fees on Ethereum. $USDC became more widely adopted as more apps and platforms preferred the regulated token over $USDT.
A total of 43.1M users hold $USDC, an all-time record on all networks based on active wallets. This has led to robust growth for transfers in 2025, extending the trend into Q1 2026. Individual identified holders are around 6.28M, keeping the growth trend into the new year. In March, the $USDC transaction volume expanded by another 160%, based on Artemis data, surpassing the $USDT growth of 140%.
Why does $USDC defy the market gravity?
The growth of $USDC does not follow the overall contraction of the crypto market. Currently, around $16B in $USDC are held in contracts, bringing liquidity to trading pairs and lending.
$USDC has also become the key asset on Hyperliquid and Polymarket, offsetting the lower use for trading on centralized and decentralized exchanges.
Circle’s growth in 2025 also relied on hopes of the Clarity Act boosting the position of stablecoins. Despite this, Circle’s CRCL shares took a hit, sinking to $91.20, after the Clarity Act excluded the usage of stablecoins as an alternative to a savings account with yield.
