Stablecoins have long been portrayed as the future of payments. A new report from Glassnode and NOWPayments asks whether merchants are actually using them that way.
The report, titled “Stablecoins in Commerce,”, was released on November 10, 2026. It kicks off Glassnode’s new Money in Motion series, and its aim is practical: to show businesses which coins and networks they might consider accepting.
What the data shows
The report places two datasets side by side. One is Glassnode’s picture of how $USDT and $USDC move on-chain. The other is NOWPayments’ record of how merchants are truly being paid in those tokens.
The first headline figure concerns who uses NOWPayments. From January to July 2026, SaaS and e-commerce businesses accounted for 55.54% of the processor’s classified partners, up from 48.26% a year earlier.
That marks a meaningful shift in the customer mix. Software subscriptions and online stores now make up more than half of the partners NOWPayments could classify.
Meanwhile, trading’s share of payments has shrunk.
The network data is more specific. $USDT on TRON made up 54.58% of successful payments in e-commerce marketplaces, while the same token-and-network pairing accounted for just 12.04% in the trading category.
$USDT still leads, but $USDC is gaining
On raw volume, $USDT remains the largest player on NOWPayments, holding a 66.92% share of stablecoin transaction volume on the platform in the first half of 2026.
That dominance coincided with a 14.99% year-over-year drop in volume.
$USDC told a different story, with its transaction count climbing 209.02% year over year over the same period.
That figure tracks the number of transactions, not their dollar value. So $USDC is being used far more often, even though $USDT still moves most of the money.
The research summary presents this as wider adoption of $USDC among retailers and service providers.
NOWPayments had already published data in August and October 2026 pointing to $USDT’s lead in transaction volume on its platform. The new report builds on those earlier releases by adding Glassnode’s on-chain perspective.
Why on-chain data and checkout data belong together
Most stablecoin analysis focuses on the blockchain itself. That reveals supply, transfers and wallet activity, but it struggles to separate a merchant payment from an exchange transfer.
Payment processors see the other side. They know what a transaction was for, but only within their own customer base.
The report pitches its findings as guidance on which coins and networks a business should accept. For a merchant, that choice can affect fees, settlement speed and whether customers can pay at all.
What this means for merchants and the stablecoin market
For businesses, the immediate takeaway is that one size does not fit all. Based on the 54.58% figure, a marketplace selling goods online appears to operate in a $USDT-on-TRON environment, while a trading-focused business sees a far more fragmented mix.
The $USDC trend adds a second consideration. A 209.02% rise in transaction count suggests a growing number of customers want to pay that way.
For stablecoin issuers, the data hints at a split in roles. $USDT keeps the volume crown, but its 14.99% decline suggests that lead is not growing on NOWPayments, while $USDC appears to be winning on frequency.
There are limits worth keeping in mind. These figures come from NOWPayments’ own partners rather than the entire market, and one processor’s customer base can tilt results toward particular regions, networks or industries.
TRON’s strength in e-commerce, set against its much weaker position in trading payments, shows how a chain can dominate one use case while trailing in another.
The Money in Motion series is described as ongoing, so future installments may show whether these trends hold. The key numbers to watch are $USDC’s growth rate, $USDT’s volume share and whether commerce keeps crowding out trading on platforms like NOWPayments.
Source: cryptobriefing.com. Adapted by NBTC.
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