Today the choice is more layered. Some APIs give you raw market data across hundreds of exchanges. Others focus on indexed wallet and portfolio data. A few are built around node-level RPC. And the newer wave ships MCP servers for AI agents, so LLM-powered apps can pull crypto data without custom glue.

We spend a lot of time on the data side of crypto. So we sat down and worked through the providers worth knowing about in 2026. Five made the cut. Each does something different. The goal here isn’t to rank them head-to-head. It’s to map what each is good at so you can pick based on your actual workload.

What Crypto Data APIs Usually Cover

The category has stretched a lot in the last few years. A modern crypto data API typically handles one or more of these:

• Market data: prices, OHLCV, order books, exchange-specific tickers
• Wallet and portfolio data: balances, transactions, DeFi positions across chains
• On-chain analytics: address activity, exchange flows, derived indicators
• Node-level access: JSON-RPC for reads, writes, contract calls, event subscriptions
• Research and signals: news feeds, token unlocks, fundraising data
• AI integration: MCP servers and structured tools for LLM agents

Most production stacks combine two or three. Picking well means knowing what each provider does best.

How We Picked These Five

We looked at production traction, documentation quality, pricing transparency, and how well each provider handles the AI-agent use case. Each of the five below occupies a distinct slot you can build a real product on.

1. CoinStats API

CoinStats Crypto API is newer to the API space. The consumer app behind it serves over 1M monthly users. The same data infrastructure powers the API, and there’s a dedicated MCP Server for AI agents and LLM-powered applications.

CoinStats API provides comprehensive market data (prices, volumes), extensive exchange data, and excellent on-chain token data and DeFi analytics. Coverage is 100,000+ coins, 200+ exchanges (CEX.IO, Binance, Coinbase, Hyperliquid, and others), 120+ blockchains, and 10,000+ DeFi protocols auto-detected per wallet address. For most crypto use cases (portfolio trackers, trading apps, tax tools, multi-chain explorers, AI assistants), that single integration replaces what teams typically stitch together from three or four separate providers.

A few things stood out during our evaluation. CoinStats MCP Server ships with 20+ tools that LLM-based apps can query directly. Claude, Cursor, and other AI assistants can pull prices, wallet balances, DeFi positions, and portfolio data without custom API glue. Pricing is credit-based with a free tier, so cost scales with endpoint complexity. Response format stays consistent across chains, which matters when aggregating a Solana address, a Bitcoin xpub, and an EVM wallet into one portfolio view.

Best for: portfolio trackers, tax and accounting tools, multi-chain wallet apps, AI crypto assistants, and embedded fintech dashboards. Probably the best fit for most crypto use cases simply because so much of the stack is consolidated into one provider.

2. GetBlock

GetBlock is a Web3 RPC provider. It offers access to full and archive nodes on 130+ mainnet and testnet blockchains, through JSON-RPC, REST, WebSockets, and gRPC. Coverage spans programmable chains (Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana, the major L2s), non-programmable ones (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin), and AltVM chains like Aptos and Sui.

GetBlock is built for anything that needs direct node access without running your own infrastructure. Smart contract calls, transaction broadcasting, event subscriptions, historical state reads, and low-latency reads for trading workloads. There’s also a dedicated Solana stack for HFT and MEV teams with roughly 150ms faster node state than standard shared endpoints.

GetBlock doesn’t replace a data indexer or a market data provider. It sits underneath them. When you need the raw chain (fast, reliable, geo-distributed), that’s the slot it fills. Shared and dedicated node options cover everything from side projects on the free tier to production infrastructure under custom SLAs.

Best for: dApps, wallets, trading infrastructure, validators, indexers, and any project that needs direct RPC access across many chains.

3. CoinAPI

CoinAPI is purely a market data play. The focus is normalized real-time and historical data from 380+ exchanges, served over REST, WebSocket, and FIX protocols. The pitch is one schema across all venues, so your application logic doesn’t have to account for exchange-specific differences.

The catalog is deep. Tick-level trades and quotes (some pairs going back to 2015), full L2 and L3 order books, OHLCV bars from second-level granularity up to daily, and derivatives data including funding rates. CoinAPI also offers Flat Files for bulk historical downloads, which matters for backtests and quant research. Infrastructure runs at a 99.9% SLA, with VPC peering and Direct Connect options for institutional setups.

Where CoinAPI fits is anywhere you need professional-grade market data without building your own exchange integrations. It doesn’t cover wallets, portfolios, or on-chain state. If you need those, pair it with one of the other providers on this list. A FIX gateway for institutional algo systems is one of the few places this kind of API really stands alone.

Best for: trading platforms, algo systems, market data feeds, financial infrastructure, backtesting and quant research, and any application where multi-exchange tick-level data matters.

4. Messari

Messari sits closer to a research and intelligence layer than the rest of the list. Coverage spans 40,000+ assets, on-chain metrics for 200+ DeFi protocols, news from 500+ sources, token unlock schedules, fundraising data, and analyst-verified diligence reports.

The API surface includes 15+ families across market data, signals, news, fundraising, research, token unlocks, stablecoins, protocols, and AI outputs. A Messari MCP server is also available, so AI assistants can pull research content and live data during analysis workflows.

Messari fits best when the product needs context, not just raw data. Diligence platforms, institutional dashboards, research tools, and portfolio apps with narrative overlays. Free tier rate limits are modest (20 requests per minute). Deeper features live on enterprise plans with custom infrastructure options.

Best for: research platforms, institutional dashboards, diligence and compliance tools, and any application where analyst commentary, fundraising data, or token unlock tracking matters more than raw chain access.

5. Glassnode

Glassnode is the on-chain analytics specialist. The catalog runs 7,500+ metrics across 1,200+ assets, with 900+ API endpoints. Coverage includes addresses, derivatives, distribution, supply dynamics, exchange flows, and the long-running indicators Glassnode is known for (MVRV, SOPR, NUPL, and others). For Bitcoin, it runs one of the longest continuous on-chain datasets in the industry.

Glassnode is built for quant desks, researchers, and anyone whose strategy depends on derived signals rather than live wallet data. Point-in-time (PIT) metrics are a distinguishing feature. They’re immutable, so backtests don’t suffer from look-ahead bias, which is a practical problem with most on-chain datasets. A Glassnode MCP server is also available for AI workflows, plus Snowflake and BigQuery integrations for teams pulling data into analytics pipelines.

API access is only on the Professional plan with an API add-on, not the free tier. That positions Glassnode as a paid tool from day one, which matches who it’s built for.

Best for: quant trading, institutional research, on-chain market analysis, and teams that need immutable historical metrics for modeling and backtesting.

How to Pick

Most production stacks end up using more than one. A trading app might run CoinStats API for prices and portfolios, CoinAPI for tick-level execution data, and GetBlock for direct RPC. A research tool might pair Messari narratives with Glassnode signals.

A few questions to guide the choice:

• What kind of data do you need? Market prices, wallets, and portfolio analytics: CoinStats API. Raw RPC: GetBlock. Tick-level multi-exchange market data: CoinAPI. Research and narratives: Messari. Derived on-chain metrics: Glassnode.
• Real-time, historical, or both? CoinAPI and Glassnode are strongest on deep historical coverage. CoinStats API and GetBlock skew live and current-state.
• Are AI agents in your stack? All five expose MCP or similar structured access, but the surface area varies. CoinStats, CoinAPI, Messari, and Glassnode each ship MCP servers.
• What pricing model fits? Credit-based (CoinStats, CoinAPI), subscription (Glassnode, Messari enterprise), or usage-scaled RPC plans (GetBlock).

If we had to point to one as a reasonable starting point for projects covering common crypto use cases, CoinStats API consolidates market data, wallets, portfolio analytics, and MCP access into a single integration. That can simplify the early stack. Teams that later need tick-level execution data or low-latency RPC tend to add CoinAPI or GetBlock alongside it.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

Bitcoin is hovering near $80,000, giving short-term holders their best week in months in terms P/L. However, this is also the exact line that will decide whether this is a genuine breakout or just another failed attempt.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 19 (May 4–10): BII 35.6 — Elevated Repositioning

Positive signals: the cleanest liquidity picture of 2026

Stablecoin flows swung from –$242M daily average last week to +$270M — the largest single-week reversal in 2026 and the strongest positive stablecoin reading since March. Fresh capital is again arriving at exchanges and positioning to buy, which supports the bullish momentum.

At the same time, realized loss density collapsed to 13%, one of the lowest readings in 2026. This indicates that holders who are selling are primarily doing so in profit or near breakeven, not at distress levels.&

Mixed signals: short-term holders are at a decision point

The share of short-term holder supply sitting in profit briefly hit 71% — the highest level since Bitcoin’s all-time high in October 2025. On the surface that is great news. But it also means profit-taking pressure is building at its fastest rate since the market peak. Realised profit volumes are relatively stable right now, meaning holders are not rushing to exit yet — but the incentive to lock in gains is getting increasingly higher.

LTH SOPR slipped back below 1, meaning long-term holders who did move coins this week did so at a small loss. However, long-term holders also added another 83,000 BTC to their wallets this week, suggesting that this could be associated with an increased cost of accumulation.

What could happen next

Bitcoin is currently testing its short-term holder cost basis around $80,000 — the price at which the average recent buyer moves from loss to profit. If Bitcoin sustains above it, this could push the price toward $85,750, which corresponds to the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement from the all-time high.&

If the price breaks $85,750 as well, it would invalidate the bearish retracement pattern that played out in January, when Bitcoin recovered to the 0.382 Fibonacci level before resuming its decline.

However, if price fails to hold $80,000 and pulls back, the next meaningful support sits at $76,250, which corresponds to the 0.236 Fibonacci level. That scenario would suggest that short-term holders end up using the current prices as the opportunity to fix profits.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

Both short- and long-term holders are in profit, and selling pressure has decreased significantly. However, several indicators outside of holder behavior are starting to flash warning signs — and historically, this tends to happen just before the easiest phase of a rally comes to an end.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 18 (April 27 – May 3): BII 30.2 — Elevated Repositioning

The index value dropped to one of its lowest levels as the current holder picture is one of the best in 2026. However, there are still signals that a potential bullish trap may take place.

Positive signals: holders are the least stressed they have been in 2026

As Bitcoin surpassed $80,000, both short- and long-term holders have largely moved into profit, with short-term holder profitability hovering near 2026 highs. Long-term SOPR ticked up further to 1.51, meaning veterans are selling at a 51% profit margin on average. This suggests that neither group is under significant pressure.

Exchange inflows dropped to 16,570 BTC daily average, now close to three-year lows. A similar drop occurred in early April before the price made a sustained breakout above $75,000. As less Bitcoin arrives at exchanges to be sold, bulls currently have less upper resistance.&

Negative signals: multiple warning signs appeared at once

Bitcoin’s Coinday NVT and RVT ratios — which measure how expensive Bitcoin looks relative to the actual economic activity on its network — recently surged for both short- and long-term holders to their highest levels since December 2023. Think of it like a price-to-earnings ratio for Bitcoin: when these ratios surge, it means the price has moved faster than the underlying usage justifies. Historically, rapid increases in these metrics have preceded slowdowns in Bitcoin’s upward momentum, which can potentially transition to bearish trends.

Alongside that, stablecoin flows to exchanges swung from a +$117M daily average last week to -$245M this week — one of largest single-week reversal in 2026. This suggests that fresh capital is still leaving exchanges rather than arriving to buy, which means the current price level is being supported by thin buying.

Mixed signals: accumulation and funding rates calmed down

The cost of being short fell this week as funding rates moved from their extreme lows toward a less punishing level. That is partly positive — the short squeeze pressure that has been building for weeks released some steam. But funding rates remain negative, meaning shorts are still net paying to hold their positions and the bearish conviction has not fully unwound.

Long-term accumulation calmed down after last week’s historic buying spree, with net LTH balances increasing by 52,000 BTC. That is a natural cooldown after a record run, but the supply-absorption tailwind is still in play, which can help bulls to support an upside move to a certain level.

What could happen next

As highlighted in the previous overview, Bitcoin’s breakout of $80,000 and short-term holder cost basis would be a real test for bulls. With the current holder health and short squeeze dynamics, Bitcoin could still maintain an upward move, but it may be limited by thinning fresh demand and stretched valuation metrics.

Elevated NVT and RVT readings also suggest the transition from momentum-driven gains to a more grinding, uncertain phase where gains could become harder to sustain and any negative catalyst lands harder than it would in a healthier valuation environment. The ongoing stablecoin outflow is the more immediate concern: two consecutive weeks of fresh capital leaving rather than arriving would mean the buyer base is thinning even as the holder base looks healthy.

As a result, the current bullish momentum still looks fragile, suggesting that a rapid bullish-to-bearish trend change remains possible. To support the momentum, bulls would need to keep the price above $80,000, with rising LTH accumulation and/or positive funding rates alongside it. Without it, a bearish move could just be delayed.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

Long-term holders just made one of the largest single-week accumulation moves in Bitcoin’s history. At the same time, short sellers are paying a record price to bet against this accumulation. One of these two groups is about to be proven very wrong, potentially leading to a massive price action.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 17 (April 19–25): BII 39.6 — Elevated Repositioning

The index nudged up slightly from last week, staying firmly in Elevated Repositioning. The headline number suggests relative calm. The data underneath is anything but.

Positive signals: long-term holders went on a historic buying spree

Long-term holders reportedly added close to 800,000 BTC in a single week. Their 30-day accumulation now stands at approximately 1.23 million BTC, one of the largest monthly accumulation figures ever recorded. Long-term holders now control around 80% of all Bitcoin in existence, the highest share since July 2025.

This group buying so aggressively matters for one reason: they are the ones who historically get the direction right over longer timeframes. LTH SOPR also briefly recovered above 1, meaning long-term holders who did sell this week did so primarily at a profit.

Moreover, the share of LTH supply in profit declined to 66%, the lowest since January 2023. That might sound bad, but in context it means long-term holders are accumulating while their existing holdings could be underwater — a pattern more consistent with deliberate bottom-building than with capitulation.

As such, net unrealized profit/loss (NUPL) improved close to 0.3, its best level in months. The broad picture of patient, large-scale capital entering the market has now been consistent for several weeks.

Negative signals: short sellers are digging in deeper

Here is the contradiction. While long-term holders buy at one of the fastest rates in history, short sellers are paying extraordinary amounts to maintain the opposite bet. Despite price recovery, funding rates hit a new three-year low. In April alone, bears paid an average of 11% interest to stay short, with rates briefly spiking to 19%, levels not seen since January 2023.

At those rates, short sellers were collectively paying over $4 million every day just for the right to stay positioned against Bitcoin, as per Checkonchain data. That level of conviction and that level of cost is unprecedented, even compared to previous bear markets. Bears believe so much that a significant drop is coming that they are willing to pay heavily for that belief.

Aside from that, realized loss density — how much loss is being concentrated per unit of Bitcoin actually moved — jumped to 40%, suggesting deeper losses for recent holders. The short-term holder picture also softened slightly, with their profitability declining from last week’s level.

Mixed signals: the squeeze is already happening — but it hasn’t broken anything yet

Short liquidations made up 77% of total liquidations this week, indicating that a short squeeze is in progress and the recent price increase was largely driven by these forced short closures.

The important context is that there are still many short positions remaining. Bears who got squeezed out this week have been replaced by new shorts doubling down at higher prices, as the funding rate confirms. This means the squeeze potential has not been exhausted — there is still a significant pool of short positions that would need to be closed if price continues higher, which could amplify an upward move.&

However, such a high level of bear conviction could also lead to a rapid trend change if bullish momentum fades away and fails to sustain above major resistance levels such as $80,000.

What could happen next

The tension between these two forces — historic accumulation on one side, historic short conviction on the other — cannot persist indefinitely. The resolution tends to be fast and decisive when it comes.

If price breaks above $80,000, it would be a real test for bulls as short-term holders will be in profit on average for the first time since October 2025, and some might use this opportunity for profit-taking. In January 2026, when price briefly touched STH cost basis, it turned out to be a local high before a February selloff. However, if the price breaks and sustains above $80,000, the remaining shorts could face mounting losses and will be forced to close positions, adding fuel to the move.

One way or another, given the scale of LTH accumulation, a genuine break lower would require something significant to shake conviction that has been building for three months straight. The index is likely to stay in the upper half of Elevated Repositioning until this resolves. When it does, a sharp move in either direction will likely occur.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

Bitcoin is roughly 40% below its October 2025 peak, and for numerous retail traders that means sitting on unrealised losses, which might be measured in months of salary for some. CEX.IO surveyed 1,100 active crypto users from the US to find out how the current bear market affected their lives. The answers paint a picture of a bear market that is quieter than 2022, but still pressing against household finances in ways that rarely show up in a price chart.

More Than 1 in 3 Traders Cut Spending

One way to assess the bear market’s impact is whether users reduced spending on non-crypto purchases. 36% said yes to reduction of costs, while 10% of respondents said those weren’t minor adjustments and they needed to make real sacrifices specifically to keep their positions intact.

In addition, 37% of respondents stated that they delayed or cancelled a purchase because of their crypto portfolio — and for 21% of all respondents, it was potentially major expenses like a home, a car, or a renovation.

To calibrate how large that is: a Redfin/Ipsos survey from October 2025 found that 17% of Americans delayed a major purchase because of the federal government shutdown — a macroeconomic event that dominated headlines for weeks. The crypto bear market produced a comparable or larger effect on the people exposed to it. However, crypto users typically aren’t that vocal about it.

That silence shows up in another part of the survey. Only 5% of respondents stated they have someone who knows exactly how much crypto they hold and what it is currently worth. 41% said someone knows they hold crypto but not the scale of it, while 18% keep it entirely private.&

This isn’t necessarily about hiding. Inherently, crypto is an individual investment with no shared account or broker statement. Giving someone a precise number would require sharing access or constant updates, which could be a burden. As a result, the majority of crypto users are navigating a bear market largely alone, and the people around them have no idea.

The Cashflow Pressure Is Still Relatively High

77% claim they did not take on extra debt to cover their crypto investments. But the more telling measure is cashflow: when stripping away the question of formal debt and simply asking whether people felt financial pressure, 38% said they experienced some form of disruption since October 2025. A quarter dipped into savings or an emergency fund to keep things normal on the surface, while 12% shared that they missed or delayed a bill payment or other types of regular payments because of crypto.

It’s important to keep in mind that those numbers are almost certainly conservative due to social sensitivity of these topics, suggesting that the actual number might be higher.

The savings picture adds another layer. 41% increased contributions to what was described as safer positions — this figure includes both traditional financial instruments and a rotation into stablecoins and yield-generating products, reflecting a crypto-native version of flight to safety. At the same time, 16% reduced or paused contributions to long-term savings entirely, potentially due to a desire to “buy the dip.”

5 in 10 Have Significant Crypto Concentration

One of the main reasons why crypto impacted non-crypto-related spending in the first place is a significant exposure to digital assets. Within an observed sample, 49% of respondents stated they have more than 30% of their total investable assets in crypto.

And yet the income data suggests most have absorbed the pressure without dramatic action: 73% say the bear market has not changed how they pursue income at all, with only 9% taking on extra work or a side project as a direct response to their portfolio performance.

79% Are Holding or Adding

Despite certain issues, the dominant posture looking forward is optimistic. 51% plan to hold their positions regardless of short-term price action, while 28% plan to add more if prices stay at current levels or fall further.

The sentiment data supports this. 44% say they invested about the right amount in October 2025, and 24% say they wish they had invested more — not less. Only 26% feel they were overexposed.

What’s more revealing is how they think about what went wrong. When asked what single crypto-related decision they would change across the last 18 months, the most popular response that 41% selected was that they would have set clearer rules for when to take profits — and stuck to them. 22% said they have no regrets at all.

This suggests most respondents don’t believe they made a positioning mistake but rather an execution mistake. They believe they were in the right place but didn’t have a plan for the exit. It also explains why 79% are still optimistic about the market. They’ve lost faith in how they managed it, and they intend to do it better next time.

Conclusion

The 2025–2026 bear market has not produced the kind of systemic shock seen in past cycles (at least for now), but its effects appear to be showing up in quieter ways at the household level. More than a third of active crypto users cut non-crypto spending or delayed purchases because of market performance, while many reported cashflow pressure, reduced savings, or postponed major financial decisions.

What stands out, however, is that this pressure has not led to broad capitulation. Despite high portfolio concentration and signs of strain, most respondents say they are holding or adding to positions, while many view past mistakes less as being overinvested and more as failing to manage exits properly. That may be one of the defining differences of this downturn: pressure has been absorbed, not abandoned.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

The biggest hands in the Bitcoin market just made their most decisive move in almost a year. At the same time, Bitcoin is approaching two price levels that have historically acted as a turning point. What happens at $78,000-$80,000 over the coming days could settle a disagreement that has been building for months.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 16 (April 12–18): BII 37.7 — Elevated Repositioning

The index ticked up slightly from last week but remains in Elevated Repositioning. On a surface, this suggests little has changed, but a closer look shows that the surface starts to crack.

Positive signals: the biggest hands are buying hard

Whales and sharks — holders with between 100 and 10,000 BTC — added 45,000 BTC this week to their wallets. That is the largest single-week accumulation by these cohorts since July 2025, and what makes it particularly notable is that both groups moved in the same direction at once. In recent months they have mostly been accumulating separately, one group buying while the other held flat or sold. This week they bought together, which suggests rising bullish momentum.

As such, long-term holders have now added more than 1 million BTC to their wallets over the past three months, with nearly 500,000 BTC added in the last 30 days — the largest monthly accumulation since May 2025. Historically, long-term holders tend to accumulate during bear markets, so this alone does not confirm a bottom. But the scale and persistence of the buying, continuing even as their holdings move further into loss, suggests increasing conviction rather than opportunistic dip-buying.

Other major positive signals include:

• ETF inflows reached $996 million this week — the strongest week since mid-January.
• Stablecoin inflows grew for the third consecutive week, suggesting increased dry powder to support buying momentum.
• Short-term holders extended their recovery, with their P/L reaching the highest level in 2026.&

Mixed signals: shorts are as confident as they have ever been

Against all of that buying, the funding rates hit its most negative reading in three years. This indicates that bearish bias persists among leveraged traders as they’re willing to pay a record premium to bet against Bitcoin. Even the latest series of short liquidations didn’t meaningfully shake this conviction, and it’s now persisted for weeks without the price break they are waiting for. This suggests the situation resolves either into a massive short squeeze or a sharp selloff.

LTH SOPR slipped back below 1, meaning long-term holders who did sell this week primarily did so at a loss. The fact that LTH supply in profit has been quietly shrinking even as price has held stable now becomes one of major structural concerns.

Bitcoin is also approaching its true mean price (around $78,000) and the short-term holder cost basis (around $80,000) — both of which currently act as significant resistance points. The last time Bitcoin pushed above both levels during a bear market phase was briefly in 2018, and the move did not hold. If Bitcoin sustains above both this time, it would change the on-chain picture materially — more holders in profit means less pressure to sell. If it fails, the weight of underwater positions pushes back down.

What could happen next

This week, Bitcoin’s correlation with traditional financial markets reached record levels:

• S&P 500 — the highest correlation since October 2024
• Gold — the highest correlation since September 2025
• US dollar index — the most negative correlation since September 2022.

That means Bitcoin’s price movement is exposed to developments in the US-Iran war, as well as other macroeconomic and geopolitical developments, more than ever this year. Considering the latest “reopening” of the Strait of Hormuz, which leaves some questions on the table, the situation doesn’t seem to be resolved in full and could still bring significant volatility for Bitcoin.

The following price direction would largely depend on whether or not Bitcoin manages to climb above $80,000 in the short term. If successful, this could remove significant stress, potentially supporting its further upside.& A rejection at those levels would validate the shorts, shake out recent buyers, and could send the index back toward High Impact territory.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

The stress gauge is at its lowest reading since mid-January. Holders became profitable, ETF buyers returned in force, and almost nobody is rushing to sell. On paper, this is the calmest Bitcoin has looked in months. But some of the quietest weeks on record have preceded the loudest moves, suggesting that the market is not healing, just holding its breath.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 15 (April 5–11): BII 34.5 — Elevated Repositioning

The index dropped 8 points this week to its lowest reading since mid-January. Nearly every stress signal improved but the calm that produced this score has some unusual features.

Positive signals: holders are back in profit and sellers have gone quiet

For the first time since mid-January, SOPR and P/L ratio across both short-term and long-term holders turned positive. This means both groups are primarily selling at a profit rather than a loss, which removes the main source of stress that has weighed on the market for most of 2026.

The amount of Bitcoin moving toward exchanges fell to its lowest point in more than three years, indicating little interest in selling Bitcoin. In turn, realized loss density — how much loss is being concentrated per unit of Bitcoin actually moved — collapsed to 20%, or one of its best readings in 2026.&

ETF buyers came back strongly, with $786M in net inflows, the best week since mid-January. At the same time, whales added more than 15,000 BTC to their wallets, which is the largest accumulation in nearly three months. As a result, on-chain and liquidity data doesn’t look quite stressed at all.

Negative signals: this could be a calm before the storm

Here is the problem. This week set multi-year records in Bitcoin’s on-chain activity, but not the kind that inspires confidence:

• The number of active Bitcoin wallets dropped to its lowest point since 2019.&
• Weekly spot trading volume hit its lowest level since 2023.&
• Exchange flows reached lows not seen since 2023.&
• Normalized Bitcoin inflows hit their lowest weekly level since 2016.

When a market goes quiet this dramatically, it usually means one of two things: either the selling has genuinely exhausted and buyers are stepping in, or participation has collapsed and the price is floating on thin air.

For now, it’s too early to claim which one of these statements prevail. However, the spot CVD — a measure of whether buyers or sellers are more aggressive — could provide a hint. It recently turned positive to its highest level since mid-January, and the last time it reached that point, a major downturn followed in the short term.

In addition, funding rates flipped sharply negative again after last week’s brief positive reading, meaning leveraged traders are back to betting against Bitcoin. That is a direct contradiction of the improving holder picture and a signal that speculative traders are not convinced by this surface calm.

What could happen next

This is one of the most balanced setups between bullish and bearish claims that on-chain activity and liquidity offered this year. Both scenarios have solid foundation, and the short term data does not clearly favour one over the other.

In the first, the exhaustion of sellers is real. Holders turned profitable, activity has dried up because there are not a lot of holders who really need to sell, and the incoming ETF and stablecoin capital is quietly building a floor. If this angle continues to strengthen, Bitcoin’s upside move is likely to continue, and the index may drift toward Normal Rotation territory for the first time in 2026.

In the second, low activity is a warning sign rather than a clean bill of health. The spot CVD parallel, funding rates pricing in downside and the multi-year lows in market participation suggest the current price level has very little genuine conviction behind it. This means it is a price that very few people are actively choosing right now. If participation picks up on the sell side, there is limited buying depth to absorb it.

As a result,& this week’s index reading is less a signal of recovery and more a moment of suspension. Something is about to break the silence, and this could cause significant volatility in either direction.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

With the crypto market losing more than 20% in market cap, the first quarter of 2026 was rough for DeFi, which showed an 11% decline in TVL. However, RWA was one of the few sectors that went the other way, adding 30% in total value, partially offsetting the DeFi decline.

And within RWA, tokenized gold was one of the primary engines behind this growth.

Every Third RWA Investor Now Owns Tokenized Gold

Tokenized gold is the second-largest RWA category (behind tokenized treasuries), and it ended Q1 at $5.6 billion in market cap. Over the quarter, tokenized gold added $1.3 billion in new value, bringing its total growth to 30%. To put this into perspective, this single-quarter increase is nearly half of what the sector added during the entire 2025.

The same pattern can be seen in user growth.

Tokenized gold gained over 44,500 new wallets in Q1 alone, marking the largest increase in its history. In practical terms, this suggests that every fifth tokenized gold today entered the market within just these three months.

This rapid expansion pushed tokenized gold to a new milestone. Today, roughly one in three RWA participants holds tokenized gold, making it the most widely adopted real-world asset on-chain.

At the same time, the quarter was not short of new narratives. Tokenized stocks led in absolute user growth, adding nearly 80,000 new asset holding addresses. In turn, other commodities, including tokenized oil, metals, and agricultural assets, delivered the fastest relative gains. These segments attracted fresh attention and capital, which likely partly limited tokenized gold’s performance.

Another notable signal comes from how the asset is being used. The amount of tokenized gold actively deployed in DeFi jumped by 123% during the quarter, pushing total active value above $193 million. This is the biggest surge in DeFi adoption for tokenized gold ever, and it signifies that users are increasingly putting tokenized gold to work instead of perceiving it as a simple store of value.

Tokenized Gold Achieves Largest Outperformance Over Physical Gold on Record

To understand what tokenized gold’s Q1 2026 growth actually means, it helps to start with the broader gold market context. Q1 was a highly volatile period: on one hand, it recorded its best month in more than 25 years; on the other, it went through its worst weekly drop since 1983.

Despite this turbulence, physical gold still ended the quarter up 5.5%, pushing its total market value to $32.6 trillion. Major gold ETFs moved in the same direction, with SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) gaining around 10% and iShares Gold Trust (IAU) rising by 8% in holdings.

However, tokenized gold expanded by 30% over the same period, marking its largest quarterly outperformance versus physical gold on record. In relative terms, tokenized gold grew 5.5 times faster than the underlying asset — a gap that highlights how quickly on-chain gold exposure is scaling compared to traditional markets.

Overall, of all the major gold investment vehicles tokenized gold posted the strongest market cap growth in Q1. Also, if tokenized gold were an ETF, it would now rank as the fourth-largest one.

Tokenized Gold Trading Slows as It Enters Top Investment Vehicle Territory

Tokenized gold trading activity remains strong, but its growth is beginning to normalize as it reaches the scale of traditional markets. In Q1 2026, tokenized gold recorded $82 billion in trading volume, marking a 1,300% increase year-over-year — a pace roughly 20 times faster than what the largest gold ETFs posted over the same period.

At the same time, the growth gap is starting to narrow, with tokenized gold volume showing its slowest growth over the past year, falling behind several leading gold ETFs. As a result, tokenized gold slipped from the second-largest to the third-largest gold trading instrument by volume in Q1.

This doesn’t necessarily signal weakening demand. As tokenized gold reaches a scale comparable to the largest ETFs, maintaining explosive growth becomes more difficult. In turn, traditional instruments are seeing renewed activity, likely driven by the same macro volatility that supported gold prices overall.

PAXG Gains Ground in Market Cap, XAUT Outperforms in Wallet Growth

One of the major trends of 2025 was Tether Gold (XAUT) gaining share from Paxos Gold (PAXG) and smaller tokenized gold assets. In Q1 2026, the picture became more balanced.

On market cap, PAXG had the stronger quarter by a wide margin. It posted a 51% increase, adding more than $800 million in value, while XAUT grew 16%. PAXG entered the year as the smaller of the two assets and closed Q1 just $200 million behind, down from a gap closer to $650 million. This means that PAXG outpaced XAUT in terms of attracting new capital in Q1 2026.&

XAUT’s wins came elsewhere. Its number of wallets holding the asset nearly doubled in Q1, growing by close to 19,000 wallets. This means that for the first time since 2024 XAUT added more holders than PAXG in a single quarter. PAXG’s wallet base grew by 26%, broadly in line with the wider tokenized gold market.&

The DeFi picture reinforces the same split. Virtually all of the growth in DeFi-deployed tokenized gold during Q1 came from XAUT, whose active value in protocols surged +127%, while PAXG’s pulled back slightly.&

That divergence is becoming a defining feature of how these two assets function in the market. PAXG attracts capital that sits, with longer-duration holders accumulating a store of value. XAUT attracts capital that moves — deployed into protocols, actively traded, recycled. This duopoly resembles the stablecoin landscape where USDT and USDC are showing the growing divide in use cases.

Beyond the top two, the most notable development was Matrixdock Gold, whose DeFi-deployed value grew over 1,500% in the quarter — a sign of deepening protocol integration that could matter more as on-chain gold use cases expand.

Conclusion

Q1 2026 was a strong quarter for gold broadly — and tokenized gold outpaced the entire field. It grew faster than physical gold, faster than every major ETF, and remained one of the top gold investment vehicles in terms of trading volume. The market cap growth was more than just price appreciation and it came alongside one of the biggest increases in the holder base ever.

The next milestone will likely be closing the gap with GLD and IAU, the only two gold investment products still ahead by trading volume. Whether Q1’s convergence with GLD’s growth pace signals maturation or a temporary plateau will likely be the defining question of the quarters ahead.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

This week looks better than the previous one — at least on paper. The liquidations nearly disappeared, and long-term holders crossed back into profitable territory. But the amount of loss being realised per Bitcoin moved hit its highest level since February selloff, and NUPL continued falling. This suggests that the stress gauge is down but the underlying pain is not.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 14 (March 29 – April 4): BII 42.5 — Elevated Repositioning

The index dropped 15 points from last week. That is a meaningful improvement — but the data tells a more complicated story.

Positive signals: the worst of previous weeks unwound quickly

The most dramatic shift was in derivatives. Over the past month, leveraged traders were aggressively positioned for further downside. Last week, the pressure released through forced position closures, and total liquidations collapsed to the lowest level since mid-February. With less forced selling pressure in the system, the immediate stress on price eased.

Stablecoin inflows returned positively at $179 million daily average, and Bitcoin arriving at exchanges fell to its lowest level since December, meaning sellers are stepping further back.

Mixed signals: long-term holders are at a crossroads

Long-term holders crossed back to the breakeven line, with LTH SOPR sitting exactly at 1.0. This is a decision point. From here, long-term holders either return to selling at a profit, which would be a genuine structural improvement, or they slip back below breakeven under continued price pressure, which is what happened in previous weeks after a similar brief recovery. This is the third time in 2026 that LTH SOPR approached or crossed 1.0 without sustaining it. Each prior attempt was followed by a deterioration and price decrease.

Funding rates flipping positive is the week’s most ambiguous signal. On the surface it looks like sentiment improving. But the last time funding turned positive, it was followed within two weeks by the sharpest stress escalation of the year.

Negative signals: the pain per Bitcoin moved is near its worst

Despite the improved index value, realized loss density — how much loss is being concentrated per unit of Bitcoin actually moved — hit its highest reading since February’s stress peak. That means the holders who are selling are doing so at deep losses, even as the volume of selling has dropped. Fewer people are selling, but those who are selling are hurting more. That is not the signature of a market that has worked through its stress. It is the signature of holders being squeezed into selling at increasingly bad prices.

Shark and whale wallets both reduced their Bitcoin balances this week, a quiet reversal after weeks of accumulation. NUPL declined for the second consecutive week, meaning the overall profitability of the market continued eroding even as price held relatively stable.

What could happen next

The index improvement this week was driven primarily by derivatives unwinding rather than genuine on-chain healing. The key signals to watch are whether LTH SOPR can stay above 1.0 and build on it rather than slipping back, and whether the realized loss density eases as the holders currently selling at deep losses either exhaust or step back.

If LTH SOPR holds above 1.0 and stablecoin inflows sustain, the index has room to show lower values and the recovery becomes more credible. If the pattern of the past two months repeats — brief improvement followed by a reversal — the index heads back toward High Impact and the mid-2018 and mid-2022 parallels flagged last week become harder to dismiss.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

• Total stablecoin supply added only $8 billion in Q1 2026 — the weakest expansion since Q4 2023, as the market rotated rather than grew.
• Yield-bearing stablecoins grew over 22% in Q1, contributing more than half of net stablecoin market cap increase.
• Stablecoins accounted for 75% of all crypto trading volume in Q1 2026, the highest share ever recorded.
• Total stablecoin transaction volume surpassed $28 trillion in Q1 2026, reaching a new all-time high. 76% of that volume was bot-driven — the highest level in two years.
• Retail-sized stablecoin transfers fell 16% in Q1 2026 — the largest drop on record, with the closest comparable decline in Q1 2022.

Across the crypto sector, Q1 2026 has been drawing comparisons to 2022. Bitcoin posted its worst start to a year since the 2022 bear market, while multiple volatility, volume, and on-chain metrics have been resembling mid-2022 patterns. Stablecoin data is telling a similar story shaped by two parallel forces.

On one side, the broader risk-off environment pushed more capital toward stablecoins as a defensive hold, driving their share of crypto trading volume to all-time highs and accelerating demand for yield-bearing alternatives. On the other, regulatory momentum continued to build, with stablecoin yield potentially creating new friction. Separately, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a proposal to implement the GENIUS Act, which could hamper stablecoin rewards programs more broadly.

The result was a quarter that looked, on many metrics, like a classic bear market reset — but with a stablecoin market that is structurally much larger, more institutionally integrated, and more regulatory-aware than it was in 2022. Here is what this means and what path forward this may develop.

Supply Dynamics

Mid-2022 Rotation Trends

By the end of Q1 2026, the total stablecoin supply crossed $315 billion, updating its all-time high. However, the quarter added only around $8 billion in net new supply, marking it the weakest quarterly expansion since Q4 2023, and a sharp contrast to the $45.7 billion added in Q3 2025.

In relative terms, the supply expanded by only 2.6%, while the total crypto market cap dropped by 21%. As a result, stablecoins’ dominance in the crypto market cap briefly jumped from 9% to 13%, for the first time since early 2023. This suggests that the market is increasingly rotating toward stablecoins, and a nature of this rotation resembles mid-2022, when stablecoin dominance surged from 8% to 17% as investors were seeking defensive positioning and capital preservation.

Another similarity with mid-2022 is the divergence between the two leading assets. In Q1 2026, USDC gained $2 billion in supply, while USDT shed $3 billion. The last time the two moved this way simultaneously was Q2 2022.

As such, if the pattern holds and bearish conditions persist, the crypto market could see further increase in stablecoin dominance and demand. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean further stablecoin supply expansion as it remains under pressure due to USDT.

Yield-Bearing Stablecoins Fueled More Than Half of Net Supply Increase

Aside from USDC, one of the biggest drivers behind supply growth in Q1 2026 was market restructuring around yield. Yield-bearing stablecoins, assets that pass returns directly to holders, often through exposure to U.S. Treasuries or DeFi lending, grew by over 22% in Q1 alone, marking it the best-performing category in the sector. This means they added around $4.3 billion in market cap, accounting for the majority of stablecoin growth last quarter.

As a result, yield-bearing stablecoins are dominating among assets posting the largest supply gains in Q1 2026. For instance, USDY’s market cap saw an over 150% increase in Q1, while sUSDS added more than $2.5 billion in market cap, more new capital than the next four yield-bearing stablecoins combined in absolute terms.

Other top performers are also closely linked to yield-generating mechanisms. USDS, for instance, largely serves as an entry point to sUSDS, while USD1 has benefited from the launch of World Liberty Markets, which expanded its DeFi utility and yield access. So even where the yield is indirect, it is clearly driving adoption.

One of the major reasons behind this expansion was a broader risk-off environment, which pushed investors to look for efficient ways to park their capital, and capital preservation with yield became more attractive.&

Another catalyst could be the ongoing discussions about stablecoin yield within the Clarity Act framework. Specifically, it’s about whether centralized exchanges should be allowed to pay yield on stablecoin balances, a model that banks see as a direct threat to their deposit business. The recent text updates would ban yield payments for simply holding a stablecoin on CEX balances, which could further expand the appeal of yield-bearing stablecoins.

Biggest Drop of USDT Supply on Ethereum Ever

In terms of network distribution, Tron was the clear winner, adding more than $4 billion in stablecoin supply in Q1 2026, mainly in USDT. However, this growth came alongside a major shift away from Ethereum L1. More than $7 billion of USDT left Ethereum during the quarter — the largest drop on record. For comparison, this is close to the total USDT outflows on Ethereum seen during the entire 2022 bear market.

Notably, this decline was almost fully offset by growth in USDC and yield-bearing stablecoins on Ethereum. This suggests users are rotating within the Ethereum ecosystem rather than exiting it.

Among smaller ecosystems, Solana saw the largest growth in absolute terms, adding more than $1.6 billion in supply. HyperEVM led in relative growth, with its stablecoin supply increasing by more than 80% in Q1 2026.

Trading Volume Dynamics

Stablecoins Are Eating Crypto Volume

Stablecoins are now dominating crypto trading activity more than ever before. In Q1 2026, stablecoins registered $8.3 trillion in trading volume, accounting for 75% of total crypto trading volume, the highest share on record. This surpasses the previous peak of 72% in Q3 2022.& &

As such, stablecoin trading volume appears to be healthy in absolute terms. Q1’s $8.3 trillion total runs ahead of the same period in both 2025 and 2024. The difference is that the broader crypto market has contracted relative to stablecoins dramatically.

This dynamic strongly echoes mid-2022 behavior, when uncertainty pushed capital into stable pairs and sidelined directional risk.

USDT is at the center of that story. Despite its supply declining, USDT alone accounted for 68% of all crypto trading volume (up from 63% in Q4 2025) and 86% of all stablecoin trading volume in Q1 (down from 87% in Q4 2025).

USDC Gains Ground as USDT Reserves Decline

Although USDT stayed dominant in trading volume, USDC is quietly strengthening its position. Its share of stablecoin trading volume increased from 9% to 10% quarter-over-quarter, showing a slight rotation from USDT.&

CEX.IO’s internal data shows the same shift, but in more striking terms. Across all financial operations involving stablecoins, including trading and on-chain transactions, USDC’s share rose from 48% in Q4 2025 to 58% in Q1 2026.

However, the biggest change occurred in exchange balances. USDC exchange reserves increased by over 12% in Q1 2026, while USDT reserves fell by 12%. This suggests increased USDC adoption on CEXs, as well as that “wait and see” users were actively stockpiling USDC.&

The DEX volume supports this claim as its share in USDC trading volume decreased from 27% to 23%. This indicates that USDC has primarily seen an increase of its volume on CEXs.

Transaction Volume Dynamics

The Largest Bot Activity Ever on Ethereum and Tron

Stablecoin transaction activity reached a new all-time high in Q1 2026, with total volume surpassing $28 trillion and showing a 51% increase compared to Q4 2025. However, most of this activity and growth was not organic. Around 76% of all stablecoin transaction volume in Q1 2026 was driven by bots, up from 70% in Q4 2025, and the highest level since Q2 2024.

Note: Organic activity is measured as adjusted volume using the Adjusted Transaction Methodology. Bot activity combines Bot and Other (Unadjusted) transactions. Internal transfers include internal smart contract transactions and intra-exchange transfers.

When broken down by network, the bot activity trends become even more pronounced. In Q1 2026, Ethereum and Tron recorded their highest levels of bot-driven stablecoin activity ever, reaching 72% and 54%, respectively.

One of the drivers behind this move could be the increasingly risk-off environment. Instead of taking directional bets, traders are relying more on low-risk strategies like arbitrage, which are largely automated.&

This is especially visible on Ethereum DEXs, where stablecoin swaps now make up the majority of trading volume. As this share has grown, so has the presence of automated activity. In fact, the share of automated programs on Ethereum DEXs also reached an all-time high in Q1 2026.

USDC Registered Its Largest Share in Organic Volume

USDC accounted for 80% of total stablecoin transaction volume and 85% of all bot-driven activity in Q1 2026. As automation increased, it further reinforced USDC’s dominance across the stablecoin landscape.

At the same time, USDC also recorded one of its strongest gains in organic (adjusted) activity, with volume rising by 59% quarter-over-quarter. In contrast, USDT moved in the opposite direction, with its organic volume declining by 17%, marking one of its steepest drops on record.

This divergence led to a complete shift in the structure of real usage. For the first time since 2019, USDC overtook USDT in organic (adjusted) transaction volume. Furthermore, on an annualized basis, USDC now accounts for around 63% of organic volume, the highest share ever recorded, outpacing 2018 values.

This suggests that USDC is no longer just leading in infrastructure and automated flows, but is increasingly becoming the primary asset for real on-chain activity. Meanwhile, USDT’s role appears to be drifting more toward off-chain trading activity, reinforcing the growing divide between how the two stablecoins function within the ecosystem.

The Biggest Drop Ever in Retail-Sized Transfers

For years, retail activity has been one of the most consistent growth stories in the stablecoin landscape. Almost every quarter, retail-sized transactions, or those below $250, have reached new all-time highs, reflecting steady adoption in payments, remittances, and peer-to-peer use.

However, in Q1 2026, retail-sized stablecoin transfers declined by 16%, marking the largest drop on record. The most comparable decline occurred in Q1 2022, at the start of the bear market, when retail-sized volume fell by about 12%.

This pullback was likely driven by broader market caution and reduced user activity in a risk-off environment. At the same time, this does not necessarily indicate a reversal in long-term adoption. Instead, it suggests that retail activity is becoming more sensitive to market cycles, aligning more closely with broader crypto conditions rather than growing independently of them.

Conclusion

Q1 2026 made the 2022 comparison hard to ignore. Stablecoin dominance rising sharply, capital rotating defensively, USDT and USDC diverging, automation surging, and retail pulling back — these patterns appeared together in mid-2022, and they are reappearing now. If broader bearish conditions persist through the year, stablecoins could see further demand and dominance gains in the coming quarters. The difference is that the asset class is entering this period from a much stronger structural position, with deeper institutional integration, various regulatory frameworks in place, and yield-bearing products that didn’t exist in the previous cycle.

However, supply growth could face real headwinds. USDT remains under pressure, and the regulatory fight over yield could make certain stablecoin practices less appealing. On the trading side, if current trends hold, 2026 is tracking below 2025 in total volume terms, which is consistent with a bear market environment.&

The more important question heading into Q2 is whether the 2022 parallel plays out in full, meaning roughly a year of slow recovery before momentum returns, or whether the signs already emerging from on-chain accumulation signal a shorter cycle this time.

Sources

The data used for this research consists of publicly available information from DeFiLlama, Visa/Allium, Artemis, CoinGecko, StableWatch, Blockworks Research, CryptoQuant, and GrowThePie. Organic activity is measured as adjusted volume using Adjusted Transaction Methodology. Bot activity combines Bot and Other (Unadjusted) transactions, while internal transfers include internal smart contract transactions and intra-exchange transfers. Retail-sized transactions are defined as adjusted (non-bot) transactions that are less than $250, according to the same Adjusted Transaction Methodology. The observation period for this study was focused on Q1 2026, with data points ending March 31, 2026.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

After two weeks of easing, stress returned hard this week — and it came from every direction at once. Institutional money pulled back, fresh buying capital vanished, and the holders who had finally returned to profit last week are selling at a loss again. The market is back in territory that, earlier this year, preceded some of its worst weeks.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 13 (March 22–28): BII 57.4 — High Impact

The index jumped 13 points in a single week, the sharpest rise since late January. Here is what the data shows.

Negative signal: The holders who just recovered are underwater again

Long-term holders started the week selling at a profit for the first time since January. But by the end of the week, SOPR fell to 0.724, wiping out six weeks of recovery. This means long-term holders are now selling at their deepest losses in three years, and the speed of the reversal indicates a sharp deterioration in confidence.

The broader context makes this more concerning. Bitcoin’s price has been drifting slightly higher over recent weeks, but the share of long-term holders sitting in profit has been quietly shrinking at the same time. As for now, more than 4.6 million Bitcoin owned by long-term holders, or over 30% of what they hold, is sitting in a loss, which is the highest share since 2023.&

This kind of divergence between price action and on-chain conviction has historically been a warning sign. For instance, similar moves occurred in mid-2018 and mid-2022 before price drops by over 25%.

Short-term holders are not faring better, with their realized P/L falling to lowest level since late January. Overall, nearly half of all Bitcoin in existence (47%) is now sitting at a loss. That matches the levels seen during the most stressed weeks of February.

Negative signal: Liquidity flows reversed

One of the bright spots from previous weeks was a surge of fresh capital flowing into exchanges, ready to buy. But last week, almost all of it reversed. Stablecoin netflows swung from strongly positive (+$250 million daily average) to their most negative reading in months (-$292 million daily average). ETF inflows also turned to outflows, while miners, who had been holding for three weeks, started selling again.

One of the few metrics in the index that did not get worse is the amount of Bitcoin moving toward exchanges to sell — that stayed low, at around 20,900 BTC daily average. Holders are stressed, but they are not panicking yet.

Mixed signal: Derivatives calmed down — but not in a good way

Funding rates moved closer to neutral last week, which sounds like an improvement. However, total liquidations nearly tripled to $288M, with long positions making up 61% of those. When funding rates normalize through long liquidations rather than short covering, it is a sign of forced de-risking rather than improving sentiment.

Whale wallets added marginally, and shark wallets held flat — large holders are not panicking, but they are not adding meaningfully either.

What could happen next

The setup resembles late January, just before the market dropped by more than 30%, to $60,000. Back then, the same combination appeared: both holder groups selling at a loss, institutional money pulling back, and stablecoins draining rather than arriving. What followed was the most stressed period of 2026 so far.

The difference this time is that holders are not yet rushing Bitcoin to exchanges to sell. That kept February’s worst moments from becoming even worse, and it is doing the same now. If that restraint holds, the current stress could stabilize rather than escalate.

But if the price continues drifting lower, the pressure will keep building until the support level breaks, and this could cause a repeat of the selloff two months ago.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

About the Bitcoin Impact Index

The Bitcoin Impact Index measures which groups of Bitcoin holders are under financial stress, how severe that stress is, and whether it’s severe enough to shake confidence in the market’s direction. It combines on-chain holder behaviour, ETF and derivatives activity, and exchange-level liquidity flows into a single weekly score between 0 and 100. Unlike sentiment indicators, it deliberately excludes social media and volume data to focus on what participants are doing rather than what they are saying.

Score bands:

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — specific groups shifting positions, pressure uneven across the market
• High Impact (50–74) — broad stress across multiple holder groups and institutional flows simultaneously
• Critical Impact (75–100) — full capitulation: LTH losses, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, and heavy exchange inflows at once

Week 12 (March 15–21): BII 44.3 — Elevated Repositioning

The index ticked up 3.2 points from last week, remaining in Elevated Repositioning. The small change in the headline number masks a much more eventful week beneath the surface — one where the early-week picture looked considerably more optimistic before the week closed on a more cautious note.

Positive signals: fresh money is arriving

Stablecoin netlows to exchanges surged to $250M daily average — the largest reading since November 2025. This suggests that fresh capital is arriving and positioning to buy, not existing holders exiting. When stablecoins flow into exchanges at this scale, it signals that sidelined money is actively preparing to re-enter the market. However, it’s worth noting that large stablecoin inflows have not always translated into sustained price support. In November, a similar surge arrived near a local top and did little to prevent a subsequent decline.

Exchange BTC inflows remained low at 22,754 BTC, meaning the sell-side is still thin. In turn, shark wallets (holders with 100-1,000 BTC) added 31,000 BTC last week, extending an accumulation streak that now spans three weeks.

Mixed signals: long-term holders back in profit but short-term holders moved back in loss

LTH SOPR moved above 1, indicating that long-term holders are, on average, back in profit for the first time since January. However, the BCDD indicator shows that long-term holder activity remains near a three-year low, and holders with coins older than five months account for only around 25% of total spending volume. This means that the vast majority of long-term holders are still sitting tight, not selling, which can support the price.

Short-term holders tell the opposite story. Recent buyers who briefly returned to profit early-week used this opportunity to exit, and the cohort’s realized PnL is now one of the worst in 2026. As a result, the week essentially transferred stress from long-term to short-term holders rather than relieving it altogether, and it is short-term sellers who are driving most of the market’s current activity.

ETF inflows slowed sharply from previous weeks, showing net inflows early on and net outflows later. This suggests ETF investors are primarily following short-term holder behavior, which is a worse scenario for a sustained support of Bitcoin’s price.

Negative signals: derivatives stress ticked up

The derivatives market has now been more aggressively positioned for a price decline than at any other point in 2026, including during February’s stress peak. Leveraged traders are paying a premium to hold their short bets open, and that conviction has not wavered despite two weeks of positive price action. The options market tells the same story: traders are increasingly using direct futures shorts rather than buying protective options, which typically signals higher confidence in a downward move rather than just hedging.

What could happen next

The more likely path is continued choppiness or a drift lower, with short-term holders adding selling pressure on any bounce. A genuine recovery needs two things to happen in sequence: short-term holders need to find relief without immediately selling into it, and leveraged shorts need to start unwinding rather than doubling down. Neither is currently visible.

However, there is some hope for bulls. Despite returning to profitable territory, long-term holders chose not to sell, and just wait. That kind of restraint — sitting on profits rather than taking them — has historically preceded sustained recoveries. If that conviction holds and short-term pressure eventually exhausts, the setup for an upside move could be quietly building underneath the noise.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

All existing UK customers – as well as newly onboarded users – will be served by a UK-registered entity. With its inclusion on the FCA’s official register, CEX.IO can establish deeper partnerships with UK banks, helping reduce the likelihood of blocked deposits or flagged withdrawals.

The migration of CEX.IO’s UK user base will be carried out in phases to ensure a smooth transition. Customers will receive in-app notifications prompting them to accept new UK-specific terms. CEX.IO does not expect the process to affect their existing asset portfolios or interrupt their trading activity.

Operating through a UK-registered entity also means that CEX.IO’s cryptoasset activities for UK users will be carried on within the UK anti-money laundering and financial crime framework.

“We aren’t just checking a box – we’re building a home for crypto in Britain,” said Rich Evans, Managing Director at CEX.IO. “By moving our UK users to a locally registered framework, we’re reinforcing and aligning local accountability with the high standards expected from any UK financial service. This registration lays a solid foundation for everything we plan to build in 2026 and beyond.” The UK is widely regarded as having one of the most rigorous regulatory environments for digital assets globally. According to FCA data, historically 15% of applicants have successfully met the required standards. By securing this status, CEX.IO joins a group of firms capable of meeting the FCA’s ‘high-bar’ expectations for financial crime prevention and consumer protection. Registered firms also gain the ability to communicate their own qualifying cryptoassets financial promotions to UK consumers under the UK’s updated 2026 regulatory standards, ensuring that all communications remain fair, clear, and focused on consumer protection.

Check latest crypto news on Finbold to keep up to date with the latest crypto news.

It draws from three blocks: on-chain holder behaviour (which cohorts are moving coins and at what profit or loss), ETF and derivatives activity (institutional flows, liquidations, funding rates, and liquidation directionality), and exchange-level liquidity (BTC inflows, stablecoin flows, and realised loss density). The index is updated weekly, on a scale of 0 to 100, with the following bands:&

• Normal Rotation (0–24) — routine profit-taking, no structural shift.
• Elevated Repositioning (25–49) — meaningful cohort shifts, limited institutional stress.&
• High Impact (50–74) — LTH and STH both under pressure, ETF/derivatives de-risking.
• Critical Impact (75–100) — LTH capitulation, large ETF outflows, major liquidations, heavy exchange inflows.

Below are readings for all 10 completed weeks of 2026, followed by what the latest data suggests about the current situation.

The lowest index reading in 2026 was 28.8 in mid-January, when ETF inflows were strong and holder stress was moving down. A week later, a sharp selloff began, which illustrates an important point about how to read the index. The headline score reflects what already happened, but the signals inside it can indicate where pressure is building before it fully shows up in price. The highest reading was 69.7 in early February, when long-term holders were selling at a loss, ETFs were bleeding capital, and liquidations peaked. Current readings are sitting roughly in the middle of that range.

*Note: Week 11 figures are partial because the week has not yet ended.

Week 11 (March 9–15): A Fragile Recovery

The index opens the new week at 44.8, continuing in Elevated Repositioning and moving further from the High Impact threshold compared to last week’s 49.4. This continues a broader trend of gradual easing. Although the direction is positive, the improvement is uneven across different parts of the market.

Short-term pressure easing, but long-term holders are the new concern

Short-term holders have scaled back selling at a loss, with their realized P/L ratio recovering close to breakeven. Long-term holders, however, moved in the opposite direction. LTH SOPR dropped to 0.762, the lowest reading in three years. Long-term holders typically distribute coins during strong rallies, when they can lock in profits. When they instead sell at a loss, it usually reflects weaker conviction in further upside.

At the same time, the short-term holder picture can change quickly. Last week, as Bitcoin approached $74,000, STH SOPR briefly reached 1, and many short-term holders used that moment to exit positions at breakeven rather than hold for further gains. Now the market is facing a similar test again. With STH SOPR back to 1 and Bitcoin trading close to $70,000, the key question is whether short-term holders will treat this level as another exit opportunity. If they do, it would suggest that confidence in a sustained recovery remains limited.

Liquidity signals send a mixed message

Despite the improvement in short-term holder behaviour, the liquidity picture moved sharply in the wrong direction. Stablecoin flows to exchanges turned deeply negative at –$187.9M daily average, reversing the positive readings of the past two weeks. Exchange BTC inflows stayed low, which is a positive, but the stablecoin reversal suggests that the buyer interest seen in early March has not yet turned into consistent accumulation.

Derivatives positioning remains deeply negative

Funding rates are still negative at -0.0044, meaning leveraged traders continue to pay a premium to hold short positions. This signal has now persisted for over a month without a decisive resolution, and this week brought no meaningful change in either direction. The divergence between improving spot conditions and persistently bearish derivatives positioning remains the defining unresolved tension in the market.

However, it is worth putting this in context. Although today’s derivatives positioning looks similar to early February, the most intense period in 2026, the spot market stress is far lower. That divergence historically preceded sharp moves in either direction. Episodes of extreme negative funding without corresponding spot deterioration have sometimes resolved as short squeezes, where shorts are forced to cover and price moves sharply higher. But that outcome requires sustained spot buying to hold firm, which the stablecoin data does not yet confirm.

What could happen next

At this point, continued price decline or sideways movement is the more likely outcome. The key thing to watch is whether short-term holders sell again the moment they break even, just like they did near $74,000 last week. If that happens again, it means every price bounce is being used as an exit opportunity, not a reason to hold. Add deteriorating long-term holder conviction, the stablecoin drain, and persistently negative funding rates, and the pressure is pointing firmly downward.

For the picture to genuinely improve, long-term holder SOPR would need to stop falling and recover back above 1, confirming that veteran sellers are exhausting rather than accelerating. Stablecoin inflows would need to return in a sustained way, and short-term holders would need to hold through breakeven rather than selling into it. Right now, none of those conditions are in place. Until they are, any price recovery is more likely to stall than to stick.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

For years, crypto adoption has been measured primarily through the lens of overall user growth — new wallets, rising volumes, expanding markets. But underneath those headline numbers, the composition of who is participating has been quietly shifting. New data from CEX.IO, drawn from a sample of over 3 million users across 150+ countries, reveals that female participation in crypto is not only growing but accelerating at a pace that outstrips the broader market.

Notably, women are more actively moving from passive holding into active trading, but a long-term orientation and holding through volatility rather than reacting to it remains the most popular approach.

What follows is a close look at where that growth is coming from, what female users are actually doing with their portfolios, and what their behavior might signal about the evolving character of crypto participation overall.

1 in 5 Active Crypto Users is Now Female&

In 2024, roughly one in six users (17%) who made a financial operation on the crypto exchange was female. Today, that number is closer to one in five (21%).&

What makes this number more striking is the pace behind it. Female user activity grew more than twice as fast as male activity over the same period — over 70% growth year-on-year for women, compared to 33% for men. Notably, women outpaced men consistently across every age group.

The 35–50 age group stands out as the most active. Women in this bracket account for the largest share of female crypto operations and represent the core of female crypto engagement.&

But the fastest-moving group is the youngest: women aged 18–25 more than doubled their activity year-on-year. Some of that acceleration reflects a lower starting point, but still, young women are entering crypto at a rapidly increasing rate, and they’re arriving faster than their male peers.

Women Doubled Their Financial Footprint in Crypto, With Trading Fueling the Trend

Female-driven financial volume on the crypto exchange grew by more than 118% in 2025, outpacing men’s volume with a 99% growth rate over the same period.

Spot trading played a significant role in this surge. The share of female spot traders grew from around 12% to nearly 13% in 2025. That may sound modest, but the volume story is more impactful. Female spot trading volume more than tripled year-on-year. As a result, women’s share of total spot trading volume jumped from around 3% to over 5%.

Notably, among male spot traders, activity is increasingly concentrated in the 25-35 age group, suggesting younger men are leading trading behavior. But among female traders, the 35–50 group remains dominant, both in activity and in volume.

Meanwhile, the overall share of spot trading within female crypto activity has also grown — rising from roughly 22% to 31% of female volume. This indicates that women are increasingly engaging with trading tools as a bigger part of their crypto journey.

Women in Crypto Are BTC First and Stick More to Their Original Plan

Among female users, Bitcoin is the single most interacted-with digital asset by volume, accounting for 37% of female financial activity. The female top-five asset ranking runs: BTC, USDT, ETH, USDC, XRP — with Bitcoin clearly in front. Among male users, the order is slightly different: USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, XRP — with stablecoins accounting for nearly half of financial activity. This gap points to a more buy-and-hold orientation among female users, while male activity leans more toward active rotation between assets.

That long-term mindset also shows up in how female users respond — or rather, don’t respond — to market turbulence. When high-impact events hit the market and total spot volumes surge, female users show notably smaller spikes in both activity and volume. This doesn’t mean they’re passive, but rather less reactive to noise and act as a stabilizing force in the market.

Despite a clear preference for Bitcoin, women are actively exploring beyond it. Among top altcoins, assets that saw the biggest increase in female interest in 2025 include AAVE, SUI, XRP, SOL, and ETH.

Conclusion

Female crypto adoption over the past year was broad, spanning every age group, outpacing male growth in both activity and volume, and deepening in engagement as more women moved from passive holding into active trading.

This trend isn’t exclusive to crypto, and a similar shift is underway across traditional finance. Fidelity’s research found that 7 in 10 women own stock market investments, up 18% compared to the prior year. Charles Schwab’s 2025 survey found millennial women are starting to invest earlier than previous generations, supporting the trend of younger women getting more involved in crypto.

The behavioral patterns are also similar. Bitcoin-first thinking and lower reactivity to market volatility mirror what researchers have documented in traditional markets for decades: women trade less, hold longer, and tend to outperform as a result.What makes crypto distinctive is the pace. A four-percentage point jump in female share of active crypto users within a single year is a steeper trajectory than traditional finance has typically recorded. As female participation continues to grow, it may bring a measurably different energy to a crypto space that has sometimes been defined by its excesses.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

Stablecoins have historically dwarfed tokenized treasuries by most measures, and their quarterly supply expansion regularly reached tens of billions. However, in Q1 2026 so far, the tokenized treasury market added $2.12 billion in market cap, while stablecoins added just $1.19 billion. For the first time ever, tokenized treasuries are growing faster than stablecoins in absolute terms.

So what changed?

Note: Q1 2026 data is through February 24, 2026.

The Market Turned Cautious and Yield Became the Answer

Crypto markets have been grinding through a difficult period, and investors are responding by rotating toward assets that offer more stability and predictable returns. Tokenized treasuries fit that profile almost perfectly: they are backed by U.S. government debt and generate real yield, which has even ticked up slightly this year.&

Tokenized treasuries currently show eight consecutive quarters of expansion. Moreover, although we are only mid-quarter, Q1 2026 is already on track to become the strongest quarter for tokenized treasuries on record. This indicates that demand is not only sustained, but also accelerating.

As such, since the start of 2024, tokenized U.S. treasuries have grown from $750 million to nearly $11 billion — a roughly 15x increase. Non-U.S. treasuries followed a similar trajectory, surging from just $13 million to over $1 billion over the same period.

Notably, non-U.S. treasuries have been steadily increasing their footprint within the tokenized treasuries market. Their share of total market cap has expanded from roughly 1% two years ago to nearly 9% today, signaling gradual diversification beyond U.S bonds.

Stablecoin Supply Is Shifting Towards Yield As Well

Stablecoin supply is currently showing its worst dynamics in years. In the first two months of 2026, Ethereum has already lost more than $8 billion in stablecoin supply — the worst result since Q2 2022. In turn, USDT and USDC lost $3.2 billion and $0.5 billion in supply, respectively, so far this year.

By conventional measures, this would signal a sector in retreat. But total stablecoin supply has barely changed in the aggregate, because the market is restructuring around yield.

Among the stablecoins posting the largest absolute supply gains in 2026, yield-bearing assets such as USDY, sUSDS, USYC, and syrupUSDC lead the pack. Other top performers are also closely linked to yield-generating mechanisms. USDS, for instance, largely serves as an entry point to sUSDS, while USD1 has benefited from the launch of World Liberty Markets, which expanded its DeFi utility and yield access. So even where the yield is indirect, it is clearly driving adoption.

As a whole, yield-bearing stablecoins showed a 5% increase in 2026 so far, becoming the best-performing segments in the stablecoin sector right now.

What This Signals For the Industry

During bull markets, stablecoins thrive as liquidity vehicles, sitting on the sidelines of active speculation. In a more cautious environment, idle capital has a cost, and both protocols and users are looking for on-chain instruments that work harder. If bearish conditions persist, yield-bearing stablecoins and tokenized treasuries are well-positioned to keep expanding as investors seek stability and consistent returns.

The growth of yield-bearing assets is already registering beyond crypto markets. In Washington, stablecoin yield has become one of the more contentious topics in ongoing U.S. crypto legislation. Specifically, it’s about whether centralized exchanges should be allowed to pay yield on stablecoin balances, a model that banks see as a direct threat to their deposit business. That debate is narrower than what the DeFi-native yield products covered here represent, but it reflects the same underlying shift: yield on crypto assets is no longer a niche feature, it is becoming an expectation — and one that traditional finance is taking seriously enough to push back on through legislation.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

2025 marked a historic year for crypto dealmaking, with combined fundraising and M&A activity reaching nearly $55 billion. The momentum peaked in Q4 2025, which emerged as the busiest quarter the industry has ever recorded. Landmark events included Naver’s $10 billion merger with Dunamu, Polymarket’s $2 billion raise led by Intercontinental Exchange, and Kalshi’s $1 billion fundraising round, which collectively drove this record-breaking quarter.

Compared to 2024, the scale of crypto deals jumped by 350% in 2025. This surge in activity was so unprecedented, nine of the ten largest crypto deals in history took place last year. The only exception within the top ten remains EOS’s $4 billion ICO in 2018, which still stands as the largest ICO ever.&

2025’s largest deals were primarily M&As, IPOs, and strategic investments from traditional financial institutions, highlighting the industry’s maturation and its deepening integration with the broader financial system.

Crypto Fundraising Is Among Leading Sectors in Global Funding

Crypto fundraising reached $35.6 billion in 2025, surpassing the previous peak in 2021 and setting a new all-time high. Considering Crunchbase estimates of global venture funding last year, this would position crypto among the leading funded sectors, behind AI and healthcare/biotech.

One of the most notable divergences between crypto and broader venture markets is its declining exposure to AI. While AI accounts for roughly half of all global venture funding, its share within crypto has continued to shrink, falling from 7% of total crypto fundraising in 2024 to just 2.6% in 2025.&

Instead of AI, the majority of funds in 2025 was allocated to finance-related projects (exchanges, stablecoins, tokenization, etc.), totaling more than $19 billion. Consumer apps (prediction markets, gaming, wallets, etc.) came second with over $6 billion, while infrastructure (hardware, security tools, bridges, etc.) rounded out the top three with over $3 billion.

Another distinctive aspect of 2025 was fundraising distribution. Rather than scattering investments across numerous small projects, VCs are now writing bigger checks to fewer companies. The deal count fell by 36% year-over-year, while the average round size climbed to nearly $36 million, signaling a clear preference for quality over quantity.

This dynamic mirrors a broader trend across the fintech sector last year, where deal count declined by 23%, even as total deal volume increased by 27%. However, the average fintech round size stood at roughly $15 million in 2025, or about 2.4x smaller than in crypto, highlighting crypto industry’s continued appeal.

Crypto M&As Became More Common and Pronounced

In 2025, the crypto industry experienced an unprecedented and rapid rise in M&A volume and count. First of all, it’s important to point out that M&A data is less transparent than fundraising. While 140 crypto M&As were recorded in 2025, about 86% of them did not disclose the transaction amount, making it difficult to estimate the true value of the sector’s activity.&

Still, deals with publicly disclosed values have exceeded $18 billion, representing more than a 10x increase from 2024. For comparison, global M&A value reportedly rose by 40% in 2025.

As a result, M&A now makes up 34% of total crypto deal volume, the largest proportion ever recorded.

This surge in acquisitions signals market maturation. Companies are increasingly buying rather than building, acquiring existing technology, talent, and user bases to accelerate growth. The move from pure innovation to strategic consolidation suggests the industry is entering a new phase of development.

Similarly to fundraising, most of the known deals are in the Finance sector, accounting for 96% of volume and 46% deal count. Notable examples include Coinbase purchasing Deribit, Kraken acquiring NinjaTrader, and Ripple buying Hidden Road.

2026 Outlook

The trends established in 2025 are likely to persist throughout 2026, but the scale of crypto deals may go down similarly to 2022 if broader market conditions deteriorate.

M&A activity will likely accelerate as the industry continues maturing. Larger players with strong balance sheets will use market downturns as opportunities to consolidate smaller competitors or acquire strategic technologies at more favorable valuations. At the same time, fundraising patterns will probably mirror 2025’s evolution toward fewer but larger rounds in general.

Most likely, Finance will remain the dominant category for crypto deals in 2026, with stablecoins, tokenization, and new CeFi/DeFi projects among the most promising subcategories. Stablecoin volume and supply have been actively increasing throughout 2025, and newly established regulatory frameworks like the Genius Act could encourage TradFi to explore stablecoin infrastructure more actively.

Tokenization and RWAs have been one of the fastest growing sectors in DeFi this year, primarily due to increased adoption of tokenized treasuries/gold/stocks, as well as private credit. This category is particularly attractive to investors because it serves as a practical bridge between TradFi and crypto. On one side, it introduces crypto users to conventional asset classes. On the other, it offers traditional investors an opportunity to benefit from 24/7 trading, fractional ownership, and faster settlement times.

Overall, 2026 will likely see an even more selective, strategically-focused crypto investment landscape than in 2025.

Sources

The data used for this research consists of publicly available information from RootData, Blockworks Research, Crunchbase, Lazard, and Coingecko. The observation period for this study was focused on 2021-2025 for general overview, and 2025 for sector overview, with data points ending January 1, 2026.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

• Stablecoin supply grew 49% in 2025, adding over $100 billion and reaching the largest stablecoin dominance in crypto market cap since 2023.
• Ethereum and Tron’s combined market share declined from 85% to 80% as BSC and Solana captured most of the new stablecoin supply momentum.
• USDC has been eating up smaller stablecoins in DeFi interaction and on-chain transfers, while USDT saw increased dominance in trading volume, reaching 82.3%.
• Stablecoins reached $33.4 trillion in aggregated trading volume in 2025, showing a 29% increase compared to 2024’s performance.
• In 2025, USDT’s DEX trading volume exceeded USDC’s for the first time since 2021.

In 2025, stablecoins accelerated their transition from crypto-trading tools to a legitimate global settlement layer. This move was anchored by landmark regulatory progress, including the U.S. GENIUS Act and MiCa’s implementation in Europe, which established the first comprehensive federal frameworks for stablecoin issuers.

TradFi adoption experienced a significant boost as giants like Stripe and PayPal integrated stablecoins directly into mainstream commerce. The market also saw the rapid rise of high-impact new entrants, most notably USD1 backed by the Trump family and USDG supported by Robinhood, Kraken, and Paxos.

The convergence of regulatory clarity and institutional adoption created conditions for stablecoins to achieve a level of legitimacy that would have seemed impossible just years earlier. To explore the further trajectory of stablecoin market, let’s dive into the sector’s current health and major changes in its landscape that defined the past 12 months.

Supply Dynamics

Total Supply Growth

In 2025, total stablecoin supply increased by over $100 billion, or 49%, in the year, surpassing the $300 billion mark. The expansion was particularly pronounced in the third quarter, where stablecoin supply increased by $45 billion, which is the largest stablecoin expansion in its history.&

However, in Q4, it was only $8.1 billion, marking the worst result since Q4 2023. The latter was primarily affected by the increased risk off sentiment and a 22% drop in crypto-backed stablecoin supply.

As such, stablecoins now account for nearly 9% of total crypto market cap, up from 6.4% at the beginning of 2025. Such a rise in stablecoin dominance is quite unusual as stablecoin supply has been historically strongly correlated with crypto market cap, registering 0.8-0.91 in 2020-2022.

However, in 2025, the correlation between crypto market cap and stablecoin supply was only 0.4, which suggests that the sector’s growth was less associated with the waves of crypto bull and bear markets than in the previous cycle. Instead, stablecoins have been establishing themselves more as independent financial infrastructure with sustained demand regardless of market cycles.

Another notable milestone is that stablecoins now represent approximately 1.38% of total U.S. dollar supply, up from 0.95% at the beginning of 2024, highlighting their growing significance in the global financial system.

Supply Growth By Asset

Most of this $100 billion net supply growth in 2025 came from 7 stablecoins, 3 of which — USD1, USDf, and USDG — were launched last year.

Leading Stablecoins

USDT maintained its position as the largest stablecoin, growing by $49.7 billion in 2025 and hitting $187 billion in total supply. While impressive in absolute terms, USDT’s market share in total stablecoin supply actually showed slight erosion, moving from 67% to 61%, as USDC and newer entrants captured a portion of the expanding market.

USDC was the second-largest contributor to supply growth, adding $31.4 billion to reach $75.3 billion by year-end. This growth was partly driven by USDC’s continued domination in DeFi and its regulatory compliance advantages in traditional payment integrations. As a result, USDC’s share in total stablecoin supply increased from 21% to 25%.

Emerging Players

PYUSD emerged as one of the year’s biggest success stories, with supply skyrocketing by 623% to $3.6 billion. This explosive growth was fueled by PayPal’s aggressive expansion strategy in the space and integration across multiple blockchain networks.

USDS, the upgraded version of DAI, also grew substantially to $5.9 billion, up 358% from its levels at the beginning of 2025. The major contributor to this surge was sUSDS, which in a matter of months dethroned sUSDe and BUIDL, becoming the largest yield-bearing stablecoin.

Among the year’s new launches, USD1, USDf, USDG all established meaningful market presence, each surpassing $1 billion supply in less than a year.&

In general, new entrants represented a broader trend toward traditional finance companies entering the stablecoin space, with PYUSD and USDG viewed as part of a growing TradFi-backed cohort bringing institutional credibility to the sector.

Supply Growth By Network

In terms of network distribution, 74% of stablecoin supply growth came from dominant networks such as Ethereum and Tron. However, the stablecoin landscape continued the diversification trend of 2024, as both networks saw their share of total supply decline in 2025.

Dominant Networks

Ethereum captured the largest share of new stablecoin issuance throughout the year, adding more than $51 billion in total supply. This L1 growth was partly fueled at the expense of Ethereum’s L2 networks, which saw only a $2.6 billion stablecoin expansion and a declining share in total stablecoin supply.

The most impactful factor has been an over 98% drop in mainnet fees throughout 2025. With gas prices hovering at historically low levels, Ethereum L1 became more cost-competitive with many L2s. Notably, most of Ethereum’s gains in stablecoin supply occurred during declining fee periods.

Tron maintained its position as the second-largest network, adding $23.6 billion in stablecoin supply. However, since cost-efficiency was Tron’s one of the main competitive advantages for a long time, it has been losing its dominance in 2025 to faster-growing alternatives with lower fees.

Overall, a combined share of Ethereum and Tron in total stablecoin supply decreased from 85% at the beginning of 2025 to 80% in early 2026, with BSC, Solana, and Hyperliquid capturing the most of new stablecoin supply momentum.

Rising Stars

​​Among smaller ecosystems, Solana and BSC gained the most in absolute numbers, each adding nearly $15 billion in stablecoin supply. Both networks saw spikes in stablecoin supply amid local memecoin frenzies to support the momentum, with stablecoin activity primarily landing on DEXs.

Over time, Solana managed to significantly decrease its memecoin dependency, with SOL-Stablecoin and stablecoin swaps becoming a primary source of DEX activity. However, BSC remains memecoin-heavy, with the surged stablecoin supply also finding its use in yield farming, lending, and on-chain transactions. Notably, BSC dominated in active stablecoin addresses throughout 2025.

Aside from Solana and BSC, Aptos and Hyperliquid were among the fastest growing stablecoin ecosystems, registering 266% and 131% jumps in stablecoin supply, respectively.

The rise of newer networks like Aptos, Sui and Hyperliquid, combined with the continued growth of Solana and BSC, points to an increasingly multi-chain future for stablecoins, where users select networks based on specific use cases rather than defaulting to established options.

Trading Volume Dynamics

Total Volume

Stablecoins reached $33.4 trillion in aggregated trading volume in 2025, representing a 29% increase compared to 2024’s performance. Despite this substantial growth, the sector still fell slightly short of the record $35 trillion achieved in 2021, when the bull market drove unprecedented trading activity across crypto markets.

Average daily trading volume across 2025 stood at $91.5 billion, up from $70.6 billion in 2024, reflecting the sector’s sustained role as the primary medium of exchange for crypto trading, with most activity taking place in the second half of the year.

The Rising Dominance of USDT

Perhaps the most notable trend in 2025’s trading landscape was USDT’s increasing concentration of trading volume. For the full year, USDT accounted for 82.3% of all stablecoin trading volume in 2025, up from 79.6% in 2024. In turn, USDC captured 11.2%, while all other stablecoins combined represented just 6.5%.

This USDT concentration intensified throughout the year, moving from 78.5% in January to 86.0% in December. This rise in domination occurred, despite USDT delisting for EU customers on multiple CEXs, as markets became more concentrated during US trading hours.

The trading volume concentration toward USDT was further reinforced by exchange reserve patterns. Throughout 2025, stablecoin reserves on centralized exchanges grew by 23%, surpassing $70 billion.

However, this growth was overwhelmingly driven by USDT, which saw reserves surge by 34%, while most other major stablecoins experienced declining exchange reserves. FDUSD experienced the most impactful drop, losing half of its exchange reserves and 83% of its trading volume in 2025.

The DEX landscape reveals another dimension of USDT’s growing influence. Historically, USDC had dominated DEX trading, leveraging its strong integration with DeFi protocols and preference among on-chain traders. However, 2025 marked a turning point. For the first time since 2021, USDT’s DEX trading volume exceeded USDC’s. USDT recorded $1.14 trillion in DEX volume compared to USDC’s $1.10 trillion.

USDT volume on DEXs surged by over 285% compared to 2024, with nearly 4% of all USDT volume taking place on decentralized exchanges. In turn, USDC saw its DEX share decline from 39% in January to 23% in December. This suggests that while USDC has become increasingly adopted by CEXs, the gap on DEXs was primarily filled by USDT. The major contributor to this shift was BSC network, which saw a 4x increase in DEX volume and primarily featured USDT for transactions.

The increasing concentration of trading volume around USDT indicates that traders are using the path of least resistance for order execution due to its unmatched liquidity depth and widespread support. However, this concentration raises questions about market resilience and competition. As USDT’s dominance grows, alternative stablecoins face steeper challenges in gaining trading traction, even if they may offer regulatory advantages or innovative features.

2026 Outlook

Many of the defining trends of 2025 transitioned from 2024 and are poised to accelerate in 2026. For instance, the diversification of supply toward newer, smaller networks shows no sign of slowing, with these emerging ecosystems continuing to chip away at the dominance of established players.

Stablecoin regulation will likely continue to take shape globally, with Singapore preparing a draft stablecoin legislation and UK consulting on a market framework for stablecoins. Also, the global regulatory landscape may find further clarity in Q1 2026, as FATF is set to release its report on stablecoins.&

Traditional finance’s push into the sector could also intensify this year as stablecoins become the “invisible” back-end for everyday fintech. PayPal, Klarna, Robinhood, Stipe, and Revolut have big plans in 2026, while Visa and Mastercard have both announced plans for stablecoin settlements this year and expect the trend to accelerate next year..

However, the sector’s performance in 2026 remains tied to the broader crypto market. While stablecoins proved more resilient during the market volatility of Q4 2025, their supply growth still largely mirrors the industry’s overall health. A deeper market correction could pressure growth and limit new supply, while a reestablished bull market would likely act as an aggravating factor, pushing stablecoin adoption and total supply well beyond current projections.

Sources

The report utilizes a diverse range of trusted sources, including DeFiLlama, Artemis, The Block, Visa/Allium, CoinGecko, CryptoQuant, Blockworks Research, and GrowThePie. These platforms provided key metrics on supply and trading dynamics to validate market developments across fiat- and crypto-backed stablecoins. The observation period for this study was focused on 2025 annual performance, with data points ending January 1, 2026.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

• Total stablecoin transaction volume hit a record $60.9 trillion, 2x the combined annual volume of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
• Stablecoin supply grew 49% in 2025, adding over $100 billion and reaching the largest stablecoin dominance in crypto market cap since 2023.
• P2P stablecoin transfers reached $17.8 trillion, up 109% year-over-year, marking the first year ever they exceeded legacy card networks.
• Bot activity in stablecoin transaction volume decreased from 70% in 2024 to 68.5% in 2025.&
• BSC has been among the biggest winners in stablecoin adoption, showing a 5x jump in volume and 2x surge in supply.
• USDC has been eating up smaller stablecoins in DeFi interaction and on-chain transfers, while USDT saw increased dominance in trading volume, reaching 82.3%.
• Stablecoins reached $33.4 trillion in aggregated trading volume in 2025, showing a 29% increase compared to 2024’s performance.
• In 2025, USDT’s DEX trading volume exceeded USDC’s for the first time since 2021.

In 2025, stablecoins accelerated their transition from crypto-trading tools to a legitimate global settlement layer. This move was anchored by landmark regulatory progress, including the U.S. GENIUS Act and MiCa’s implementation in Europe, which established the first comprehensive federal frameworks for stablecoin issuers.

TradFi adoption experienced a significant boost as giants like Stripe and PayPal integrated stablecoins directly into mainstream commerce. The market also saw the rapid rise of high-impact new entrants, most notably USD1 backed by the Trump family and USDG supported by Robinhood, Kraken, and Paxos.

The convergence of regulatory clarity and institutional adoption created conditions for stablecoins to achieve a level of legitimacy that would have seemed impossible just years earlier. To explore the further trajectory of stablecoin market, let’s dive into the sector’s current health and major changes in its landscape that defined the past 12 months.

Supply Dynamics

Total Supply Growth

In 2025, total stablecoin supply increased by over $100 billion, or 49%, in the year, surpassing the $300 billion mark. The expansion was particularly pronounced in the third quarter, where stablecoin supply increased by $45 billion, which is the largest stablecoin expansion in its history.&

However, in Q4, it was only $8.1 billion, marking the worst result since Q4 2023. The latter was primarily affected by the increased risk off sentiment and a 22% drop in crypto-backed stablecoin supply.

As such, stablecoins now account for nearly 9% of total crypto market cap, up from 6.4% at the beginning of 2025. Such a rise in stablecoin dominance is quite unusual as stablecoin supply has been historically strongly correlated with crypto market cap, registering 0.8-0.91 in 2020-2022.

However, in 2025, the correlation between crypto market cap and stablecoin supply was only 0.4, which suggests that the sector’s growth was less associated with the waves of crypto bull and bear markets than in the previous cycle. Instead, stablecoins have been establishing themselves more as independent financial infrastructure with sustained demand regardless of market cycles.

Another notable milestone is that stablecoins now represent approximately 1.38% of total U.S. dollar supply, up from 0.95% at the beginning of 2024, highlighting their growing significance in the global financial system.

Supply Growth By Asset

Most of this $100 billion net supply growth in 2025 came from 7 stablecoins, 3 of which — USD1, USDf, and USDG — were launched last year.

Leading Stablecoins

USDT maintained its position as the largest stablecoin, growing by $49.7 billion in 2025 and hitting $187 billion in total supply. While impressive in absolute terms, USDT’s market share in total stablecoin supply actually showed slight erosion, moving from 67% to 61%, as USDC and newer entrants captured a portion of the expanding market.

USDC was the second-largest contributor to supply growth, adding $31.4 billion to reach $75.3 billion by year-end. This growth was partly driven by USDC’s continued domination in DeFi and its regulatory compliance advantages in traditional payment integrations. As a result, USDC’s share in total stablecoin supply increased from 21% to 25%.

Emerging Players

PYUSD emerged as one of the year’s biggest success stories, with supply skyrocketing by 623% to $3.6 billion. This explosive growth was fueled by PayPal’s aggressive expansion strategy in the space and integration across multiple blockchain networks.

USDS, the upgraded version of DAI, also grew substantially to $5.9 billion, up 358% from its levels at the beginning of 2025. The major contributor to this surge was sUSDS, which in a matter of months dethroned sUSDe and BUIDL, becoming the largest yield-bearing stablecoin.

Among the year’s new launches, USD1, USDf, USDG all established meaningful market presence, each surpassing $1 billion supply in less than a year.&

In general, new entrants represented a broader trend toward traditional finance companies entering the stablecoin space, with PYUSD and USDG viewed as part of a growing TradFi-backed cohort bringing institutional credibility to the sector.

Supply Growth By Network

In terms of network distribution, 74% of stablecoin supply growth came from dominant networks such as Ethereum and Tron. However, the stablecoin landscape continued the diversification trend of 2024, as both networks saw their share of total supply decline in 2025.

Dominant Networks

Ethereum captured the largest share of new stablecoin issuance throughout the year, adding more than $51 billion in total supply. This L1 growth was partly fueled at the expense of Ethereum’s L2 networks, which saw only a $2.6 billion stablecoin expansion and a declining share in total stablecoin supply.

The most impactful factor has been an over 98% drop in mainnet fees throughout 2025. With gas prices hovering at historically low levels, Ethereum L1 became more cost-competitive with many L2s. Notably, most of Ethereum’s gains in stablecoin supply occurred during declining fee periods.

Tron maintained its position as the second-largest network, adding $23.6 billion in stablecoin supply. However, since cost-efficiency was Tron’s one of the main competitive advantages for a long time, it has been losing its dominance in 2025 to faster-growing alternatives with lower fees.

Overall, a combined share of Ethereum and Tron in total stablecoin supply decreased from 85% at the beginning of 2025 to 80% in early 2026, with BSC, Solana, and Hyperliquid capturing the most of new stablecoin supply momentum.

Rising Stars

​​Among smaller ecosystems, Solana and BSC gained the most in absolute numbers, each adding nearly $15 billion in stablecoin supply. Both networks saw spikes in stablecoin supply amid local memecoin frenzies to support the momentum, with stablecoin activity primarily landing on DEXs.

Over time, Solana managed to significantly decrease its memecoin dependency, with SOL-Stablecoin and stablecoin swaps becoming a primary source of DEX activity. However, BSC remains memecoin-heavy, with the surged stablecoin supply also finding its use in yield farming, lending, and on-chain transactions. Notably, BSC dominated in active stablecoin addresses throughout 2025.

Aside from Solana and BSC, Aptos and Hyperliquid were among the fastest growing stablecoin ecosystems, registering 266% and 131% jumps in stablecoin supply, respectively.

The rise of newer networks like Aptos, Sui and Hyperliquid, combined with the continued growth of Solana and BSC, points to an increasingly multi-chain future for stablecoins, where users select networks based on specific use cases rather than defaulting to established options.

Part 2: Transaction Volume Dynamics

Total Transaction Volume

In 2025, total stablecoin transaction volume reached an unprecedented $60.9 trillion, which is two times larger than the combined transaction volume of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express ($29.6 trillion) over the same period. This also means total stablecoin transaction volume nearly doubled compared to 2024.

Throughout 2025, stablecoins have been confidently surpassing traditional payment providers in transaction volume, with Q4 becoming the most active quarter. This quarter alone exceeded the entire annual stablecoin volume of 2021.

USDC continued to dominate on-chain activity, accounting for 62% of total combined transfer volume in 2025, up from 57% a year earlier. In turn, USDT transaction volume share remained almost unchanged, maintaining 32% in 2025. This suggests USDC has been primarily eating up smaller stablecoins in DeFi interaction and on-chain transfers.

Among smaller assets, PYUSD showed explosive growth, with transaction volume surging to by 233% increase that significantly outpaced its already impressive supply growth, while DAI experienced a contraction partly due to users migrating to USDS.

In 2025, Ethereum cemented its lead by processing $18.6 trillion in stablecoin transactions, which is a 125% increase from 2024. This increase significantly outpaced the network’s supply growth, indicating that Ethereum became increasingly preferred for actual transactions rather than just storage. However, the true breakout was Base, which saw an astronomical 615% surge to $17.2 trillion, rivaling Ethereum mainnet.

Tron, which once dominated stablecoin activity, accounted only for 13% of stablecoin transaction volume in 2025, and was increasingly displaced by more dynamic alternatives such as BSC. The latter showed nearly a 5x surge in volume.&

Solana, on the other hand, saw a 56% drop in stablecoin transfer volume. The major catalyst was faded memecoin hype within the ecosystem and its migration to BSC. As such, memecoins remain a significant driver of on-chain activity, including stablecoins.

Stablecoin transaction volume has also become more “organic,” with bot activity decreasing from 70% in 2024 to 68.5% in 2025. While bots remain dominant for liquidity and arbitrage, their overall share has been primarily declining throughout 2025, signaling an increasing adoption of stablecoins for actual human-driven payments.

P2P Transaction Volume

While total volume accounts for all on-chain activity, P2P transfers offer a clearer view of stablecoin adoption for payments and remittances. This category excludes interaction with smart contracts, internal and external transfers with labeled businesses/exchanges, mint/burn transfers, and other transactions that wouldn’t be treated as P2P.

Despite being a highly-filtered metric, P2P volume still reached a staggering $17.8 trillion, a 109% surge compared to 2024. This means that 2025 became the first year ever when P2P transfers in stablecoins eclipsed legacy giants like Visa and Mastercard.&

After years of progress, stablecoins have effectively moved from a niche crypto-trading tool to a primary competitor to traditional financial infrastructure.

USDT is the undisputed king of P2P transfers, but its share decreased from 78.7% in 2024 to 65.3% in 2025. This was largely due to a surge in P2P operations with USDC, which increased by over 237% last year, as USDC has seen a larger adoption in the EU and other regions.

Notably, a combined share of USDT and USDC decreased from 99% to 97% throughout the year, indicating that smaller stablecoins saw increased adoption in P2P operations. For the most part, these figures were driven by fresh entrants like USD1 and USDG, as well as PayPal’s PYUSD. This indicates that TradFi-backed stablecoins are gradually playing a bigger role in user onboarding to stablecoins.

In the P2P landscape, the network distribution looks quite different from total volume. Tron remains a leader, but its share decreased from 59% in 2024 to 40% in 2025. The drop primarily occurred due to an explosive P2P growth from low-fee alternatives like BSC and Solana, which saw a 441% and 544% increase in transfer volume, respectively.

The 2025 surge in P2P volume signals that stablecoins have reached their “broadband moment.” By outperforming legacy card networks in P2P throughput, the industry has proven that stablecoins can handle the scale of global commerce while offering 24/7 availability and near-instant finality.&

Part 3: Trading Volume Dynamics

Total Volume

Stablecoins reached $33.4 trillion in aggregated trading volume in 2025, representing a 29% increase compared to 2024’s performance. Despite this substantial growth, the sector still fell slightly short of the record $35 trillion achieved in 2021, when the bull market drove unprecedented trading activity across crypto markets.

Average daily trading volume across 2025 stood at $91.5 billion, up from $70.6 billion in 2024, reflecting the sector’s sustained role as the primary medium of exchange for crypto trading, with most activity taking place in the second half of the year.

The Rising Dominance of USDT

Perhaps the most notable trend in 2025’s trading landscape was USDT’s increasing concentration of trading volume. For the full year, USDT accounted for 82.3% of all stablecoin trading volume in 2025, up from 79.6% in 2024. In turn, USDC captured 11.2%, while all other stablecoins combined represented just 6.5%.

This USDT concentration intensified throughout the year, moving from 78.5% in January to 86.0% in December. This rise in domination occurred, despite USDT delisting for EU customers on multiple CEXs, as markets became more concentrated during US trading hours.

The trading volume concentration toward USDT was further reinforced by exchange reserve patterns. Throughout 2025, stablecoin reserves on centralized exchanges grew by 23%, surpassing $70 billion.

However, this growth was overwhelmingly driven by USDT, which saw reserves surge by 34%, while most other major stablecoins experienced declining exchange reserves. FDUSD experienced the most impactful drop, losing half of its exchange reserves and 83% of its trading volume in 2025.

The DEX landscape reveals another dimension of USDT’s growing influence. Historically, USDC had dominated DEX trading, leveraging its strong integration with DeFi protocols and preference among on-chain traders. However, 2025 marked a turning point. For the first time since 2021, USDT’s DEX trading volume exceeded USDC’s. USDT recorded $1.14 trillion in DEX volume compared to USDC’s $1.10 trillion.

USDT volume on DEXs surged by over 285% compared to 2024, with nearly 4% of all USDT volume taking place on decentralized exchanges. In turn, USDC saw its DEX share decline from 39% in January to 23% in December. This suggests that while USDC has become increasingly adopted by CEXs, the gap on DEXs was primarily filled by USDT. The major contributor to this shift was BSC network, which saw a 4x increase in DEX volume and primarily featured USDT for transactions.

The increasing concentration of trading volume around USDT indicates that traders are using the path of least resistance for order execution due to its unmatched liquidity depth and widespread support. However, this concentration raises questions about market resilience and competition. As USDT’s dominance grows, alternative stablecoins face steeper challenges in gaining trading traction, even if they may offer regulatory advantages or innovative features.

2026 Outlook

Many of the defining trends of 2025 transitioned from 2024 and are poised to accelerate in 2026. For instance, the migration of activity toward newer, smaller networks shows no sign of slowing, with these emerging ecosystems continuing to chip away at the dominance of established players.

Stablecoin regulation will likely continue to take shape globally, with Singapore preparing a draft stablecoin legislation and UK consulting on a market framework for stablecoins. Also, the global regulatory landscape may find further clarity in Q1 2026, as FATF is set to release its report on stablecoins.&

Traditional finance’s push into the sector could also intensify this year as stablecoins become the “invisible” back-end for everyday fintech. PayPal, Klarna, Robinhood, Stipe, and Revolut have big plans in 2026, while Visa and Mastercard have both announced plans for stablecoin settlements this year and expect the trend to accelerate next year..

However, the sector’s performance in 2026 remains tied to the broader crypto market. While stablecoins proved more resilient during the market volatility of Q4 2025, their supply growth still largely mirrors the industry’s overall health. A deeper market correction could pressure growth and limit new supply, while a reestablished bull market would likely act as an aggravating factor, pushing stablecoin adoption and total supply well beyond current projections.

Sources

The report utilizes a diverse range of trusted sources, including DeFiLlama, Artemis, The Block, Visa/Allium, CoinGecko, CryptoQuant, Blockworks Research, and GrowThePie. These platforms provided key metrics on supply, on-chain activity, and trading dynamics to validate market developments across fiat- and crypto-backed stablecoins. For P2P transactions analysis, the Artemis data was primarily used, utilizing its approach to define the category and labeling transactions. As for evaluating bot transactions, the report used Visa’s methodology. The observation period for this study was focused on 2025 annual performance, with data points ending January 1, 2026.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

• 41% of young adults prefer complete financial independence over any parental support, even when struggling.
• 43% invest in both traditional products and crypto, with social media influencing 31% of investment decisions.
• Only 25% claim to pay for everything themselves, revealing a gap between ideals and reality.

Generation Z often gets framed as the “struggle generation” — financially pressured, burdened by housing costs, and leaning on parental support. A new CEX.IO survey of 1,200 young adults from the U.S. aged 18–27 explores how parental support shapes Gen Z’s financial lives, and reveals a deep tension between dependence and the desire for autonomy.

If they could, 41% would choose no financial help at all from their parents, preferring to stand entirely on their own despite economic headwinds.&

However, this preference for autonomy stands in stark contrast to current reality. Only 25% claim to pay for everything themselves today, while 34% receive occasional help with major costs and 23% have most main expenses covered by their parents.&

The disconnect between aspiration and circumstance reveals a generation caught between idealism and economic pressure.

The Independence Paradox

When asked to choose between financial comfort with family support versus a tougher road with full freedom, 39% selected the harder path. Another 26% want a phased approach, suggesting that even those accepting help view it as temporary. Combined, 65% of respondents see parental financial involvement as something to minimize or eliminate entirely.&

Among those whose parents cover significant expenses, 43% say parental opinions have little impact on their life decisions and they ultimately follow their own path. Another 20% admit their parents’ views carry significant weight in these decisions. Education and professional training remain the most acceptable form of parental support, followed by emergency help.

Crypto Has a Significant Share in the Investment Mix

This generation’s approach to building wealth reflects their digital-native status. 43% invest in both traditional financial products and cryptocurrency, while another 21% focus primarily on higher-risk assets like crypto and speculative stocks. Only 15% stick exclusively to traditional investments, and just 9% aren’t investing at all.

Social media plays an outsized role in shaping these decisions. 31% say online creators or communities influence their investing choices most, while 23% look to friends and peers.&

Given $1,000 to invest tomorrow, nearly half (49%) would split it between safer and higher-risk options, demonstrating a balanced approach despite their increased appetite for crypto. However, 21% would skip investing entirely and use the money for immediate needs or experiences, highlighting how financial pressure shapes decisions.

Where the “Free” Money Goes

When Gen Z does have “free” money to spend, 51% prioritize experiences like travel, dining, and events over everything else. Only 23% focus primarily on investing for the future, while 13% concentrate on building security through savings and emergency funds. The emphasis on present-moment experiences over long-term planning could reflect an economic anxiety.

The barriers to investing reveal deeper struggles. 37% cite fear of losing money or making bad decisions as their biggest obstacle, while 29% simply don’t have spare money to invest. Another 17% have other priorities like studies, career, or health concerns that take precedence.

The Long View

Looking ahead, young adults split into three camps. 41% focus mainly on stable monthly income to cover current expenses, treating financial freedom as a distant goal. Another 30% want both stability now and a clear path toward freedom, while just 16% actively work toward long-term financial independence through investing and passive income streams. Notably, 13% feel too financially pressured to think beyond survival mode.

What It Means

The 16-point gap between those who want complete independence (41%) and those who’ve achieved it (25%) indicates that Gen Z wants independence but can’t always afford it yet. They inherited an economy where entry-level jobs barely cover basics and the timeline to financial stability has stretched years longer than previous generations experienced.&

As a result, their fierce resistance to ongoing parental support makes sense when you consider the trade-offs. Among those receiving significant help, some admit their parents’ opinions may heavily influence major decisions. So financial dependence isn’t free. That is why many young adults would rather struggle and stay in the gig economy than accept help with invisible strings attached.

In that sense, experimenting with crypto alongside traditional investments (43% do both) starts looking reasonable. Gen Z watched millennials follow traditional advice, get college degrees, invest conservatively, and still struggle to buy homes or clear debt. That is why a safe path may not look as appealing anymore, so taking higher risks may be perceived as a more justified approach just to keep up or achieve financial independence.

When buying a home requires saving for decades and retirement is over 40 years away, prioritizing travel and relationships in your twenties may not feel as irresponsible. For those who spend on experiences over savings (51%), this could be perceived as tangible value now over distant goals that might never materialize.

For Gen Z, autonomy matters more than comfort, and that’s not idealism but a survival strategy.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

In a year when most of DeFi struggled to recover, showing a 2% overall TVL increase, real-world assets quietly became crypto’s standout performer. In 2025, RWA total locked value was up roughly 184%, growing more than 6x higher than lending platforms and 9x faster than bridges TVL. In other words, a significant portion of net growth in DeFi came from RWAs.

And within RWAs, one category stood out more than any other — tokenized gold.

25% of RWA Growth Comes From Tokenized Gold

RWAs now span everything from tokenized bonds, stocks, and commodities, and some of these categories saw explosive growth in 2025, driven largely by institutional adoption or low starting bases. However, among large RWA categories, tokenized gold showed one of the strongest combinations of scale and growth, registering a 177% increase in market cap and 198% surge in total holders in 2025.

In 2025, the tokenized gold market cap added nearly $2.8 billion in net value, moving from $1.6 billion to $4.4 billion in market cap. This means the sector absorbed nearly a quarter of all net RWA growth over the past 12 months, while absolute inflows exceeded those from tokenized stocks, corporate bonds, and non-US treasuries combined.

In turn, the number of tokenized gold holders grew by more than 115,000 in a year, 14 times faster than in 2024. Compared with other major RWA segments, tokenized gold added more holders than tokenized U.S. treasuries and other tokenized bonds. This is because tokenized gold is well-positioned as a category that can scale significantly across both institutional and retail audiences.&

Unlike some tokenized assets, it’s not limited only to accredited investors, has no minimum investment threshold, and offers fractional ownership, allowing investors of all sizes, from institutions to individuals with very small capital, to easily gain exposure by simply purchasing a token.

If Tokenized Gold Were an ETF, It Would Already Be a Giant

Market Cap Dynamics

One might argue that such explosive growth in tokenized gold simply reflects the fact that gold prices saw their largest increase in 46 years. However, while demand for gold was elevated across the board, another reason tokenized gold stands out compared to other RWA categories is its adoption and positioning relative to traditional counterparts. 

The total market value of physical gold surpassed $30 trillion, showing a more than 67% increase in 2025. At the same time, major gold ETFs saw substantial inflows, doubling total assets under management, as investors looked for inflation hedges and geopolitical protection. Yet even against this backdrop, tokenized gold has become an outlier.

Tokenized gold expanded by 2.6 times faster than physical gold, and outperformed most of the top 7 spot gold ETFs. The only major gold ETF that outpaced tokenized gold was iShares Gold Trust Micro (IAUM), registering an over 300% increase in total holdings this year.

Overall, considering the scale, tokenized gold would have already been the 6th largest gold ETF by market cap, and one of the most popular ways to get gold exposure.

Trading Volume Dynamics

If market cap tells one story, trading volume tells an even more striking one. Tokenized gold trading activity accelerated dramatically throughout 2025, with volumes climbing quarter after quarter. By Q4, quarterly trading volume surged to over $126 billion, dwarfing earlier periods.

To put it into perspective, tokenized gold recorded slightly higher trading volume in Q4 than five major gold ETFs combined. Only the largest gold ETF, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), stands apart, with a $375 billion in trading volume in Q4.

Taking into account the full year, tokenized gold reached $178 billion in trading volume in 2025. Compared to gold ETFs, this would place tokenized gold as the second-largest gold investment product globally by trading volume, ahead of every ETF except GLD, underscoring its rapid emergence as a major liquidity venue.

The growth was also far more dynamic than in traditional gold ETFs. In 2025, trading volume in tokenized gold surged by over 1,550% compared with 2024, nearly ten times faster than the growth seen in the largest gold ETFs, which primarily posted gains in the 100-150% range. Such a massive expansion highlights a structural shift in where incremental gold trading liquidity is increasingly forming on-chain rather than in traditional products.

Increased Market Shift Toward XAUT

Such an explosive growth in trading activity did not occur evenly across the sector. The Q4 spike was largely driven by Tether Gold (XAUT), which accounted for 75% of total trading volume, up sharply from 27% in Q3. The surge followed XAUT’s Q3 reserve attestation, echoing earlier episodes where transparency updates coincided with sharp increases in activity. 

While XAUT dominated the latest volume expansion, the broader landscape remained largely unchanged, with nearly 99% of tokenized gold trading volume still concentrated in a handful of assets.

The market cap distribution shows similar patterns, with rotation at the top but little change in overall market structure. Throughout 2025, XAUT expanded its share in tokenized gold market cap from 41.1% to 52.4%, largely at the expense of smaller tokenized gold projects and tokens with increasingly questioned or unverified reported market cap. However, the three largest assets, XAUT, PAXG, and KAU, still account for roughly 97% of total tokenized gold market cap, underscoring how concentrated the sector becomes despite the emergence of new entrants in 2025.

Beyond the established leaders, 2025 also saw selective but meaningful adoption among newer products. One of the biggest success stories was Matrixdock Gold (XAUM), which saw an over 1,000% surge in market cap, and an increase in holder base from less than a 1,000 to more than 65,000 wallets in 2025. The latter was largely driven by XAUM integration with the Plume ecosystem.

Tokenized Gold Complements, Don’t Compete With Stablecoins

Considering the status of gold as a safe haven asset, one might assume that tokenized gold can be acting as a potential substitute for stablecoins or Bitcoin, especially during market downturn. However, it rather serves as a tactical hedge for traders, or some kind of “middle ground”& between risk-on crypto trading and risk-off stablecoin exits.

October 2025’s trading patterns illustrate this dynamic perfectly. On October 10-11, the crypto market experienced the largest liquidation event in its history, which led to a spike in BTC and USDT volume, with subsequent decrease. In turn, mid-month saw daily tokenized gold volume surge from $537 million to $1.88 billion (a 250% spike) as Bitcoin’s price declined from $122,000 to $106,000.

This inverse correlation signals intentional capital rotation into tokenized gold as a hedge. By late October, as Bitcoin stabilized, tokenized gold volume normalized and continued following the trends of the wider crypto market, confirming its role as a defensive alternative.

The scale matters: tokenized gold represents roughly 1% of Bitcoin and USDT volumes, up from less than 0.1% in January 2025. While this 10x growth trajectory shows increasing adoption, tokenized gold remains a specialized tool rather than a market-moving force. During panic events, USDT still dominates in volumes, maintaining its position as crypto’s true emergency safe haven.

As a result, tokenized gold occupies a growing but complementary role to park capital or increase diversification, with patterns similar to October one also consistently emerging during tariff tensions throughout 2025.

Conclusion

In 2025, tokenized gold transitioned from a niche RWA category into a large-scale gold investment vehicle, rivaling, and in some cases surpassing, established gold ETFs in both growth and trading activity. Its ability to combine institutional-grade exposure with retail accessibility made it one of the most scalable segments within the RWA ecosystem.

While liquidity and market cap remain highly concentrated, the year marked a structural shift: tokenized gold is now more than an alternative to traditional gold products, but an increasingly important liquidity venue in its own right, with scale, usage, and adoption that now place it firmly among the world’s largest gold investment instruments.

Crypto has had a highly visible year, with headline moments ranging from the launch of a Trump-linked memecoin and talk of strategic crypto reserves to multiple companies adopting crypto treasury strategies. Banks, payment providers, and fintech platforms have also expanded crypto services, making digital assets harder to ignore even for non-users. As a result, crypto discussions may come up more naturally at the family table.

Classic memes typically assume that it’s relatives who may start the conversation about crypto. However, according to a survey of over 1,000 active crypto traders, it’s crypto enthusiasts who want to start the discussion and share their own experiences. 34% say they will or would like to bring up crypto during holiday gatherings and conversations with friends and family, and 9% say they might. 

Yet this enthusiasm is paired with a hesitance. While crypto users may want to talk about things& they are accustomed to or interested in, 52% say they feel somewhat uncomfortable discussing crypto with people outside the space, and 11% say the experience can be very uncomfortable.&

This disconnect points that crypto enthusiasts feel the urge to explain, educate, and correct misconceptions, yet they anticipate disinterest or skepticism, potentially making it not worth a shot.

Luckily for most, only 8% believe crypto may come up naturally during holiday gatherings, while a majority (73%) don’t expect anyone to mention it at all.

Fighting the Narrative Disencourages Crypto Discussions

When asked what the public misunderstands about crypto and what can make them feel uncomfortable discussing crypto, 42% pointed to the belief that it’s all scams or gambling. Another 24% cited the perception that crypto is too complicated or only for tech-savvy users. Crypto users know they’re likely to face skepticism at the dinner table — and that uncomfortable expectation helps explain why many hesitate to bring up the subject.

The messaging strategy reflects the defensive posture, indicating that respondents overwhelmingly want to challenge the “gambling” narrative. To do that, 48% of respondents want people to understand that crypto is a long-term investment, not just speculation.

Notably, 75% say the perception they’d most like to inspire is that crypto is risky but useful, a notably cautious stance that acknowledges dangers while arguing for practical value.

Leading With Cross-Border Payments and Personal Stories

Crypto users appear to have settled on concrete, relatable examples to make their case. 37% chose faster and cheaper cross-border payments as the brightest example they’d cite to highlight the utility of digital assets. This reflects broader ecosystem data: stablecoin transaction volume has surpassed Visa’s and Mastercard’s annual transaction totals in 2024. In addition,  remittances and other retail-sized stablecoin transactions remain one of key drivers of grassroots adoption, reaching all-time high in Q3.

Personal experience ranked even higher as a potential conversation tool: 79% say they’d share their own success stories, whether it’s user experience or investment portfolio performance, if this can support the claim.

This emphasis on the personal and practical suggests a community is focusing on what works, what they’ve experienced firsthand, and what might resonate with a general audience rather than diving into utopian visions of decentralization.

Institutional Adoption as Proof of Maturity

To counter the “bubble” narrative, 36% point to institutional treasuries and ETFs as evidence that crypto is maturing and experiencing increased adoption. Another 35% cite major payment companies like Mastercard, Visa, Paypal and Stripe integrating crypto or stablecoins. These reflect a community eager to demonstrate that crypto has moved from fringe experiment to mainstream financial infrastructure.

Yet despite this emphasis on legitimacy and real-world use, only 11% say they want to explain the underlying technology and how it solves problems traditional finance cannot. This suggests a pragmatic pivot away from topics that can face increased skepticism.

What This Means for the Industry

The survey paints a picture of a maturing community still struggling with its public image. Crypto users are enthusiastic, hopeful, and increasingly focused on practical benefits rather than revolutionary rhetoric. But they’re also defensive, uncomfortable, and acutely aware that much of the world may not see them from the best angle.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

Bitcoin’s price saw an over 25% dip since an all-time high in early October, and this pullback might seem like a standard cooldown. However, beneath that surface, liquidity is thinning, demand is fading, and capital is quietly exiting the ecosystem. The issue is market structure weakened in ways that historically preceded deeper corrections, but what are the chances for this to happen?

This report examines Bitcoin’s liquidity landscape to explain why Bitcoin’s “normal correction” may be masking a much deeper liquidity problem.

Realized Cap: Collapse That Makes This Correction Look Different

Over the past two months, Realized Cap’s 30-day change crashed from +$38 billion to just +$4.7 billion, a 88% collapse in fresh capital. Realized Cap values each coin based on its last on-chain movement, offering a cleaner view of true economic inflows than market cap.

This drop is a sharp contrast to earlier phases of the 2024-2025 bull trend:

1. In Q1 2024, Bitcoin absorbed $50 billion long-term holder (LTH) distribution by attracting $80 billion in new realized value.
2. In Q4 2024, $75 billion in LTH selling and transaction activity took place alongside a $90 billion increase in the realized cap.
3. In July 2025, $40 billion in LTH transaction volume accompanied a $65 billion net change in realized cap.

As a result, the largest spikes in LTH profit-taking and activity occurred when Bitcoin was within an uptrend. This limited Bitcoin’s upside momentum, but it didn’t stop the price from updating all-time highs. During correction periods, LTH activity decreased and they transitioned to asset accumulation. That’s the distribution into strength.

4. This time, the dynamics flipped, LTHs distributed nearly $100 billion in value, while realized cap fell. Hence, demand failed to keep up with old supply, and more capital is leaving the market than entering it. That’s the distribution into weakness.

If the 30-day realized cap turns negative, the market could flush out weak hands even further, potentially leading to a deeper correction. Back in January 2022, this coincided with the beginning of a prolonged bear market.

Long-Term Holders: The Largest Asset Distribution Since 2018

Over the past two months, LTH supply dropped from 15.3 million BTC to 14.1 million BTC, experiencing a distribution of 1.2 million coins. The LTH share of total supply declined from 77% to 71%. This is the largest distribution in LTH supply since December 2018, a period when Bitcoin lost almost half of its value.

A significant portion of this distribution was actually selling coins, not just moving them to other wallets. For instance, Spent Volume Age Bands suggests that long-term holders recently recorded their largest selling event ever, increasing downside risk and market exhaustion. The biggest spike in LTH selling activity was fueled by wallets that held Bitcoin for 1-2 years and 3-5 years.

Short-Term Holders: Underwater and Vulnerable

Short-term holders (STH) are often the most reactive in downturns. Their average cost basis currently sits around $103,500, while the spot price hovers roughly 10% below that. Although such a drawdown might not sound extreme, it was enough to intensify asset selling.&

STH MVRV, which measures whether short-term holders are in profit or loss, plummeted to its lowest level since 2022, indicating that recent buyers are now deeply underwater.

More tellingly, short-term holders’ realized losses have reached their highest point since 2022, indicating that these investors are actively selling with losses rather than holding through the volatility. With Realized Profit/Loss Ratio near 0.2, buy-side liquidity essentially evaporated, leaving the market vulnerable to increased volatility as concentrated selling meets minimal demand.

Stablecoins: The Dry Powder That Don’t Deploy

Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of Bitcoin’s correction is the behavior of stablecoins. Over the past two months, total stablecoin supply remained essentially flat near $300 billion, briefly moving down in November.

At the same time, stablecoin reserves on exchanges continued updating all-time highs, recently reaching $80 billion, and showing 15% increase since early October. So this isn’t a story of absent capital, but about present capital refusing to deploy to support Bitcoin’s price.

This creates two possible explanations:

• Lack of conviction — the dry powder exists but holders are waiting for lower prices.
• A velocity problem — the same capital is recycling without new fiat entering the crypto ecosystem.

It’s most likely both to a certain degree. This stablecoin behavior directly explains why Realized Cap is declining. During bull runs, new fiat converts to stablecoins, which then purchases Bitcoin, driving Realized Cap higher. Currently, stablecoin supply is stagnant, so any Bitcoin purchases come from recycled capital entering at lower prices than previous sellers exited. So the market might be cannibalizing itself rather than attracting fresh capital.

Market Depth: More Chances For Rapid Swings

Order book analysis reveals another layer of fragility. The 2% market depth across the top 30 exchanges, measuring how much Bitcoin can be traded within 2% of the current price, has declined 25% over the past two months. This is the largest market depth drop in 2025.

This thinning liquidity creates a double-edged sword. If demand returns, order books with 25% less depth could trigger more explosive upside moves. However, downside risk is equally amplified. If panic selling returns, the price could quickly gap to $81,000 and other major resistance levels.

Three Paths Forward

Consolidation (40% probability)&

It involves Bitcoin ranging between a true mean (now at $81,000, blue line) and a short-term holder cost basis (now at $103,500, red line) over the next 2-3 months.

The 30-day Realized Cap may stay positive, but don’t show significant growth. Stablecoin supply may remain flat, or experience modest changes. Short-term holders could become exhausted and decrease their selling at a loss, while long-term holders may temporarily scale back profit-taking.

The existing data already supports this scenario, with multiple above-mentioned indicators recently registering modest recoveries from highlighted extreme figures. But these recoveries are currently not sufficient enough to claim a trend reversal.

Resolution from consolidation could break either direction. In mid-2021, the breakout above STH cost basis pushed Bitcoin to a new all-time high. In H1 2022, a failed breakout above STH cost basis and subsequent drop below true mean led to a deeper bear market.

Capitulation (35% probability)&

It could trigger if the 30-day Realized Cap turns negative and the price drops below true mean (now at $81,000) in the next 6-8 weeks. This could reinforce the further profit-taking among both long-term holders and short-term holders, or even lead to increased ETF outflows and Bitcoin selling among certain DATs.

Historically, negative Realized Cap periods could also mark local bottoms (green rectangles), suggesting that capitulation can be temporary. However, if Realized Cap fails to strongly rebound to positive values (red rectangles), this could signal a potential bearish dominance.

Bullish Scenario (25% probability)&

It could happen if the 30-day Realized Cap rebounds above previous top at $40 billion, and the price breaks above the short term holder cost basis (now, at $103,500) in the next 6-8 weeks.

Thinner liquidity and market depth can act as a setup for a potential explosive upside. However, this would require a significant bullish catalyst. Global liquidity no longer shows positive correlation with BTC, and the macro environment currently paints a more cautious picture, with Japan’s potential rate hike increasing risk aversion, so it may take time for it to appear.

On a positive note, whales, or wallets holding 1K-10K BTC, showed increased Bitcoin accumulation over the past week, acquiring more than 35,000 BTC. If the current trend remains, this can support a potential Bitcoin recovery.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

According to CEX.IO’s internal data, transaction volumes among crypto card users rose by 33% during Black Friday period, while the total number of transactions grew by 20%, demonstrating that Black Friday drove both higher spending and more frequent card usage. The average transaction value increased by 11% — from €48 to €53, with a spending expansion across most major retail categories.&

At the same time, day-to-day expenses such as groceries, transport, and everyday retail held steady, indicating that seasonal shopping didn’t affect regular spending habits.

Typical Black Friday Categories: Fashion and Department Stores Lead the Charge

Further analysis of merchant category codes (MCC) reveals that crypto card users largely mirrored traditional consumer behavior during Black Friday, with categories that typically perform well among bank card holders showing similarly strong results.

Fashion Spikes Across the Board

Clothing retailers showed one of the strongest Black Friday reactions, recording 210% surge in transaction volume and 35% increase in transaction count. Shoe Stores followed a different pattern: volumes declined by 17%, but the number of transactions jumped 13%, indicating that users hunted for deeply discounted footwear rather than making larger purchases.

Overall, fashion-related merchants captured more than 7% of all Black Friday period spending — up from roughly 5% average in the previous weeks.

Department Stores Behave “By the Book”

Department Stores showed a 128% increase in transaction volume and a 17% rise in transaction count. Average transaction values nearly doubled, suggesting users gravitated toward bundled deals and multi-item purchases that department stores traditionally promote during seasonal sales.

Hobby Supplies and Gift Shops Remain Strong

Miscellaneous and Specialty Retail Stores, covering art materials, hobby supplies, and niche products, unsurprisingly experienced strong performance during Black Friday period, with a 216% volume increase and an 18% rise in transaction count. Gift, Card, Novelty, and Souvenir Shops saw similarly robust growth, posting a 228% jump in volume and 38% increase in transaction count.&

These patterns suggest that users leveraged Black Friday to secure unique or personalized items ahead of the holiday season.

Electronics Saw Smaller-Scale Purchases

Electronics Stores presented a more complex picture, with total transaction volume fell by 13%, yet the number of transactions increased by 17%. This suggests that users primarily purchased lower-priced accessories rather than larger hardware.&

In addition, electronics stores’ relative share might have declined because other categories expanded far more aggressively, reducing its weight in the overall spending mix.

Surprising Categories: Jewelry, Cosmetics, Home Upgrades, and Books Outperform Expectations

Beyond the traditional Black Friday leaders, several categories delivered unexpectedly strong results, revealing more diverse spending behavior than crypto users might be associated with.

Jewelry Surges Beyond Seasonal Norms

Jewelry, Watch, Clock, and Silverware Stores recorded one of the highest jumps among observed MCC codes, with transaction volume rising over 450% and transaction count increasing nearly 125%. This pushed jewelry’s share of total spending up to 0.53%.

While jewelry is often a holiday-adjacent purchase, the magnitude of the increase suggests that users capitalized heavily on Black Friday discounts for higher-value gifts and accessories.

Digital Apps Surge on Sales

Digital Goods – Applications posted a 199% increase in transaction volume and a 54% rise in transaction count during Black Friday. This indicates that crypto adopters leveraged seasonal promotions to purchase premium app subscriptions, software bundles, and digital services.

Home Upgrades See Momentum

Home-focused categories, including Lumber and Building Materials Stores and Furniture, Home Furnishings, and Equipment Stores, registered a 190% transaction volume increase during the Black Friday period, respectively. This suggests crypto card users appear to treat this Black Friday more as an opportunity to invest in home upgrades, with the share of home-upgrade purchases exceeding 1.5% of total spendings.

Books Make a Quiet but Strong Showing

Book Stores experienced meaningful increases, with 73% increase in transaction volume and 67% increase in transaction count, pointing out that physical and digital books are relatively popular among crypto enthusiasts as a gift or for personal consumption.

Day-to-Day Items: Relatively Steady Despite Increased Black Friday Spending

Even with the surge in promotional shopping, everyday categories continued to anchor crypto card activity, showing that these cards are firmly integrated into daily routines.

Groceries, convenience items, and general retail continued to represent the largest share of transactions, although the share of day-to-day items in spendings slightly decreased during Black Friday period — from 50.5% to 46.6%.&

For instance, Grocery Stores and Supermarkets represent over 18% of total transactions, and 9% in total volume. They grew 8% throughout the Black Friday period, indicating that they remained almost unaffected by increased spending during Black Friday period.

Transportation, pharmacies, and money transfers also ticked upward, with volumes rising between up to 40% across these subcategories. The consistency of these everyday transactions shows that crypto cards are not used only for opportunistic Black Friday deals. Crypto users continue to rely on their cards for the same functional, day-to-day needs that bank cardholders do.

Conclusion

The Black Friday data demonstrates that crypto card users have successfully integrated digital payment rails into mainstream consumer behavior. They become more aligned with mainstream European shopping habits and actively respond to seasonal promotions. They also engage more heavily online — around 40% of all transactions during Black Friday period have taken place using e-commerce platforms.

As crypto payment tools continue to grow in adoption, these behaviors suggest a future where spending with digital assets feels indistinguishable from using any conventional card, particularly during high-intensity shopping events.

Methodology

The data used for this research consists of CEX.IO Card transaction records from users across the European Economic Area, where this card is exclusively available. The analysis compares a two-week Black Friday period (November 16-30) with an average of two week periods from early November and previous months. The Black Friday period was defined as November 16-30 to capture the extended sales period, as many European merchants introduced promotional pricing before the traditional Black Friday week as part of their seasonal campaigns.

Transactions were categorized using Merchant Category Codes (MCC), with each four-digit code representing a specific merchant type or industry. For analytical clarity, some MCC codes were grouped into broader categories such as clothing, transportation, etc.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

Crypto markets don’t sleep — and neither do many of the people trading them. According to a survey of over 1,000 active crypto traders, late-night price checks, anxiety-driven wakeups, and missed sleep due to market volatility have become routine for a large portion of traders.

One of the clearest signals comes from nighttime behavior. 68% of respondents say they check crypto prices after going to bed either almost every night or literally every night, while only 8% report never doing so. This consistent pattern of late-night monitoring highlights how deeply market activity bleeds into daily life.

4 in 5 Crypto Traders Lose Sleep Waiting for Market Moves

The ripple effects extend well past bedtime. When asked how late they’ve stayed awake because of crypto, 53% said they could stay up until at least 2 AM, while another 33% stay up until 4 AM or later. These habits appear to be systemic as 81% claimed to have lost sleep waiting for a good trade or an anticipated market event.

70% Struggle to Sleep During Market Drops

Market volatility is a major contributor to this behavior. 70% say market drops or liquidation risks noticeably make it harder to fall asleep, while only 14% claim to be unaffected. For many, the issue continues throughout the night — a combined 61% check prices at least once when they wake up, pointing to a loop of alerts, stress, and compulsive re-checking.

Emotional drivers play a large role. The biggest culprit appears to be not fear of loss but fear of missing out: 59% say the fear of missing a pump keeps them awake more than anything else. Liquidation risk, general market anxiety, and chart analysis follow far behind.

Recent Volatility May be Forcing Traders To Stay Awake

Such a behavior seems to be a rational reaction to nighttime volatility spikes. As such, Blockworks data shows that most spot volume still clusters between 14:00–16:00 UTC, or the professional/institutional trading time in the U.S. and EU. However, over the past two months, when the market turned bearish, the highest realized volatility spikes occurred between 18:00–06:00 UTC (grey lines) — precisely when most respondents say they struggle to sleep.&

As bearish sentiment deepened, liquidity thinned outside U.S. and EU hours, creating sharper moves overnight. For traders in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, this volatility window overlaps directly with typical sleep time, potentially amplifying anxiety and driving late-night price checks.

Chart: Realized Volatility Spikes in Crypto Market Cap (Time by UTC)

Consequences of Bad Sleep in Crypto Markets

Nearly 70% of traders say sleep deprivation has caused them to make a bad trade, and 5% admit it happens repeatedly. In high-volatile markets, the cognitive cost of exhaustion may be far higher than traders acknowledge.

Overall, 77% of surveyed traders report at least a moderate negative impact from crypto on their sleep quality, including 13% who describe the impact as severe.

Notably, respondents overwhelmingly sleep better in bull markets (64%) than in bear markets (10%), reinforcing how deeply mood, sentiment, and price trends influence personal wellbeing.

Conclusion

With volatility increasingly shifting into nighttime hours, crypto traders may be feeling pressured to monitor moves outside working hours, eroding the boundary between markets and rest. The result is a feedback loop where stress, missed sleep, and impaired decision-making could feed into each other, creating risks that extend far beyond price charts.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.

What the CoinDesk Benchmark Means

Since 2019, CoinDesk’s Exchange Benchmark has served as one of the most respected and data-driven evaluations of cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. Designed for institutional-grade assessment, the benchmark analyzes over 100 metrics across eight risk categories, including:

• Counterparty risk
• Market quality
• Security
• Regulatory compliance

The Benchmark evaluates 81 exchanges across both spot and derivatives markets, offering an independent, transparent view of exchange credibility and resilience. Its findings also influence CoinDesk Indices’ eligibility requirements for benchmark reference rates — making it a key indicator of exchange trustworthiness in the broader crypto ecosystem.

CEX.IO’s Strongest Scores: Security and Compliance

In this edition, CEX.IO achieved its highest marks for Security, reflecting our long-standing commitment to safeguarding user assets and data. We also earned top-tier results in categories including KYC/Transaction Risk and Legal/Regulatory Compliance, areas that continue to define our approach to responsible crypto service delivery.

Building on Momentum

As the digital asset landscape continues to evolve, we see this recognition as both a milestone and a motivation — to keep pushing for higher standards of trust, performance, and accessibility for our 15+ million users worldwide.

The web content provided by CEX.IO is for educational purposes only. The information and tools provided neither are, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, or a recommendation, to buy, sell or hold any digital asset or to open a particular account or engage in any specific investment strategy. Digital asset markets are highly volatile and can lead to loss of funds.
The availability of the products, features, and services on the CEX.IO platform is subject to jurisdictional limitations. To understand what products and services are available in your region, please see our list of supported countries and territories. This page includes additional links to information about individual products, and their accessibility.