Stablecoin Supply Went Nowhere. Settlement Set a Record.

Total stablecoin supply barely changed in the first half of 2026. It ended the first quarter at $309.9 billion and the second at $305.1 billion, a decline of under 2% in a market that lost roughly 30% of its capitalization over the same period. On its own, that makes the segment look like it held steady while everything around it fell.

Settlement says otherwise. Visa’s Allium-powered dashboard recorded $1.79 trillion in adjusted stablecoin transfer volume in June, an all-time high and 125% above the same month a year earlier. The previous record was set in February of the same half. Supply stayed flat while movement set records twice in five months.

That divergence has a simple explanation, and the H1 2026 Swap Report from SimpleSwap provides transaction-level data to support it. The report covers 1 January to 30 June and opens each section with a public benchmark before any platform figures appear, which is why the Visa numbers above come first here as well. Stablecoins are no longer mainly a place to sit. They are increasingly the path between places.

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