The stablecoin war in the reshuffling of public chain rankings: Who will dominate?

In the first half of 2025, a quiet competition around the ranking of public chains based on stablecoins has begun. Stablecoins are no longer just payment tools; they have become an important indicator of the health of the public chain ecosystem and a key battleground for major public chains vying for market share. Over the past year, the total market capitalization of stablecoins has surpassed $245 billion, driven by fierce competition among 12 major public chains in terms of strength and ambition.

Stablecoins Become Market Focus, Reshaping the Public Chain Ranking Map

Stablecoins are no longer just a supporting role in trading pairs. As the most stable form of asset accumulation in the crypto market, they directly reflect each public chain’s ability to attract funds. In this silent competition for public chain rankings, traditional giants and emerging forces have already begun to contest.

Ethereum still firmly controls half of the stablecoin ecosystem, with a market cap exceeding $122.5 billion, accounting for 50% of global stablecoin issuance. However, this lead is being eroded—USDC issuance on Ethereum grew by 46.4% in the past six months, becoming a new engine supporting Ethereum’s position. Meanwhile, through its advantageous position with USDT, Tron has surpassed Ethereum to become the largest issuer chain for USDT, holding 31.3% of the global stablecoin market.

This indicates that the stablecoin market has shifted from a single public chain dominance to a multi-polar competition era.

Giants’ Moat: Ethereum and Tron’s Stablecoin Blue Ocean

Ethereum: USDC’s Growth Drives the Stablecoin Crown

The composition of stablecoins on Ethereum has undergone subtle changes. Although USDT still accounts for about 50%, its issuance volume has declined by 5.07% since early 2025, reflecting capital redistribution. In contrast, USDC is accelerating its penetration—growing from $25.2 billion in October 2024 to $36.9 billion, with Ethereum’s share of USDC global issuance reaching 60.82%. This clearly shows that without USDC’s strong performance, Ethereum’s dominance in stablecoins would have already been challenged.

Tron: The True Helm of the USDT Empire

Tron’s stablecoin ecosystem is unusually concentrated—over 99% of stablecoins are USDT. Its total supply has surged from $48.8 billion in 2024 to $77.7 billion, an increase of nearly 60%. Even more impressive is its trading activity: an average of 2.4 million USDT transactions per day, more than eight times that of Ethereum.

The Tron network processes USDT transfers worth $20 billion daily, accounting for nearly 29% of global stablecoin trading volume. This is not just a simple number game; it’s a market voting with real money. Tron has become the first choice for retail investors and emerging markets due to its extremely low transaction fees and lightning-fast confirmation speeds. The collaboration between Justin Sun and U.S. policymakers also opens up imagination for Tron’s stablecoin prospects—new stablecoins like USD1 are issued natively on Tron.

New Forces’ Fission: How Solana and BSC Challenge Traditional Public Chain Rankings?

Solana: From Obscure to Focused Accelerator

Solana’s stablecoin market cap exploded by 627% in one year, from $1.8 billion to $13.1 billion. This growth rate is the most astonishing among all public chains. Although its current size is about $11.4 billion, still ten times less than Ethereum, the fact that Solana’s DEX trading volume has surpassed Ethereum indicates enormous growth potential for its stablecoin ecosystem.

Notably, the stablecoin landscape on Solana is diversified—USDC accounts for 73%, USDT for 20%, and PayPal’s PYUSD has also grabbed a $200 million market cap. This multi-competition is attracting more new stablecoins to choose Solana as their preferred deployment chain.

BSC: Zero Gas and New Stablecoins Drive Double Growth

BSC’s stablecoin market cap doubled over the past year to $10 billion. Interestingly, its growth occurred in two phases: from November 2024 to January 2025, the zero-Gas fee activity launched by BSC pushed the market cap from $5 billion to $7 billion. The second wave of growth comes from the issuance of USD1, a new stablecoin almost entirely deployed on BSC, with a total issuance of $2.1 billion.

Visa’s data further reveals active changes in the BSC ecosystem—stablecoin DEX trading accounts for less than 10% in April, soaring to 28%. Meanwhile, BSC ranks first in total stablecoin transaction volume across all chains, accounting for 38.1%, with USDT’s cumulative trading volume only second to Tron and Ethereum.

What does this mean? In the new order of public chain rankings, trading activity is becoming a more important indicator than market cap.

Behind Rapid Growth: The 2000x Legend of Sui, Aptos and New Opportunities

Sui: The Growth King in Stablecoins

Sui’s stablecoin growth curve is extraordinary—rising from $5 million in early 2024 to $1.156 billion in May 2025, a 230-fold increase. This exponential expansion rate is unmatched among all public chains. USDC is the main stablecoin on Sui, accounting for 75%, but there is still significant room for growth in stablecoin types and volume.

The Cetus hack in May cast a shadow over Sui’s growth prospects, with security concerns coexisting with rapid expansion opportunities.

Aptos: The Silent Surge of the Move Ecosystem

As a Move-based public chain, Aptos’s stablecoin growth is equally astonishing—first surpassing $1 billion in Q1 2025, with a 2408% increase over the past year. USDT accounts for 62.39%, USDC for 32%. Notably, native USDC only launched in January 2025 but already occupies nearly one-third of the market, reflecting market demand for stablecoin diversification.

In the new round of public chain ranking competition, Aptos and Sui signal that the Move language ecosystem is becoming the most promising emerging force among challengers.

Decline and Dilemmas: The Reverse Lessons of Arbitrum and TON

Arbitrum: Free Fall After Incentive Disruption

Arbitrum’s stablecoin market cap peaked at $6.9 billion in 2024 but plummeted to $2.73 billion in early 2025. A scene of $2 billion outflows in a single day occurred on January 2, caused not by technical issues but by the termination of incentive mechanisms.

On December 17, the previous round of incentive subsidies was also abruptly cut off, with liquidity subsidies for about 50 protocols disappearing at once. Meanwhile, Tether’s USDT migrated to the new cross-chain standard “USDT0,” and competitors like Blast attracted funds with 5% annualized yield + Airdrop Points, creating a triple blow. This case illustrates that changes in public chain rankings often stem from policy and incentive adjustments rather than technical decline.

TON: Telegram’s Story Is Not Over Yet

After introducing USDT in April 2024, TON was once highly anticipated—9 million Telegram users, zero-threshold mobile number payments, a complete bot ecosystem. By June, USDT issuance reached $519 million. But entering 2025, this story started to fade, with stablecoin market cap dropping from $1.4 billion to $900 million.

Beyond the waning hype of click-based games, there may be a deeper reason: Telegram’s ecosystem lacks innovative applications, unable to provide continuous use cases for stablecoins.

Other Contenders’ Battlegrounds: Base, Hyperliquid, Polygon, Avalanche

Base: Growth Champion Backed by Coinbase

From $177 million in January 2024 to $4.09 billion in mid-2025, a 2210% increase, making it the fastest-growing among the top five public chains. USDC is almost the only choice on Base, accounting for 97.8%, and it is also the chain with the largest USDC trading volume outside Ethereum. Coinbase’s brand backing is turning Base into a new benchmark for stablecoin application layers.

Hyperliquid: Derivatives Exchange’s Stablecoin Vault

As an emerging derivatives chain, Hyperliquid accumulated $3.26 billion in stablecoin market cap in less than half a year, leading many established public chains. 97.8% of its stablecoins are USDC, but it is also experimenting with new types like feUSD, USDT, USDe, opening new application windows.

Polygon and Avalanche: Once Main Characters, Now Supporting Roles

Polygon’s stablecoin market cap grew from $1.26 billion to $2.15 billion, an increase of nearly 70%, driven mainly by Circle’s USDC and traditional payment giants’ fiat settlement pilots. Avalanche, despite a 96% fee reduction upgrade at the end of 2024, has not seen corresponding growth in stablecoins, with total market cap hovering between $1 billion and $2 billion.

In the new public chain ranking landscape, these former stars are gradually being marginalized.

Conclusion: A New Order in Public Chain Rankings Is Taking Shape

The essence of the stablecoin war is a contest for crypto capital. Ethereum and Tron still hold the advantage of first-mover benefits, but new forces like Solana and BSC are rewriting the game rules with their rapid growth. The multi-chain deployment of USDC, the emergence of new stablecoins like USD1, and the expansion of fiat settlement pilots are breaking the monopoly of single public chain stablecoins.

For established public chains, the challenge is how to maintain existing markets while continuing to grow. For new public chains, the opportunity lies in the fact that the stablecoin ecosystem is still in its wild growth stage—who can offer lower costs, faster speeds, and better application scenarios will rise in the public chain rankings. The gradual improvement of global stablecoin regulatory frameworks also indicates that this story has only just begun.