Stablecoin

Dexter became the largest daily facilitator for x402 transactions from December 11, according to data published by Hashed Official. The AI protocol has processed over 19.8 million total payments, 14 million fewer than Base. Charts indicate Dexter now handles roughly half of daily volume while Coinbase's share ranges from one-quarter to one-third.

In December 2025, centralized exchanges experienced a sharp slowdown across spot and derivatives, with spot volumes falling 32% versus November. Reported trading activity ranged between $990M and $1.13B, according to different accounts. DEX volumes improved late in the year and remained higher than January levels, though still below October's peak.

From late 2025 through July 2026, the EU’s MiCA framework will require exchanges, custodians, stablecoin issuers and other crypto intermediaries to secure authorization to keep operating. The rules exclude fully decentralized protocols and self-custody wallets from CASP status, but critics argue that heavy compliance costs, front-end control and additional traceability via the Transfer of Funds Regulation could sideline smaller DeFi startups and push services to geo-block EU users.

Coinbase plans to emphasize stablecoins, Base and an 'everything exchange' through 2026, per CEO Brian Armstrong. In a New Year's post he reaffirmed the vision, and in December the firm launched stock trading and prediction markets while rebranding its wallet as an 'everything app'.

On January 2, 2026, MON climbed to a one-week high after a short squeeze, gaining over 17% and peaking at $0.028. According to DeFiLlama, Monad's TVL reached a record $251M with $397M in stablecoins, while Upshift says its liquidity rose over 82% to $476M.

On 31 December 2025, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong set three priorities for 2026: grow a global "everything exchange," scale stablecoins and payments, and move more users onchain. Earlier, on 17 December 2025, Coinbase added commission-free stock trading, prediction markets, a tokenisation service for institutions, and integrated the Jupiter DEX into its platform. The firm also highlights ETFs, stablecoins and tokenisation as key market drivers in 2026, alongside the Base layer-2 network and USDC-powered payments.

Stablecoin usage on Ethereum has climbed near 590,000 daily active ERC-20 addresses, approaching or marginally surpassing past record highs. This elevated and persistent activity, which far exceeds levels seen during the 2020–2021 bull cycle and the 2022 deleveraging phase, indicates that stablecoins are now embedded in Ethereum’s core infrastructure and helping maintain flexible, mobile liquidity on-chain.

On January 1, 2026, XDC Network’s token climbed CoinMarketCap’s rankings, finishing 2025 by overtaking Official Trump, Filecoin and MYX Finance and moving just behind Algorand, Polygon, Arbitrum and Ondo. The chain has crossed $717 million in tokenized real-world assets, holds over $132 million in USDC with nearly $200 million in total stablecoin liquidity, and could see its DeFi ecosystem expand further if the CLARITY Act clears the US Senate.

Coinbase is opposing U.S. efforts to ban interest on stablecoins, arguing that strict enforcement of the GENIUS Act could drive users toward foreign digital currencies. The exchange warns that China’s plan to offer yield on the digital yuan from January 2026 may undermine the appeal of dollar-based stablecoins if U.S. rules block all forms of rewards. Banking groups, meanwhile, want regulators to treat interest-bearing stablecoin products like savings accounts and close any remaining loopholes.

In Q4 2025, Tether added 8,888.8888888 BTC to its reserves, a purchase valued at about $779 million and confirmed by CEO Paolo Ardoino. The move lifted the stablecoin issuer's total Bitcoin holdings to more than 96,000 BTC, worth roughly $8.46 billion, and continued its long-running "8888" accumulation pattern amid a weak market.