Welcome to In The Stables, a weekly briefing on the most important developments shaping the global stablecoin ecosystem. Each edition delivers clear, data-driven insights into market structure, regulatory momentum, and protocol-level shifts, along with a curated look at supply, flows, and onchain usage trends across the sector.
Stablecoins continue to sit at the center of digital asset infrastructure, from dollar clearing and exchange liquidity to emerging applications in payments and tokenized markets. As adoption broadens and institutional touchpoints deepen, the underlying dynamics of issuance, activity, and capital flows have become even more critical to monitor.
What’s included this week:
The stablecoin market continued to consolidate, with total supply falling 0.48% WoW to $307 billion amid accelerated USD outflows of $1.37 billion, marking a sharp reversal from last month’s net inflow regime.
Onchain activity re-accelerated despite declining supply, as weekly transaction volume surged 38.5% WoW to $232.4 billion alongside higher transaction counts and a 25.6% jump in average transaction size, pointing to increased high-value settlement usage.
Polygon moved to vertically integrate stablecoin payments by acquiring Coinme and Sequence for over $250 million, while Rain’s $250 million Series C at a $1.95 billion valuation underscored growing investor conviction in stablecoin-native payment infrastructure.
Regulatory and institutional momentum continued, with JPMorgan planning a native JPM Coin launch on Canton and U.S. Senate draft legislation tightening restrictions on yield-bearing payment stablecoins, signaling clearer boundaries for stablecoin use cases.
Summary: Sky Protocol is a DeFi lending protocol designed to bring stability to the cryptocurrency economy by issuing USDS, a collateral-backed stablecoin soft-pegged to the US Dollar.
Summary: Ethena Labs is a decentralized finance protocol on Ethereum that issues USDe, a crypto-native stablecoin backed by delta-hedged Ethereum and Bitcoin collateral.
Summary: Maple Finance is a DeFi protocol that functions as an institutional capital marketplace, providing a platform for credit professionals to manage lending businesses and syndicate undercollateralized onchain loans to institutional borrowers.
Summary: Aave is a liquidity management protocol that enables users to borrow and lend crypto assets across supported networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, and Arbitrum
Jan. 7, 2026 | JPMorgan Plans Native JPM Coin Launch on Canton Network
JPMorgan Chase & Co., through its blockchain unit Kinexys, plans to issue its U.S. dollar deposit token JPM Coin (JPMD) natively on the Canton Network in partnership with Digital Asset. The move extends JPM Coin beyond JPMorgan’s proprietary infrastructure and follows an earlier pilot deployment on Base. The phased integration through 2026 will focus on enabling issuance, transfer, and near-instant redemption of JPMD on Canton, with potential expansion to additional Kinexys digital payments products.
Jan. 7, 2026 | World Liberty Financial Seeks OCC Trust Charter for USD1 Stablecoin Bank
World Liberty Financial (Trump-linked) said its subsidiary filed to create a national trust bank with the OCC, aiming to consolidate issuance, redemption, and custody around its USD1 stablecoin (reported at $3.3B+ in circulation). A federally supervised trust structure could lower distribution friction versus state-by-state licensing, and it adds competitive pressure on incumbents (Circle, Paxos, PayPal) as “stablecoin banking” becomes a mainstream product category.
Rain raised $250 million in a Series C funding round led by ICONIQ, valuing the company at $1.95 billion and bringing total capital raised to more than $338 million. Rain provides infrastructure for issuing and managing stablecoin-linked payment cards and wallets that operate on traditional card networks such as Visa, positioning stablecoins for everyday payments. The company said it will use the capital to expand in licensed markets, scale its full-stack payments platform, and pursue strategic acquisitions.
Jan. 11, 2026 | Tether Froze ~$182M USDT on TRON in a Large Enforcement Action
Multiple sources report Tether froze roughly $182M USDT across several TRON addresses in a single-day action, tied to suspected illicit activity and flagged by monitoring services. This reinforces the “permissioned-at-the-issuer” reality for major stablecoins and can impact TRON stablecoin flow narratives (compliance, sanctions exposure, and counterparty risk for exchanges and OTC desks).
Jan. 13, 2026 | ClearBank Selects Taurus to Support Stablecoin Services
ClearBank selected digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus as its wallet infrastructure partner as it expands into stablecoin-related services. Under the agreement, ClearBank will use Taurus-PROTECT to support secure and compliant digital asset custody, with an initial focus on stablecoins. The integration provides connectivity to Circle’s Circle Mint which enables minting and redemption of MiCAR-compliant USDC and EURC.
Jan. 13, 2026 | Polygon Acquires Coinme and Sequence to Advance Stablecoin Payments
Polygon Labs agreed to acquire crypto payments firm Coinme and infrastructure provider Sequence for more than $250 million to support its stablecoin payments strategy. Coinme contributes U.S. money transmitter licenses and cash-to-crypto onramps, while Sequence adds wallet and cross-chain transaction infrastructure, bringing key payment components in-house.
Jan. 13, 2026 | Senate Draft Tightens Ban on Stablecoin Yield
U.S. Senate lawmakers released an updated draft of crypto market structure legislation that prohibits digital asset service providers from paying interest or yield solely for holding payment stablecoins, reinforcing the GENIUS Act’s restrictions. The provision follows sustained lobbying from community banks, which argued that yield-bearing stablecoins could divert deposits from the banking system and reduce local lending. While the draft preserves exemptions for activity-based rewards tied to transactions or ecosystem participation, it limits the scope for passive yield programs and signals a clearer policy stance against treating stablecoins as savings instruments.
In The Data
The stablecoin market continued to contract modestly over the past week, with total stablecoin market cap declining 0.48% WoW to $307 billion, extending a gradual drawdown that has persisted over the past 90 days. On a month-over-month basis, total supply is down 0.83%, reinforcing that recent weakness is part of a broader consolidation rather than an isolated weekly move.
USDT remained dominant at $186.7 billion, representing 60.8% market share, but posted a 0.26% WoW decline. While relatively small in absolute terms, USDT’s contraction continues a pattern of muted net issuance over the past several months, suggesting stable but non-expansive demand.
USDC saw a sharper 2.28% WoW decline, falling to $73.9 billion and losing roughly 2% of market share. This marks one of the larger weekly pullbacks among major stablecoins and contributes meaningfully to the overall market contraction. Over the past 90 days, USDC supply has been broadly range-bound, with episodic redemptions offsetting intermittent growth.
Among mid-sized stablecoins, performance was mixed. USDS declined 0.90% WoW, while DAI grew 0.98% WoW, continuing its slow but steady expansion trend. USDe posted a 1.10% WoW increase, modestly gaining share and standing out as one of the few major stablecoins with recent growth. PYUSD also expanded 0.57% WoW, though it remains a small share of the overall market.
Stablecoin onchain activity accelerated meaningfully over the past week, with gains across transaction volume, transaction count, and average transaction size, signaling a broad-based pickup in usage rather than isolated large flows.
Weekly stablecoin transaction volume rose 38.5% WoW to $232.4 billion, materially outpacing both last week’s average ($167.8 billion) and the current monthly average ($171.4 billion). On a month-over-month basis, average weekly volume is up 68.7%, highlighting a sharp rebound in settlement activity relative to late 2025 levels.
Transaction counts also increased, with weekly average transactions reaching 52.6 million, up 10.3% WoW and 3.6% above the prior month’s average. While the increase in transaction count was more modest than volume growth, it confirms that higher throughput was not driven solely by a small number of large transfers.
Notably, average transaction size climbed 25.6% WoW to $4,420, significantly above both last week’s average ($3,520) and the prior month’s average ($2,097). This suggests a growing share of higher-value transfers alongside increased transactional activity, consistent with renewed institutional or treasury-related usage.
Taken together, the data points to a re-acceleration in stablecoin settlement activity, characterized by higher volumes, more transactions, and larger average transfer sizes. This divergence between rising onchain activity and a still-contracting stablecoin supply underscores stablecoins’ role as transactional infrastructure, even during periods of net supply compression.
Net USD flows into stablecoins totaled –$1.37 billion for the week, a 337% deterioration WoW from last week’s relatively modest –$314 million outflow. On a daily basis, average net flows fell to –$171.5 million per day, down from –$39.2 million the prior week, indicating that redemptions accelerated meaningfully rather than occurring as a single, isolated event.
The weekly outflow also pulled the current month’s net USD flows to –$3.31 billion, a sharp reversal from +$5.0 billion in net inflows last month. Average daily monthly flows swung from +$165.1 million previously to –$110.3 million, underscoring a regime shift from expansion to contraction in stablecoin issuance.
Importantly, the magnitude and persistence of outflows suggest systemic redemption pressure, not short-term noise. When viewed alongside rising transaction volumes and higher average transaction sizes, the data points to stablecoins being actively used for settlement and liquidity movement even as net supply declines. This pattern is consistent with capital rotating out of crypto-native balance sheets while stablecoins continue to function as high-throughput transactional infrastructure.
Date: December 18, 2025 (recent high-engagement reference in weekly digests)
Author: Artemis Analytics
Summary: Empirical report on stablecoin payments, isolating B2B/P2P/card usage from 31 firms (1% of onchain volume), highlighting growth trends continued into early 2026 per Substack updates.
Summary: Exploring stablecoin activity in real-world applications, the piece highlights slowing cap growth but rising institutional integration, including FDIC rules on tokenized deposits, as signs of a stable foundation.
Summary: The piece explores how stablecoin issuers must navigate increasingly divergent global regulations, from MiCA's strict licensing in Europe to lighter frameworks in Asia, emphasizing jurisdiction selection as a core strategy for compliance and market access while avoiding regulatory arbitrage pitfalls.
Summary: This analysis details how stablecoins are evolving from experimental tools to essential treasury management assets, highlighting enterprise-grade wallets and internal controls as key differentiators in a commoditized market, with case studies on institutional adoption.
Summary: Drawing on US bank data from 2019-2025, the article argues stablecoin growth has minimal impact on traditional deposits, advocating for regulatory clarity to foster coexistence rather than competition between stablecoins and banks.
Author: Jason Mikula, Fintech Business Weekly (Substack)
Summary: Investigative report exposes Kontigo, a Y Combinator-backed USDC neobank, as facilitating Venezuelan sanctions evasion via bolívar-USDC arbitrage, Maduro regime ties (including son's rumored involvement), JPMorgan virtual accounts via Checkbook, Stripe/Bridge/Lead Bank infrastructure, and Rain Visa cards; highlights compliance risks in stablecoin rails post-US invasion.
Summary: This newsletter dives into specialized infrastructure for stablecoins' maturation, analyzing metrics and events driving adoption, with predictions on how regulatory progress will consolidate the market for future expansion.
Summary: Think tank analysis warns regulators to ensure stablecoin par value under GENIUS Act via capital/liquidity rules, given risky reserves like uninsured deposits; discusses Fed access for issuers to cut settlement risks.
Closing Summary
Thanks for reading this week’s edition of In The Stables.
We’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback, topic suggestions, or just want to share how you’re using the newsletter, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. Your input helps us keep In The Stables as valuable and relevant as possible.
All content was produced independently by the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Messari, Inc. Author(s) may hold cryptocurrencies named in this report. This report is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. You should conduct your own research and consult an independent financial, tax, or legal advisor before making any investment decisions. Nothing contained in this report is a recommendation or suggestion, directly or indirectly, to buy, sell, make, or hold any investment, loan, commodity, or security, or to undertake any investment or trading strategy with respect to any investment, loan, commodity, security, or any issuer. This report should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security or commodity. Messari does not guarantee the sequence, accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any information provided in this report. Please see our Terms of Service for more information.
No part of this report may be (a) copied, photocopied, duplicated in any form by any means or (b) redistributed without the prior written consent of Messari®.
Alexander is a protocol researcher specializing in Layer-1 and Layer-2 infrastructure, as well as RWA's and Stablecoins. Before Messari, he worked at Jump Trading and Bull-Moose Consulting. He graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Economics and Data Science, and helped run Northeastern's blockchain club.
Alexander is a protocol researcher specializing in Layer-1 and Layer-2 infrastructure, as well as RWA's and Stablecoins. Before Messari, he worked at Jump Trading and Bull-Moose Consulting. He graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Economics and Data Science, and helped run Northeastern's blockchain club.
