Ethereum handled a record $8 trillion in stablecoin transfers during Q4 2025, a surge that doubled quarterly flow from $4 trillion in Q2. The spike was driven by higher on‑chain activity, expanded stablecoin issuance and a December protocol upgrade that lowered settlement costs.
Network activity accelerated through December: daily transactions peaked at about 2.23 million in late December and monthly active addresses touched 10.4 million. Stablecoin issuance on Ethereum climbed from roughly $127B to $181B across 2025, a near 43% increase that expanded circulating supply available for transfers.
Technical changes amplified throughput. The Fusaka (Fulu‑Osaka) upgrade deployed in early December introduced Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), which cut the cost of posting data and eased capacity constraints.
Combined with generally lower gas fees during 2025, those conditions lowered friction and encouraged higher-volume transfers across DeFi, payments and tokenized real‑world asset flows.
On‑chain metrics and industry reporting show the quarter marked a structural uptick in payment‑style flows rather than a pure speculative spike, reinforcing Ethereum’s role as a settlement layer for large-scale stablecoin movement.
Market structure, concentration and precedents
Ethereum remained the dominant chain for stablecoins and RWA tokenization. Industry data indicated Ethereum accounted for about 57% of issued stablecoins and roughly 65% of on‑chain RWA value. Tether (USDT) stayed the largest issuer with $187B outstanding, more than half of which was on Ethereum.
Patterns earlier in 2025 set the stage for Q4. In May, high‑frequency and bot‑driven activity accounted for a large share of stablecoin transfer volume (reported at 57% of transfers and 31% of transaction count), creating liquidity and routing dynamics that supported the later surge.
“The scale of transfers demonstrates Ethereum’s evolution into a global settlement layer,” said industry analysts cited in reporting, highlighting both operational maturity and concentration risks linked to a handful of large issuers and chains.
Risks remain. Heavy concentration of supply on a single chain ties payment flows to Ethereum’s performance and fee environment. Rapidly rising transfer volumes also raise operational and regulatory scrutiny, particularly around on‑ and off‑ramps used by large institutional flows.
Investors, trading desks and corporate treasuries will watch early 2026 flow patterns, gas fees and issuance trends to judge whether Q4’s volume will normalize or mark a persistent rotation of payment activity on‑chain.
Those near‑term data points will determine liquidity conditions for derivative desks, custody operations and RWA programs that relied on the December environment as a proving ground.
