Why has Solana stablecoin action boomed over the past year?

Markets 2026-01-15 09:16

Why has Solana stablecoin action boomed over the past year?

The stablecoin boom of 2025 benefited nearly every major blockchain. But it helped Solana most of all.

The market capitalisation of the popular digital tokens have grown faster on Solaana than on any other blockchain over the past 12 months, according to DefiLlama data.

This time last year, the total market cap of stablecoins on Solana stood at under $6 billion. It now stands at $13.3 billion.

The market cap of stablecoins on Solana hit a record of over $16 billion as recently as December. While it may have dipped since, this metric — measuring the total value of the digital tokens in circulation on a network — has grown faster on Solana than on any top 10 blockchain since the start of 2025.

On Ethereum, the market capitalisation of stablecoins grew by nearly 43% over the same period, to $164 billion. On Tron, it grew by 40%, to $82 billion.

“Stablecoins are obviously one of the killer use cases of crypto, so a chain that is leading in volume is inevitably going to attract stablecoin payments,” Matt Aaron, Project Lead at Solana-based wallet tracker and trading terminal Cielo.finance, told DL News.

Major banks, fintech companies, and institutions have shown interest in the crypto network, which hosts the second-largest DeFi ecosystem. Morgan Stanley last week filed for an exchange-traded fund to give investors exposure to Solana.

Stablecoin mania

The market cap of stablecoins on Solana shows the crypto network could become the go-to for stablecoin users seeking affordability and speed, according to Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale.

“Solana may eventually catch up to Tron as the leading blockchain for fast and low-cost stablecoin payments,” he said, adding that a boom in stablecoin usage on Solana would likely be fuelled by crypto trading apps.

Stablecoins and the companies issuing them became a major topic in the world of finance after US President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July, establishing a framework for issuing the assets.

Major players in the traditional finance world are focused on issuing stablecoins with the hope of speeding up payments — and many have picked Solana.

Serious players eyeing up Solana

Nearly two years ago, PayPal launched a stablecoin dubbed PYUSD on the network. Western Union last year said it would issue a token dubbed USDPT on Solana at some point in 2026.

Most recently, payments giant Visa in December debuted stablecoin settlement for partners using the chain.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Cash App last year announced that the app would soon allow users to send and receive the USDC stablecoin.

But the company, run by a hardcore Bitcoin maximalist who left Twitter (now X) to focus all his energy on making the top cryptocurrency “everyday money,” said Cash App’s stablecoin feature would use Solana.

If Solana is good enough for die-hard Bitcoiners, it must be doing something right.

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This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

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