USDC trading peaks on Binance over demand for regulated stablecoins

Binance has seen increased usage of USDC, as traders now prefer the regulated stablecoin. The shift in stablecoin usage also underscored the rise of Base and Solana, where USDC is actively minted.  

Binance became the largest market for USDC, achieving weekly volumes of over $24B in January. The exchange drew in over 49% of centralized trades for USDC. After the latest surge in USDC trading, Binance returned to its activity levels from 2022. Binance itself posted peak trading activity following a record bull market in 2024 and is completing its shift from other stablecoins, including BUSD and FDUSD.

USDC activity is growing on Binance

Binance carries nine major USDC pairs, of which the USDC/USDT trade is the most active, reaching over $1B in 24 hours. The need to swap USDT may be the main source of activity, as traders scramble to move their liquidity. USDT remains widely used, but centralized traders aim to shift to USDC, especially to access crypto services for the Euro area.

After Binance posted its latest proof of reserves report, USDC was the one stablecoin with the biggest excess reserves. Binance holds 4.34B USDC, with user deposits sitting at 3.073B. The exchange retains a 141% excess ratio on user reserves, with the potential to boost trading and provide liquidity.

In addition to Binance, Bybit is also drawing in a large part of the USDC trading activity. According to a recent Kaiko report, Bybit carries around 30% of the USDC market. The inflow of meme tokens also raised the demand for liquidity, in addition to supplying newly launched growing exchanges.

The USDC stablecoin was viewed with some skepticism due to the ability to freeze coins and blacklist addresses. However, so far Circle has locked just 266 addresses, with 91M USDC frozen. Two of the addresses held 60% of the frozen coins, as most of the market remains hassle-free. Stablecoin usage is watched more closely, as exchanges aim to track the origin of funds and tie them to known self-custodial wallets. 

Stablecoin swaps boost crypto activity in 2025

Binance’s influence on the USDC market expanded rapidly, with inflows going vertical. The expansion followed an inflow of USDT to exchanges, another sign of the ongoing swap of tokens. 

The supply of USDC expanded at the beginning of 2025, rising to over 56B tokens as more assets were minted on Base and Solana. USDC added 10.2B to its supply in the past 30 days, while USDT only minted 4.6B in the past month. 

USDC grows with regular mints of 250M tokens on the Solana network, with the tokens flowing into DEXs. Solana now carries over $12B in stablecoin liquidity. The pace of USDC minting accelerated in the past few days, with an additional 580M tokens minted at the Circle treasury in a series of high-value transactions.

💵 💵 💵 💵 💵 106,567,936 #USDC (106,577,208 USD) minted at USDC Treasuryhttps://t.co/Og3PdBITiJ

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 12, 2025

The USDC treasury claims to mint new tokens based on deposits, as the stablecoin fulfills the regulation of having bank-based fiat reserves. 

The shift in stablecoin usage is happening as more USDT-based pairs are dropped by exchanges and brokerages. USDT trading is facing limitations in the Euro area, based on the enforcement of MiCA regulations from the end of January. Pairs against USDT reached 77% of total listings in 2023 but fell to under 63% in 2024. Delistings in 2025 continued, and currently, just 50% of crypto trading pairs are quoted in USDT.

USDC’s growth in 2025 is due to the inflow of new trading pairs, replacing the ones against USDT. After peaking in 2023, USDT slowed its growth. For now, the leading stablecoin still has the biggest share of newly listed pairs, partially due to its presence on the TRON chain. However, USDC-quoted pairs are expanding, taking up to 20% of all new pairs. 

The stablecoin market is shifting toward tighter regulations, limiting listings against synthetic stablecoins. The influence of USDC may continue to grow along with the supply, as predictions for the end of 2025 expect $400B in stablecoin supply. 

Stablecoins keep changing the crypto market, as the overall supply expanded to 224B tokens. Stablecoins boost leveraged trading, altcoin markets, and DeFi, but the latest inflows show their main role is on centralized exchanges. 

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