Stablecoin Settlements Reach $7 Trillion in 2022, Beat Credit Card Providers

According to the data obtained from CoinMetrics, the leading crypto financial intelligence platform, stablecoins achieved a new record total settlement volume this year. Comparatively, the record volume is higher than the major credit card providers, except Visa.

The leading crypto exchange Binance updated its official page with the details regarding CoinMetrics’ analysis of the record of the stablecoins:

According to Coinmetrics data, on-chain stablecoin settlements reached over $7 trillion in 2022 and are expected to end the year at around $8 trillion. While the largest card network Visa, processes ~$12tn/yr.

As per the reports, the adoption of the top stablecoin Tether (USDT) is stagnating while its major competitor USD Coin (USDC) is gaining market share.

Specifically, in 2022, USDC secured the second position for the highest settlement volume with roughly $2.9T, which is more than twice the last year’s volume. In contrast, USDT dropped in its settlement volume in 2022 with a value of $3.5T; in 2021, the stablecoin’s settlement volume stood at $3.7T.

Peter Johnson, the Co-Head of Venture at Brevan Howard Digital, tweeted on December 21, that the stablecoins have beaten Mastercard, Amex, and Discover, in terms of settlement volume:

1/ Last year, stablecoins settled >$7tn on-chain. Current run-rate is ~$9tn/yr. This is significantly more than Mastercard (~$2.2tn), Amex (~$1tn), and Discover (<$200bn). In 2023, on-chain stablecoin volumes will surpass the largest card network, Visa, which processes ~$12tn/yr. pic.twitter.com/DMG9NpDW8t

— Peter Johnson (@TheChicagoVC) December 21, 2022

Johnson added that in 2023, the stablecoins would surpass not only “Visa volumes, but will also likely surpass the aggregate volume of all four major card networks”, referring to Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover.

In response, the co-founder of Bridge Network, a cross-chain liquidity network builder, Kimberly Adams commented that Peter Johnson’s comparison between stablecoins and the major credit cards had been like “comparing apples and oranges”.

Other than USDC, seven other stablecoins also showed an increasing trading volume by around 30%, according to CoinMetrics data. Contrastingly, the trading volume of many leading crypto assets decreased by more than 90%.

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