Stablecoin Settlement Concentrated in Four Firms

Circle and Paxos are the primary issuers of institutional stablecoins, Coinbase acts as a major distributor and Fireblocks serves as a key custodian, with on-chain stablecoin transfers totaling $10.5 trillion in January 2026.

Stablecoin market capitalization reached $317.89 billion in April 2026, up from roughly $125 billion in early 2024 after a federal framework for payment stablecoins was enacted in mid-2025. Blockchain transaction data show stablecoins moved $10.5 trillion in January 2026; USDC accounted for $8.3 trillion and USDT about $1.7 trillion of that month’s transfers. Stablecoins moved roughly $33 trillion in 2025.

Circle issues USDC, a token used by multiple payment and banking partners. Paxos issues PYUSD for PayPal and USDG for Mastercard’s Global Dollar Network and other partners. On-chain analytics show Paxos executed about $89.2 billion in outbound mint-and-burn transactions across 5,208 transactions, routing newly minted tokens to recipients including Binance ($22 billion), Wintermute ($12.77 billion) and Jane Street ($6 billion). Circle’s mint-and-burn flows recorded about $6.17 billion, with Wintermute and Coinbase among top counterparties.

Distribution of newly minted tokens is concentrated among a small set of trading desks, market makers and exchanges rather than through traditional correspondent banks. Coinbase appears as a frequent counterparty for flows from both Circle and Paxos. Many transfers between issuance and redemption involve crypto-native market participants.

Custody between issuance and redemption is similarly concentrated. On-chain holder data show Fireblocks Custody as the largest single holder of USDG at about $150 million, representing roughly 8.97% of USDG supply. Exchange cold wallets hold sizable USDG positions as well, with OKX holding about $519 million across wallets and Kraken holding about $129 million. Fireblocks also provides custody for USDC on chains used by card networks.

Major financial firms have integrated with the stablecoin stack in different ways. Visa settled roughly $3.5 billion annualized in USDC on Solana through banking partners and expanded support to four stablecoins across four blockchains while deploying on-chain analytics to monitor volume. Mastercard enabled multiple stablecoins and joined Paxos’s Global Dollar Network for USDG. PayPal launched PYUSD across 70 markets. JP Morgan settled debt in USDC on Solana. Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1 billion to support stablecoin-linked cards and financial accounts.

On-chain activity is concentrated on specific blockchains. Solana handled about $552 billion in stablecoin transfers in January 2026 and is used by payment firms for settlement.

Across issuance, distribution, custody and integration layers, a small group of firms appears repeatedly in the roles that move, hold and integrate institutional stablecoins. These figures detail which entities handle issuance, movement and custody of institutional stablecoins.