a16z Stablecoin Q1 Report: Total Value Hits $4.5 Trillion, 75% Used for Domestic Payments in the US Rather Than Cross-Border

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) released a stablecoin data report, presenting in nine charts the process of stablecoins transitioning from trading tools to general-purpose payment infrastructure. Adjusted transaction volume surged to approximately $4.5 trillion in Q1 2026, with consumer-to-business (C2B) payments growing by 128% year-over-year. (Previous coverage: Stablecoin transaction volume reached $7.2 trillion in February, surpassing the US ACH system for the first time! 24/7 borderless advantages hit traditional banks hard) (Background supplement: a16z announces $15 billion fundraising! Founder Ben Horowitz: Targeting AI, crypto, biotech... investing in America's future) The published research report points out that stablecoins are currently becoming core infrastructure for global finance, and the trend is moving in a direction different from what most people expected. Stablecoins took several years to find their positioning; initially, they were tools for moving USD between exchanges, later becoming a hedging option for storing value. a16z crypto features editor Robert Hackett and engineering partner Jeremy Zhang noted that the "GENIUS Act," signed in the US last July, established a federal-level framework for stablecoin issuance, passing the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 68 to 30. The report indicates that adjusted transaction volume had been climbing steadily before the act passed, but growth accelerated significantly afterward, reaching approximately $4.5 trillion in Q1 2026. Europe's MiCA framework played out a different story. After coming into full effect at the end of 2024, several major exchanges delisted USDT to comply with regulations, briefly pushing non-USD stablecoin transaction volume to over $40 billion. It later fell back to a stable range of $15 billion to $25 billion per month, which is still significantly higher than pre-MiCA levels. Regulation instead catalyzed a non-USD stablecoin market that barely existed before, a result that even the legislators themselves likely did not anticipate. The most notable structural change in the report is that the use of stablecoins is shifting toward actual commercial payments. In 2025, C2C (consumer-to-consumer) transaction volume reached 789.5 million transactions, remaining the largest category, but C2B (consumer-to-business) transactions grew at a year-over-year rate of 128%, surging from 124.9 million to 284.6 million transactions, ranking first in growth speed. Infrastructure data for stablecoin cards further confirms this trend. Stablecoin card solutions powered by the Rain platform (including EtherFi Cash, Kast, Wallbit, etc.) saw monthly collateral deposits soar from near zero in November 2024 to over $300 million by early 2026. Meanwhile, the velocity of stablecoins climbed from 2.6x in early 2024 to approximately 6x. This means the growth in transaction demand has outpaced new issuance, and every dollar of stablecoin is being used more frequently. Excluding internal exchange flows and treasury management, the actual payment scale of stablecoins between different entities in 2025 is estimated to be between $350 billion and $550 billion. Geographically, Asia (primarily Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan) accounts for nearly two-thirds of transaction volume, North America for about one-quarter, Europe for about 13%, and Latin America and Africa combined for less than $1 billion. However, the most counterintuitive data comes from the split between cross-border and domestic transactions. Stablecoins have long been positioned as cross-border remittance tools, but in reality, the share of domestic transactions has climbed from about 50% in early 2024 to nearly 75% in early 2026. Stablecoins are becoming "local payment tools running on global infrastructure," which is almost the exact opposite of the cross-border narrative that has been discussed in the market over the past few years. Non-USD stablecoins are not only emerging in Europe. The monthly transaction volume of the Brazilian Real stablecoin BRLA grew from near zero in early 2023 to approximately $400 million in early 2026, driven by integration with Brazil's real-time payment system, PIX. a16z concludes that the stablecoin ecosystem is exhibiting structural characteristics of "global foundation + local application." It is global in design, but increasingly local in usage. The current correlation between stablecoins and cross-border tools may be decoupling.