I just noticed that the stablecoin market data is really chaotic right now. Dune and Steakhouse Financial have released comprehensive datasets, and the findings are truly eye-opening.

So 172 million unique addresses hold major stablecoins — it seems large, but check out the concentration: USDT and USDC are well-distributed (the top 10 wallets hold 23-26%), but newer players like USDS and USDF are 90-99% concentrated in the top 10. The risk profile here is really different.

The volume story is even more interesting. In January, total stablecoin transfers across EVM, Solana, and Tron reached $10.3 trillion — more than double compared to last year. USDC is the volume leader with $8.3 trillion despite being 2.7x smaller than USDT in supply. The daily turnover rate of USDC on Base has reached 14x, meaning the entire supply circulates multiple times daily. On Tron, USDT is more stable and focused on cross-border payments.

But the most interesting observation: beyond the dollar stablecoin wars, there are over 200 stablecoins representing more than 20 national currencies. Euro stablecoin has a $990 million supply, Brazilian Real $141 million, and emerging markets are also adopting — there are tokens based on Naira, Kenyan Shilling, and others. The euro-to-naira conversion dynamics are another angle of how stablecoin infrastructure has developed in emerging economies. Even though the total non-dollar stablecoin supply is only $1.2 billion now, 59 tokens across continents have already been built. The infrastructure for local currency stablecoins has quietly grown while everyone is focused on the USDT/USDC competition.

The real insight: 90% of the volume passes through recognizable activity categories — DEX liquidity, lending, CEX deposits/withdrawals, and issuer operations. So stablecoins are not just a store of value; they are core infrastructure. Velocity data will tell us even more about whether the ecosystem is active or just dormant capital.