Solana, Base, and Arbitrum: The Impact of Layer 2s on Circle’s $75 Billion Expansion

Circle's stablecoins have reached over 35 million users, doubling since early 2025.
The total stablecoin supply across networks has climbed to $184 billion, driven by increasing transaction speeds and real on-chain usage.
The demand for Circle’s USDC stablecoins is booming, with a total supply and yield products hitting $75 billion.
Stablecoin adoption across platforms including Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Arbitrum has surged, indicating a shift in usage patterns.

Key Takeaways

Circle's stablecoins have reached over 35 million users, doubling since early 2025.
The total stablecoin supply across networks has climbed to $184 billion, driven by increasing transaction speeds and real on-chain usage.
The demand for Circle’s USDC stablecoins is booming, with a total supply and yield products hitting $75 billion.
Stablecoin adoption across platforms including Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Arbitrum has surged, indicating a shift in usage patterns.

USDC doubles holders in 2025 as stablecoin demand explodes across blockchains

Stablecoin Growth: 35 Million Holders by 2025

Circle's stablecoins have seen a tremendous rise, reaching a milestone of 35 million holders—an impressive doubling from the beginning of 2025. Data from Token Terminal indicates that this growth is widespread across various blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana (SOL), Base (BASE), Arbitrum (ARB), and Polygon (MATIC).

Growth across platforms

While Ethereum continues to serve as the primary settlement layer, recent data showcases a notable increase in user adoption on Base, suggesting that the distribution of layer 2 (L2) stablecoins is gaining significant momentum. The slow growth witnessed between 2022 to 2023 has made way for renewed enthusiasm, particularly from late 2024 onward. During this period, both the supply of USDC and the number of its holders have shown interconnected growth, rather than diverging trends.

Circle's $75 Billion Outstanding Supply: More Than Just Ethereum

Circle’s total outstanding supply—comprising USDC, EURC, and yield-enhanced products—has surged to $75 billion. Charts from Token Terminal reveal that there is a more diverse mix of chains contributing to this supply than in previous market cycles.

Circles total supply

Although Ethereum remains the foundational layer, other blockchains such as Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism Mainnet (OP Mainnet) are increasingly sharing the issuance load. The growth trajectory observed post-2024 indicates a sharper rise compared to the build-up seen between 2021 and 2022, suggesting that L2s and alternative layer 1s are now capturing a significant influx of new capital.

Ethereum’s Stablecoin Supply: A Dynamic Market

Ethereum currently hosts over $184 billion in stablecoin supply, witnessing a dramatic increase of more than $100 billion since January 2024. More importantly, the acceleration of transfer volume is occurring alongside the supply growth, rather than trailing behind it.

Transfer volume analysis

This pattern indicates that the new cohort of 35 million holders and the $75 billion expansion from Circle are not merely passive; funds are actively being utilized. In contrast to the previous pattern from 2021 to 2023, where supply expanded without a corresponding rise in activity, the current data from 2024 to 2025 demonstrates an increase in velocity that coincides with supply growth. This signifies that on-chain dollars are being actively traded and utilized rather than just held in reserve.