USDT Transfer Volume Increases 438% Driven by Layer-2 Network Adoption

Monthly USDT0 transfer counts grew by 438.2% over a three-year period. Polygon and Arbitrum One currently account for 78.8% of all USDT0 transfers, as users increasingly move away from Ethereum mainnet transactions due to high costs.

The migration is driven by the cost efficiency of Layer-2 networks. While Ethereum mainnet transfers can cost between a few dollars and tens of dollars during periods of congestion, transfers on Polygon and Arbitrum cost a fraction of that amount.

Polygon recorded 452 million stablecoin transactions and 1.4 billion transfers in 2025, marking year-over-year growth of 140% and 227% respectively. The network's stablecoin supply reached $2.83B. Meanwhile, Arbitrum saw daily stablecoin transfers grow from approximately 80,000 in early 2023 to over 2 million by late 2025, representing a 25x increase. Daily transaction volumes on Arbitrum now exceed $5B.

The USDT0 protocol, which utilizes LayerZero’s cross-chain messaging infrastructure to facilitate native transfers, reached $100B in cumulative cross-chain transfer volume within 525 days of its early 2025 launch. The protocol has reached approximately 6.5 million active wallets.

Integration with traditional finance entities has also influenced network activity. Revolut and Stripe have established payment capabilities on Polygon, creating on-ramps for real-world payment demand.

While Polygon and Arbitrum currently hold a combined 78.8% share of stablecoin flows, other networks including Base, Optimism, and emerging zero-knowledge rollups are competing for market share.