- Growth of L2 Stablecoin Supply
- Ethereum Loses Users
- Base Drives USDC Adoption
The value of bridged and wrapped stablecoins has now surpassed $10B, highlighting the shift from Ethereum to L2. These stablecoins play a critical role in providing liquidity to L2 and reserves for DeFi applications.
Growth of L2 Stablecoin Supply
The supply of stablecoins on L2 chains has surpassed $10B, based on data from GrowThePie. This growth was a gradual process, depending on periodic bridging by whales and retail holders. L2 assets still make up a small fraction of the total supply but serve a critical purpose for DeFi and DEX. USDT and USDC are the most commonly bridged stablecoins, but assets like USDS by Sky, USDe, and others can also move through bridges.
Ethereum Loses Users
Inflow from Ethereum accelerated in the past month, with a mix of stablecoins and wrapped tokens. Arbitrum received $2.7B from the main network, of which around 28% were wrapped stablecoins. Overall, Arbitrum carries 51.5% of all inflows, with the rest spread to Base, Optimism, and Polygon. Arbitrum and Polygon also demonstrated the highest USDT and USDC activity in the past three months, surpassing even some major L1 chains.
Base Drives USDC Adoption
The steepest inflow of stablecoins occurred on Base, Coinbase’s tokenless protocol. The Base USDC supply has surpassed OP Mainnet and may overtake Arbitrum. In recent months, USDC expansion on Base has slowed compared to the initial steep rise. Currently, Base is also actively using stablecoins for microtransactions, holding 3.16B USDC compared to 2.57B on Solana. Ethereum still holds a first-mover advantage with more than 26B tokens.
The growth in the value of bridged and wrapped stablecoins underlines a significant shift in economic activity from Ethereum to L2. Despite this, Ethereum remains a crucial player due to its role as the bearer of USDT assets.
