stable coins
By Maheen Hernandez
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What's Driving USDC's Surge. The regulatory angle is probably the biggest piece of this.
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USDT vs. USDC: Not Really a Competition. Here's the thing — framing USDT and USDC as rivals kind of misses the point.
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Network Strategy Shapes Business Decisions. The blockchain network question is genuinely underrated as a business factor.
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USDC is moving fast. Transaction counts on NOWPayments jumped 209.02% year over year in the first half of 2026, and that number is hard to ignore when you're watching stablecoin…
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USDT isn't going anywhere, though. It still controlled 66.92% of total stablecoin transaction volume on NOWPayments during H1 2026, and its transaction count share sat at 41.32%.
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USDC's volume share climbed from 5.52% in 2025 to 8.95% in 2026, and transaction volume rose 101.63% over the same stretch. That's not a blip.
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The regulatory angle is probably the biggest piece of this. Europe's MiCA framework — the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation — has pushed businesses operating in EU…
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It's worth stepping back for a second here. Stablecoins aren't just payment rails for crypto traders anymore.
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And the network choices matter more than people think. Businesses on NOWPayments can process USDT across Ethereum, TRON, and BNB Smart Chain, among others.
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Here's the thing — framing USDT and USDC as rivals kind of misses the point. The NOWPayments data basically suggests businesses aren't choosing one or the other.
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More context: CoinFellos Fello 2 AI Agent Returns 100% of Swap Fees to Users on Monad
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USDT's dominance in raw volume makes sense when you look at where global stablecoin activity concentrates.
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But USDC's growth rate is the story here. A 209% jump in transaction count isn't something you see from a marginal player.
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The blockchain network question is genuinely underrated as a business factor. Settlement speed and cost aren't abstract — they hit the bottom line.
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USDT's multi-network presence on TRON and Ethereum gives it a similar flexibility, and BNB Smart Chain adds another lane for businesses already operating in that ecosystem.
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