TRON and BNB Chain Capture 75% of Stablecoin Merchant Payments: What Signals Do Real Business Payments Reveal?

Authors: Glassnode & NOWPayments

Compiled by: TechFlow

TechFlow Summary:The total market capitalization of stablecoins has surpassed $303 billion, with daily on-chain transaction volume exceeding that of Bitcoin and Ethereum combined. However, "on-chain fund volume" does not equate to "real commercial payments." Glassnode, in collaboration with payment gateway NOWPayments, compares broad on-chain market metrics with actual merchant point-of-sale data.

The report reveals a significant structural misalignment: USDT on Tron and BNB Chain accounts for only 14% of on-chain transfer volume, yet contributes to as much as 75% of actual merchant sales revenue. Additionally, peak merchant payment times are concentrated between 19:00 and 21:00 UTC, significantly lagging behind regular on-chain transfer peaks.

USDT and USDC dominate the vast majority of the stablecoin market. Although both are pegged to the US dollar, their practical usage varies dramatically across different public blockchains, payment scenarios, and user demographics.

For any business looking to integrate stablecoins, the choice of token and blockchain directly impacts whether customers can complete purchases smoothly, the transaction fees associated with fund settlement, and the complexity of backend reconciliation operations.

As the inaugural major release in the "Money in Motion" series co-published with the crypto payment gateway NOWPayments, "Stablecoins in Commerce" focuses on the performance of stablecoins in real-world consumer payments.

The report systematically compares the on-chain transfer characteristics of USDT and USDC with actual merchant receiving flows, providing practical selection recommendations for businesses.

A highly actionable conclusion from the study is: the public chain network with the largest total on-chain transfer volume is not necessarily the channel through which merchants actually receive the most funds. At the NOWPayments merchant checkout, USDT on Tron, BNB Chain, and Ethereum collectively account for up to 86% of the total stablecoin settlement volume.

In contrast, the top three on-chain networks by global transfer volume—Base USDC, Ethereum USDC, and Tron USDT—account for only 54% of actual merchant collections. Using "distribution of active on-chain addresses" to predict the most frequently used merchant receiving channels yields an accuracy rate roughly double that of simply referencing total transfer volumes.

Readers can currently download the full PDF report of this research for free to review all data charts.

Merchant Collections Focus on Tron and BNB Chain, Rather Than Primary On-Chain Fund Flow Networks

Simply observing total on-chain turnover often misleads assessments of commercial payment demand: the vast majority of stablecoin commercial settlements actually occur on infrastructure that holds a relatively low share of global transfer volume.

Data comparisons from September 2025 to September 2026 show that USDC on Base accounts for 45.2% of the total on-chain turnover for all USDT and USDC globally, yet represents only 0.6% of actual NOWPayments merchant settlements.

Conversely, although Tron USDT and BNB Chain USDT together represent only 14% of total on-chain turnover, they capture as much as 75% of actual merchant revenue.

Chart: Comparison of the percentage of on-chain turnover for USDT and USDC across various public chains (left) versus the percentage of actual merchant receipts at NOWPayments (right) from September 2025 to September 2026

Merchant Checkout Peaks Occur at Night, Lagging Behind Main On-Chain Activity Waves

For both offline and online merchants, the peak window for actual customer payments does not coincide with periods of overall market on-chain activity. Customer service and risk management teams must therefore allocate dedicated duty shifts to manage settlement spikes.

An analysis of hourly heatmap data covering the 39 complete weeks leading up to October 4, 2026, reveals that commercial collection peaks across major channels are generally concentrated between 19:00 and 21:00 UTC (3:00 AM to 5:00 AM Beijing Time the following day), lagging several hours behind the peak of globally active on-chain addresses.

Chart: Hourly distribution of active on-chain addresses for the top five main stablecoin channels (top) and the time-based heatmap of actual merchant transaction volumes (bottom, UTC time, as of October 4, 2026)

Daily On-Chain Stablecoin Transfer Volume Now Exceeds the Combined Total of Bitcoin and Ethereum

Even if every single transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain is fully counted, the value of assets moved on-chain by stablecoins daily still surpasses the combined total of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks.

As of October 5, 2026, the total global stablecoin supply has reached $303 billion (with USDT accounting for $184 billion and USDC for $74 billion). Based on the 30-day average daily transfer volume, stablecoins move $207 billion daily, far exceeding Bitcoin's $5.1 billion and Ethereum's $2.7 billion.

Chart: Evolution of stablecoin supply by issuer (top, total $303 billion) compared to daily USD transfer volume for BTC and ETH (bottom, 30-day average)

Key Highlights from the Full Report

· Stablecoin Market Structure: Breakdown of supply shares by issuer, clarifying why standard blockchain transaction records cannot be directly equated with real commercial payments.

· On-Chain Behavior of USDT and USDC: Analysis of single transaction volume distribution across various public chains and differences in turnover frequency for circulating supplies.

· Merchant Payment Preferences Breakdown: Calculation of how many currencies and networks merchants need to support to cover the vast majority of payment sources, along with structural differences in stablecoin receipt patterns across industries such as exchanges, cross-border e-commerce, SaaS subscriptions, and online entertainment.

· Commercial Implementation Guide: Step-by-step procedures for enterprises selecting underlying settlement networks, scheduling staff around payment peaks, and calculating comprehensive explicit and implicit costs across various pathways.

For further details and industry comparison conclusions, visit the link to download the full PDF report for in-depth exploration.