Stablecoins see drastic drop in Ethereum trading amid memecoin frenzy

The memecoin frenzy earlier this month — which saw active bitcoin users plummet and users flock to Solana — seems to be disrupting activity elsewhere, with the volume of Ethereum on-chain stablecoin trading this month on track to be the lowest since Dec. 2020. On-chain trading of USDC has reached only $73.1 billion so far this month, less than half the $158.9 billion that changed hands in April, according to data from The Block.

Nearly $69 billion of Tether’s USDT has changed so far this month, after seeing volume last month of $110.6 billion. “USDC’s volume relative to USDT’s volume has really fallen off,” Stevens added. “This seems to be a result of the depegging. Its supply has also dropped so there’s also less USDC to trade.” The Binance USD stablecoin has seen a significant decline in volumes since February when minting was stopped, she said. While the average transaction fee on Ethereum has come down after peaking this month on May 11, the 7-day moving average is still well above levels seen earlier this year.