July in review: $42.16M, and two stablecoin economies pulling apart

$42.16M

July retail volume

across 13 venues

+23.6%

Month over month

from $34.11M in June

$18.27M

Quidax

43.3% share, led the month

$20.51M

Native stablecoins

cNGN 45%, up 10.6%

+36%

BNB Chain

fastest-growing major rail

Retail stablecoin volume across the 13 venues we track reached $42,160,438 in July — up 23.6% from $34.11M in June. It is the strongest month since we began measuring, and unlike a single record week, the growth did not come from one place.

It came from nearly every direction at once: more volume on more chains, at both the top and the bottom of the venue table, and — separately — in a native local-currency market that is now large enough to have its own story.

The dollars moved on two chains

Retail still runs on dollars. USDT accounted for 85% of all volume — $35.7M of the $42.16M — and most of it moved over two chains.

Tron remained the largest rail at $15.0M, up 12%. But BNB Chain grew 36% to $14.07M, and has nearly closed a gap that was $3M wide in June. Solana was the fastest-growing major chain, up 60% to $4.03M. Base was the exception — essentially flat, up 3%, while everything around it ran.

No chain lost ground. The story is not where activity fell, but how quickly the order is changing.

Two shapes at the top

Quidax led the month on value: $18.27M, 43.3% of everything we measured, split across BNB Chain ($8.41M) and Tron ($7.02M).

Spenda led on reach. It moved $9.46M — but across 261,323 deposits from 46,986 unique wallets, the broadest retail footprint in our coverage. Quidax reached far fewer people at a much larger average ticket; Spenda reached many, at a small one. Together the two venues were roughly two-thirds of the market.

Ranked by a single volume number, Quidax wins and Spenda is second. Ranked by people reached, it is the other way around. Both are true, and they describe two different things a venue can be for.

The native market is realigning

Separately from the dollar market, native local-currency stablecoins moved $20.51M in transfer volume in July — tokens pegged to the naira, rand, shilling and cedi, used for local activity rather than dollar exposure.

Nigeria's cNGN led at $9.29M — 45% of the native market — and grew 10.6% month over month. But the more important movement was underneath it. South Africa's stablecoins pulled back sharply: cZAR fell 56% and ZARP dropped 79%. Kenya's cKES ran the opposite way, up 40%.

As with the weekly reads, we would not call the falls collapses on their own — several of these tokens sit on a base thin enough that a handful of transfers swing the monthly percentage. But the direction is consistent across the whole rand-pegged set, and it is consistent across the month. As those tokens faded, cNGN's share climbed: it was 45% of native volume across all of July, but close to 90% by the final week.

Most of this market lives on one chain. Celo carried $10.51M of native transfer volume — the Mento tokens — with Base and BNB Chain behind it.

Two economies, side by side

The clearest read of July is that there are now two stablecoin economies growing next to each other, and they do not share rails.

Dollar stablecoins move on Tron and BNB Chain, for trading, savings and cross-border value. Native local-currency stablecoins move on Celo, for everyday domestic use. In July the first was $42.16M and the second $20.51M, and both grew — but they are pulling apart, not converging.

Attributed, not estimated.