Weekly recap: $15.46M, a record almost nobody turned up for

$15.46M

This week

up 20.5%, an all-time high

91%

Of the rise is one venue

Daya Pro, on 41 addresses

122,735

Deposits

below last week's 124,001

+1.9%

Excluding Daya Pro

the other sixteen venues

Retail stablecoin volume across the 17 venues we track reached $15,463,527 in the week of 17 to 23 August — the largest week in 329 weeks of coverage, up 20.5%.

Almost none of it is more people.

Deposits fell. 122,735 this week against 124,001 last week. Active wallets fell too, 42,883 against 42,971. Both of those were records seven days ago. The average deposit rose 21.8%, from $103 to $126.

So the index set a high while participation went slightly backwards.

91% of the rise is forty-one addresses

Daya Pro did $2,808,124, up 592%. Its increase alone is 91% of the entire market's increase. Strip it out and the other sixteen venues grew 1.9%.

That volume came through 41 addresses — $68,491 each. For scale, Spenda moved $2,684,554 across 27,785 addresses, or $97 each.

Daya Pro serves advanced retail traders, and we treat its depositors as retail for that reason: the size band that strips business flow is switched off for venues whose users are individuals, however large their tickets. That is a deliberate choice and we think it is the right one — but it means a handful of traders having a strong week can move the headline for the whole market, and this week they did.

Daya Pro has run between $337,000 and $604,000 a week since June, on 36 to 50 addresses. This week it did 6.9 times its recent average on the same 41.

What actually grew

Quidax added 30.5% to $4,844,754 and took its share back to 31.3%. Spenda grew 3.8% and processed 76,886 deposits from 27,785 addresses, more than any other venue by a wide margin. Breet, Busha and Grey Finance each grew modestly.

Nine of seventeen venues grew. Onboard fell 71.2%, Accrue 89.4% and Chipper 19.5%.

Native stablecoins say the same thing

Transfer volume across the native African stablecoins we track reached $7,888,296, up 168.7%.

cNGN was $7,814,092 of it — 99.1% — and grew 177.7%. Its transfer count went the other way: 29,585 down to 17,588, a 40.6% fall. The average transfer went from $95 to $444.

Nearly three times the value, on four-tenths fewer transfers. Whatever moved cNGN this week, it was not more people using it.

Celo is part of it. The deployment we reported two weeks ago did $1,616,782, up 670%, on 839 transfers. When we published that note we said the thing to watch was transfer counts climbing while average size falls. Counts climbed eightfold; the average held roughly flat at $1,927. That is half the signal, and we are calling it half.

Two weeks, two opposite answers

Last Monday the record was in deposits and wallets while volume barely cleared its own high, and we wrote that the week grew on participation rather than size.

This Monday it is the exact inverse: volume clears a record decisively while participation slips.

The framework holds in both directions, which is the point of having one. It also means a single figure — "African retail stablecoin volume hit $15.46M, up 20.5%" — is true and, on its own, misleading. The other sixteen venues grew 1.9%.