Stablecoins reportedly moved $35 trillion on-chain in 2025. According to ++McKinsey and Artemis Analytics' joint February 2026 analysis++, only about $390 billion of that reflects genuine payment activity, actual vendor bills, remittances, and payroll, once trading, internal fund shuffling, and automated blockchain flows are filtered out. B2B is the largest real segment at $226 billion, and it grew 733% year-over-year.
But raw on-chain numbers get thrown around constantly, and can be misleading Once you filter for what businesses are actually doing, a clearer picture of stablecoin versus Bitcoin for payments emerges.
Why raw volume numbers mislead
A trillion-dollar stablecoin volume figure sounds like overwhelming adoption. Most of it is trading, arbitrage, exchange fund balancing, and smart contracts moving value between wallets that the same entity controls. Blockchain data shows transfers, not the reason behind them, which is exactly why McKinsey and Artemis built a filtered model rather than taking the headline number at face value.
The same caution applies to Bitcoin. Bitcoin's daily trading volume regularly exceeds tens of billions of dollars, but the overwhelming majority of that reflects speculative trading and investment activity, not anyone paying an invoice.
What real processed-payment data shows
Two real platforms, serving different segments of the market, tell a consistent story.
++CoinGate's own 2025 payments report++, which serves a broad, retail-mixed merchant checkout base, shows Bitcoin reclaiming the top spot for inbound payments at 22.1% of all transactions in 2025, ahead of any single stablecoin. Customers still choose to pay with Bitcoin at meaningful volume. On the payout side, the picture flips entirely: 83.4% of all payouts processed through CoinGate in 2025 ran in USDC, and once converted, 96.8% of that stayed in USDC.
++BVNK's own data++, from a platform built specifically around B2B settlement rather than retail checkout, shows an even sharper split. Across its Global Settlement Network, two-thirds of collected business payments ran in stablecoins, while only 6% were Bitcoin. That's a materially smaller Bitcoin share than CoinGate's more retail-mixed base, and the pattern has held consistently for several years, not a single-year anomaly.
These aren't contradictory numbers: Bitcoin retains real share where consumers are choosing how to pay. Once the use case shifts to genuine B2B settlement, that share drops sharply, and stablecoins take over.
Why volatility still matters here specifically
Bitcoin's price can move several percent in a single day. A stablecoin is built to hold a fixed peg, typically to the US dollar. For a business quoting a price or paying an invoice, a swing in value between the moment a transaction is sent and the moment it's confirmed is a real operational problem.
That's precisely why Bitcoin's own natural role sits closer to a reserve or store-of-value asset than a settlement currency for recurring business payments. Holding Bitcoin as a treasury position and paying a supplier in Bitcoin are two very different decisions with very different risk profiles.
Which one for which job
| Your situation | Better fit |
| Accepting customer payments at checkout | Either works; Bitcoin still holds real, meaningful share |
| Paying suppliers, affiliates, or payroll | Stablecoins, by a wide margin in the real data, especially on B2B-focused platforms |
| Cross-border B2B settlement | Stablecoins, especially in corridors with correspondent-banking friction |
| Holding value as a long-term treasury position | A different question entirely, outside a payments comparison |
Related reading: Why Stablecoins? The Business Case for Paying and Getting Paid in Stablecoin · Off-Ramp vs On-Ramp Explained (for Businesses) · Wire Transfer Timing vs Stablecoins: How Much Faster Is Settlement?