Author: Heechang Kang, Four Pillars CSO
Compiled by: Jiahuan, ChainCatcher
This analysis is based on Allium's geographic payment data, covering $15.2 billion in identified on-chain transfers with known sending and receiving countries. As most on-chain transactions currently cannot be attributed to specific countries, the data in this article only reflects the identified sample.
Of this $15.2 billion in identifiable stablecoin transaction volume, 62.6% were domestic transfers. Of all identifiable transaction volume, 73.0% of funds ultimately flowed to the sender's region. Therefore, cross-border remittances are actually only one part of the current demand for stablecoins.
The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is leading, accounting for 41.0% of total sent transaction volume and 41.6% of global domestic transaction volume, while also showing net inflows, with Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea seeing particularly notable net inflows.
For institutions assessing stablecoin payment demand, domestic settlement services and cross-border payment channels in the Asia-Pacific region are currently the most noteworthy market opportunities.
1. Stablecoin Transactions Are Primarily a 'Domestic Business'
Domestic transfers, which occur between wallets located in the same country, amounted to $9.5 billion, constituting 62.6% of the $15.2 billion identifiable transaction volume.
Regardless of region or market size, domestic transfers represent the largest destination for funds in most markets with outflow activity.
Turkey ($2.28B), South Korea ($1.6B), Mexico ($1.53B), Indonesia ($1.09B), and the United States ($1.07B) together contributed 79.5% of global domestic stablecoin transaction volume.
These transactions are completed directly between public blockchain wallets, without the need to go through card networks or bank payment systems.
Such a large volume of domestic transactions indicates that users are employing stablecoins within their local markets for payments, trading, and US dollar-denominated savings. Therefore, cross-border remittances are just one part of the stablecoin use case.
For institutions designing stablecoin services, domestic payments and settlements currently correspond to a larger actual transaction volume compared to focusing solely on cross-border remittances.
2. After Crossing Borders, Funds Also Prefer to Stay Within the Region
Including domestic transfers, 73.0% of transaction volume occurs within the sender's region, meaning within the same continent.
Specifically, 79.5% of funds from APAC remain within the region, followed by the Middle East and Africa at 72.0%, North America at 71.4%, and Europe at 49.6%.
Looking at fund flows between regions, transactions are clearly concentrated within regions, meaning most identifiable stablecoin transactions currently still occur within the sender's region.
Excluding domestic transfers, within the $5.68 billion cross-border transaction volume, the share of intra-regional transactions drops to 27.8%.
Here, APAC's intra-regional transaction share remains high at 43.7%, or $995 million out of $2.28 billion in cross-border transactions. In contrast, North America is at 27.0%, and the Middle East and Africa is only 6.3%.
As the largest market in the Middle East and Africa, most of Turkey's cross-border stablecoin funds flow to Asia and the Americas.
Within APAC, transaction volumes for Taiwan to Indonesia ($138 million), Indonesia to Taiwan ($124 million), and Indonesia to South Korea ($89 million) are already substantial.
The existing transaction volumes provide a foundation for building regional stablecoin payment infrastructure in APAC.
Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, and Thailand together participated in approximately $1 billion in intra-regional cross-border transactions, while also generating $3.96 billion in domestic transaction volume.
Institutions can use these existing liquidity flows and bilateral demands to determine which cross-border payment corridors are worth prioritizing.
For institutions planning to build regional payment infrastructure, cross-border corridors such as Taiwan to Indonesia and Indonesia to South Korea have already formed quantifiable bilateral demand, providing a market basis for early investment.
Currently, transactions where Allium can identify both sending and receiving countries account for only 2.9% of all observed transaction volume. As more transactions have their country information identified, the rankings of these current cross-border corridors may still change.
3. APAC Has Become the Largest Stablecoin Transaction Market
The APAC region is the largest in this dataset, sending $6.23 billion in stablecoins, accounting for 41.0% of identifiable volume; and receiving $6.4 billion, accounting for 42.1%.
In terms of sent volume, APAC is significantly higher than North America at 28.6%, the Middle East and Africa at 22.0%, Europe at 7.5%, and Latin America at 0.8%.
Simultaneously, APAC generated $3.96 billion in domestic transaction volume, equivalent to 41.6% of the global total domestic stablecoin transaction volume.
This concentration is also evident in major cross-border transactions. Of the world's 15 largest cross-border stablecoin payment corridors, 9 involve at least one APAC market, with Indonesia alone appearing in 6 of these corridors.
Turkey to Indonesia ($206 million)and United States to Mexico ($206 million) are the two largest unidirectional cross-border payment corridors.
Combining transaction volumes in both directions, bilateral trade volume between Indonesia and Turkey reaches $363 million, Indonesia and Taiwan reach $262 million, and South Korea and Turkey reach $190 million.
These figures indicate that substantial capital flows have already formed between Asian markets and markets outside Asia with high stablecoin adoption.
Net inflow data shows similar characteristics.
The APAC region received $167 million more than it sent, showing an overall net inflow; meanwhile, the United States recorded the largest net outflow in the sample.
Indonesia (+$111 million), Singapore (+$57.9 million), and South Korea (+$31.7 million) are among the markets with the largest net inflows in this sample.
Therefore, for institutions evaluating current stablecoin payment demand, the APAC region simultaneously possesses the largest identifiable transaction volume, the highest domestic transaction volume, and positive stablecoin net inflows.
