BNB Chain adds 985K stablecoin holders in a single week, dwarfing every other network

BNB Chain onboarded 985,000 new stablecoin holders in the seven days leading up to September 28, a number so large it accounted for more than half of the combined growth across all top-ten blockchains during the same period. The closest competitor, Base, managed 202,500 new holders.

The surge deepens a trend that’s been building for months. BNB Chain overtook Tron in August to claim the title of network with the most stablecoin-holding addresses, sitting at roughly 79.3 to 80 million wallets compared to Tron’s 76 million. BNB Chain held only about 42 million stablecoin addresses in late 2024.

USDT is doing the heavy lifting

Tether’s USDT was responsible for approximately 845,900 of the new addresses, making it the overwhelmingly dominant driver of BNB Chain’s growth spurt. Circle’s USDC contributed another 390,800 new holders. Combined, Tether and Circle represented roughly 95% of new stablecoin addresses across the top ten chains for the week.

More wallets, less supply: a curious divergence

While BNB Chain is winning the wallet count race decisively, new stablecoin supply has been flowing primarily to Solana, Ethereum, and Hyperliquid. Total stablecoin supply across all networks sat at approximately $302.5 billion as of the latest data, reflecting a modest month-over-month increase, but BNB Chain wasn’t the primary destination for those fresh mints.

BNB Chain leads in the number of people holding stablecoins but doesn’t lead in the total value of stablecoins sitting on its network. The average balance per holder on BNB Chain is considerably smaller than on Ethereum, where institutional-sized positions skew the numbers.

What’s fueling the growth

BNB Chain has deployed several strategic levers to accelerate user acquisition. Fee waivers and promotional campaigns have lowered the barrier for new wallets, and the chain’s compatibility with MetaMask and other popular wallet interfaces keeps friction minimal. Transaction counts and active address metrics on BNB Chain have consistently ranked among the highest of any EVM-compatible network, even during periods when its total value locked lagged behind competitors.

For Tron, which held the stablecoin address crown for years largely on the strength of USDT transfers in Asia, losing the top spot to BNB Chain represents a meaningful shift. Tron’s 76 million holders is still an enormous number, but the gap is widening rather than narrowing.