USDT transfers surge 438% over three years, led by Polygon and Arbitrum One
Ethereum's Layer-2 networks now handle nearly 80% of all USDT0 transfers as stablecoin activity migrates away from expensive mainnet transactions
Tether’s omnichain stablecoin protocol has quietly become one of the most heavily used pieces of infrastructure in crypto. Monthly USDT0 transfer counts climbed 438.2% over three years, with Polygon and Arbitrum One responsible for a combined 78.8% of all transfers.
The numbers behind the migration
Polygon’s stablecoin activity in 2025 has been staggering. The network processed 452 million stablecoin transactions and 1.4 billion transfers, representing year-over-year growth of 140% and 227%, respectively. Its stablecoin supply reached $2.83B, making it one of the most liquid Layer-2 environments for dollar-denominated tokens.
Arbitrum’s trajectory looks equally aggressive. Daily stablecoin transfers on the network went from roughly 80,000 per day in early 2023 to over 2 million daily by late 2025. That’s a 25x increase in less than three years. Daily transaction volumes now exceed $5B.
USDT0 itself crossed $100B in cumulative cross-chain transfer volume within just 525 days of its early 2025 launch. The protocol has attracted approximately 6.5 million active wallets.
Why Layer-2 networks are winning stablecoin flows
Sending USDT on Ethereum mainnet can cost anywhere from a few dollars to tens of dollars during congested periods. On Polygon or Arbitrum, the same transfer costs a tiny fraction of that.
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USDT0 leverages LayerZero’s cross-chain messaging infrastructure to enable seamless transfers between networks, allowing native transfers across supported chains with a single transaction rather than manual bridging.
Both Polygon and Arbitrum have also attracted integrations from traditional finance players. Revolut and Stripe have built payment capabilities on Polygon, providing on-ramps that funnel real-world payment demand directly onto the network.
What this means for the stablecoin landscape
The competitive dynamics among Layer-2 networks themselves are also worth watching. Polygon and Arbitrum currently dominate with their combined 78.8% share, but newer networks like Base, Optimism, and emerging zero-knowledge rollups are all competing for stablecoin flows.