As stablecoin adoption grows, driven by regulatory progress, real-world utility, and rising demand for faster digital payment, USDC is positioning itself as a key player in the evolving financial ecosystem.
Circle and cryptocurrency exchange OKX are going to increase the liquidity and exposure of USD-to-USDC and USDC-to-USD conversions through a new partnership, announced on July 9.
The idea is to increase the efficiency of stablecoin-to-fiat conversions through OKX’s global platforms to perform 1:1 backed USD into USDC conversions. OKX says it will simplify the conversion process for customers by creating an interface for on-and-off ramping which supports USDC for payments, as well as trading, selling and buying digital assets.
“Demand for USDC continues from businesses and individuals eager to adopt this new form of high-utility and internet-based money,” said Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire.
“By extending USDC’s reach to OKX’s over 60 million global users, we are driving growth in digital asset markets while also building on and integrating with the wide-range of innovative Web3 wallet and payments applications that OKX continues to pioneer.”
By increasing the liquidity options for fiat-to-stablecoin conversions, and vice-versa, Circle will leverage OKX’s customer base to further increase the adoption of USDC.
USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalisation, behind Tether’s USDT. But Circle has made a number of decisions in recent months to close the gap on USDT.
Already accessible on a majority of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, OKX, Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Circle became one of the first stablecoin issuers to receive regulatory approval to issue USDC in the European Union(EU), a feat Tether’s USDT has not achieved.
But while the stablecoin has grown tenfold over the past several years, stablecoins being used as a payment method is still largely unknown amongst consumers and merchants, being mainly used for B2B cross-border payments and use cases.
The payment focus of USDC
Despite scepticism from a majority of traditional finance firms regarding the viability of stablecoin payments, Circle revealed in January 2025 that USDC payments are trending in the right direction.
Within its 2024 annual report, Circle noted the cumulative transaction volume for USDC grew by 50% year-over-year to reach $18trn. Interestingly, $1trn of USDC payments were settled in November alone, believed to be due to the election of crypto advocate Donald Trump as US President.
The number of USDC wallet holders also increased last year by 45% to 3.9 million users. Circle stated within its report there were three major components of the growth of USDC, regulatory clarity, a greater understanding of stablecoin payments benefits, cheaper, faster, etc., and access to more scalable public blockchains.
Moreover, stablecoins are also now becoming increasingly important to Treasury departments, with USDC and USDT being used in $40bn of Treasury bills.
USDC has also been the default stablecoin for Visa and Mastercard which have launched their own pilots to test the speed of settlement for cross-border payments and remittance costs.
