Ethereum’s Hidden Reality: 67% of Stablecoin Transfers Are P2P, But Institutions Control the Cash Flow

Forget the institutional narrative—the real Ethereum story plays out in millions of peer-to-peer pockets.

The People's Network vs. The Whale's Playground

Scan the blockchain and you'll find a tale of two economies. The vast majority of stablecoin movements—two out of every three transactions—represent direct transfers between individuals. These are the remittances, the freelance payments, the simple 'sending money to a friend' actions that form the digital economy's grassroots layer. It's the proof of a living, breathing utility network.

Volume Tells a Different Story

Flip to the value ledger, and the picture pivots. While P2P dominates by transaction count, institutional wallets move the eye-watering sums. A single corporate transfer can eclipse thousands of individual ones, skewing the total volume metrics and offering the kind of concentrated liquidity that makes traditional finance desks salivate—and perhaps miss the forest for the few, very expensive trees.

This divergence cuts to the heart of crypto's dual identity: a democratizing force for the many, and a ruthlessly efficient plumbing system for the few. The institutions might dominate the spreadsheet, but the network's resilience is built on its countless, individual connections. After all, what's finance without a little irony? The 'decentralized' future is being shaped by the same old concentration of capital—just on a newer, faster ledger.

Business-Related Ethereum Stablecoin Transactions Dominate Volume

In a new post on X, Ethereum Foundation head of ecosystem James has shared some numbers related to stablecoin transactions on the ETH blockchain. Stablecoins refer to cryptocurrencies that have their value pegged to a fiat currency.

As these assets are relatively “stable” by nature, they have quickly established themselves as the preferred mode of payments, with their volume surpassing combined that of the top five non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies.

But what does the nature of these transactions look like? Below is the data posted by James, showcasing how the transfers related to the Ethereum versions of USDT and USDC break down between retail and business payments.

As is visible in the chart, 67% of USDT and USDC transactions on the Ethereum network that occurred between August 2024 and 2025 were of the peer-to-peer (P2P) type. Such transactions are usually a sign of activity from retail users.

The small size of the users being involved could be why the transaction volume share of P2P transfers was just 24%. In contrast, business-involved payments made up for 76% of the volume, despite occupying a transactions share of just 33%.

The Ethereum Foundation member sourced the data from Artemis’ report on Ethereum stablecoin payment usage. While stablecoins pegged to various currencies exist, Artemis focused on the USD-tied USDC and USDT as they are by far the most popular options, occupying 88% of the sector’s market cap.

These coins circulate on several blockchains, but Ethereum is currently the most dominant network, hosting more than 50% of the global stablecoin supply. “We also only focus on transfer transactions and exclude any mint, burn, or bridge transactions from our analysis,” noted the report.

Artemis has broken down how it classifies transactions. Transfers are considered P2P if they occur between the externally owned accounts (EOAs) of two separate users.

Determining whether a transaction is P2P can be tricky, however, given that it’s not always possible to determine whether two accounts are owned by different entities. Problems also arise for wallets owned by exchanges and other centralized entities. “In our dataset we are able to label many institutional and firm EOA wallets; however, the labeling is not perfect and some EOA wallets that are owned by firms and are not documented in our dataset can be mislabeled as individual wallets,” explained the report.

The second category is business-to-business (B2B), naturally consisting of the moves taking place between two institutional EOAs. Transactions between the same institutional entity fall inside the “Internal B” label.

Finally, there is the person-to-business (P2B) category, accounting for the transfers happening between individuals and businesses. James’ chart clubs all the business categories into one.

ETH Price

Ethereum made recovery above $3,000 earlier, but it seems the coin has once again faced a pullback as its price is now back at $2,950.