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The first Money in Motion report finds USDT on TRON leading e-commerce payments while USDC transaction counts more than tripled

Tue 10 Nov 2026 · 12:03 EST · 3 min read

In Stablecoins

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Stablecoins have spent years being described as the future of payments. A new report from Glassnode and NOWPayments looks at whether merchants are actually treating them that way.

The report, titled “Stablecoins in Commerce,” was released on November 10, 2026. It opens Glassnode’s new Money in Motion series. Its goal is practical: show businesses which coins and networks they should consider accepting.

What the data shows

The report sets two datasets side by side. One is Glassnode’s view of how USDT and USDC move on-chain. The other is NOWPayments’ record of how merchants are really being paid in those tokens.

The first headline number concerns who is using NOWPayments. From January to July 2026, SaaS and e-commerce businesses made up 55.54% of the processor’s classified partners. A year earlier, that figure was 48.26%.

That’s a meaningful change in the customer mix. Software subscriptions and online shops now account for more than half of the partners NOWPayments could classify.

Meanwhile, trading’s share of payments has shrunk.

The network data is where things get specific. USDT on TRON accounted for 54.58% of successful payments in e-commerce marketplaces. In the trading category, the same token-and-network pairing took just 12.04%.

USDT still leads, but USDC is gaining

On raw volume, USDT remains the heavyweight on NOWPayments. It held a 66.92% share of stablecoin transaction volume on the platform in the first half of 2026.

That dominance came alongside a 14.99% year-over-year decline in volume.

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USDC told a different story. Its transaction count rose 209.02% year-over-year over the same period.

That figure measures the number of transactions, not their dollar value. So USDC is being used far more often, even if USDT still moves the bulk of the money.

The research summary frames this as broader adoption of USDC among retailers and service providers.

NOWPayments had already published data in August and October 2026 pointing to USDT’s lead in transaction volume on its platform. The new report builds on those earlier releases by adding Glassnode’s on-chain layer.

Why on-chain data and checkout data belong together

Most stablecoin analysis looks at the blockchain itself. That reveals supply, transfers and wallet activity, but it can’t easily separate a merchant payment from an exchange shuffle.

Payment processors see the opposite side. They know what a transaction was for, but only within their own customer base.

The report pitches its findings as guidance on which coins and networks a business should accept. For a merchant, that choice affects fees, settlement speed and whether customers can pay at all.

What this means for merchants and the stablecoin market

For businesses, the immediate takeaway is that one size does not fit all. A marketplace selling goods online appears to live in a USDT-on-TRON world, based on the 54.58% figure. A trading-focused business sees a much more fragmented mix.

The USDC trend adds a second consideration. A 209.02% jump in transaction count implies a growing number of customers who want to pay that way.

For the stablecoin issuers, the data hints at a split in roles. USDT keeps the volume crown, but its 14.99% decline shows that lead is not growing on NOWPayments. USDC appears to be winning on frequency.

There are limits worth keeping in mind. These figures come from NOWPayments’ own partners, not the entire market. A single processor’s customer base can tilt results toward particular regions, networks or industries.

TRON’s strength in e-commerce, set against its far weaker position in trading payments, shows how a chain can dominate one use case while trailing in another.

The Money in Motion series is positioned as ongoing, so future installments may show whether these trends hold. The key numbers to track are USDC’s growth rate, USDT’s volume share and whether commerce keeps crowding out trading on platforms like NOWPayments.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

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