Tron and BNB Chain Capture 75% of Stablecoin Merchant Payments—What Signals Are Hidden in Real Commercial Payments?

Stablecoin merchant payments are heavily concentrated on Tron and BNB Chain, where USDT accounted for 75% of real merchant receipts at payment gateway NOWPayments despite representing only 14% of total on-chain USDT/USDC transfer value, according to a joint Glassnode–NOWPayments study covering September 2025 to September 2026. By contrast, Base USDC handled 45.2% of all on-chain stablecoin transfer volume but just 0.6% of merchant receipts, while Tron, BNB Chain and Ethereum USDT together made up 86% of merchant inflows. The report also found merchant receipt peaks cluster between 19:00 and 21:00 UTC, lagging overall on-chain activity by several hours. The findings matter because on-chain volume is a poor proxy for commercial payment demand, and merchants choosing settlement rails based on transfer totals may misjudge customer behavior and fee exposure. Total stablecoin supply has reached $303 billion (USDT $184 billion, USDC $74 billion), with daily transfers averaging $207 billion over 30 days versus $5.1 billion for Bitcoin and $2.7 billion for Ethereum. Next, watch whether payment-focused chains keep their merchant share as Base and other low-cost networks scale, and how receipt-time staffing and reconciliation needs shift.