Ethereum and its L2s settled 77% of stablecoin volume, with $16.75 trillion in transfers

Stablecoins can live on almost any blockchain. Over the past 90 days, most of their volume still flowed through one family of networks. According to a report from Ethereum Institutional dated October 15, 2026, $16.75 trillion in stablecoin transfer volume settled on Ethereum mainnet and its layer-2 networks between July 15 and October 12, 2026. That works out to 77% of the $21.55 trillion in stablecoin transfers recorded across all networks over the same stretch. The data comes from Token Terminal. Where the money actually moved The most interesting detail sits inside the total, in the breakdown by network. Ethereum mainnet settled $7.1 trillion in stablecoin transfers during the period. Base, the layer-2 network, settled $8.5 trillion. Optimism handled $0.8 trillion, and a collection of other Ethereum layer-2s accounted for the remaining $0.35 trillion. Base alone accounted for more than half of the Ethereum ecosystem’s $16.75 trillion total. The report places that result within a broader mid-2026 pattern: users and capital drifting toward lower-cost layer-2 networks, with Base capturing larger slices of the stablecoin transfer market. Not exactly your morning coffee Ethereum Inst...