USDT grew on Ethereum through 2024, but smart contract holdings stalled, BIS data show

More USDT was issued without a sustained rise in balances held by smart-contract accounts on Ethereum, according to a Bank for International Settlements working paper published Sept. 15, 2026. On Tron, those accounts held about 1% of USDT through most of the study's historical series. Together, the findings challenge the assumption that a larger stablecoin supply automatically means more capital has entered decentralized finance.The BIS paper tracks where tokens sit, not why every holder owns them. Its holder-balance chart stops before 2026 on its date axis, so its percentages cannot be read as September 2026 measurements. That timing matters as current dashboards continue to show large USDT balances on both networks.On Ethereum, smart-contract accounts held more than 20% of the network's USDT during part of 2021 and 2022. Their share hovered around 15% to 20% until late 2024, then moved down to roughly 10% to 15% as issuance expanded. The drop is a change in the proportion of tokens in contracts, not a finding that the absolute balance kept falling. The BIS authors say the issuance growth did not bring a sustained increase in contract holdings.A lower share can result when newly i...