Ethereum is losing ownership of crypto payments as Base moves $565B in stablecoins

Visa Onchain Analytics data shows Base narrowly overtook Ethereum in June adjusted stablecoin volume, handling about $565 billion versus Ethereum’s roughly $562 billion. The broader stablecoin market reached around $1.79 trillion in adjusted monthly volume, up sharply from May and above February’s peak. The article frames this as evidence that payment-like crypto activity is shifting toward lower-cost, faster layer-2 networks, especially Base, rather than staying concentrated on Ethereum mainnet. USDC dominated settlement with about 67% of adjusted volume, while USDT accounted for roughly 32%. The market implication is that stablecoin settlement leadership may be moving from token issuance and legacy network dominance toward where actual transaction flow occurs, though Visa’s adjusted methodology still leaves uncertainty about durability and noise filtering.