- Stablecoins added nearly $10 billion in market capitalization during March despite yield decreases, showing continued growth during broader crypto market uncertainty.
- Smart contract platforms experienced declining activity with revenues and trading volumes dropping 36% and 40% respectively in March.
- Solana suffered particularly sharp declines, with daily fee revenues down 66% and DEX volumes falling 53%, losing ground to Ethereum and its L2 scaling solutions.
Stablecoins are experiencing their own bull market even as major blockchain platforms like Ethereum and Solana face declining activity amid broader market concerns, according to asset manager VanEck in an April 3 monthly report. The continued adoption of stablecoins comes as traders brace for potential economic impacts from US President Trump’s tariff policies.
VanEck’s head of research, Matthew Sigel, said in an April 4 X post that ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty "could accelerate the strategic case for crypto." This uncertainty appears to be driving stablecoin growth, which the asset manager views as a key indicator of overall Web3 health.
Stablecoins collectively grew by nearly $10 billion in total market capitalization during March, despite yields dropping from around 10% at the start of the year to current levels of 3-5% – rates now at or below Treasury Bills. Multiple issuers, including VanEck itself, are preparing to launch branded stablecoin products, according to the report.
Smart Contract Platforms Face Declining Activity
While stablecoins flourish, blockchain platforms experienced significant activity declines in March. Smart contract platforms saw revenues drop 36% and trading volumes fall 40% across the board, VanEck reported.
Solana has been particularly hard hit, with daily fee revenues plummeting 66% and decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes dropping 53% in March. After briefly surpassing Ethereum and its layer-2 scaling solutions in DEX volume share during February, Solana has now fallen back below its competitors.
The decline in Solana’s performance partly reflects a slowdown in memecoin trading, which has dominated activity on the platform. The memecoin segment has struggled since February following scandals that dampened retail trader enthusiasm, including the February 14 collapse of Libra, a memecoin that wiped out approximately $4.4 billion in market capitalization shortly after launch.
Ethereum Shows More Resilience Than Competitors
Ethereum’s layer-2 networks showed more resilience than Solana in March, though they still experienced an 18% decline in trading volumes from February levels, according to VanEck.
By the end of March, "blob fees" – Ethereum’s main revenue source from layer-2 networks – reached their lowest weekly levels of 2025 according to Etherscan data. This indicates that while Ethereum is weathering the downturn better than some competitors, it is not immune to the broader market slowdown.
Meanwhile, tokenized Treasury Bills, which serve as a primary source of institutional stablecoin yield, increased 26% from February to March, surpassing $5 billion in total issuance, further supporting the continued growth of stablecoins despite market uncertainties.
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