The United States turned into a net importer of bitcoin in 2026, the first time this has happened since 2022, according to Chainalysis's North America report published on October 14 and covering the twelve months to July 1, 2026. The finding matters well beyond American borders: it describes a market where institutions are absorbing coins that retail investors elsewhere, including in Europe, are selling off.
North America as a whole received $3,020 billion in on-chain value over the period, a decline of 1.9%. The US crypto economy alone stood at $2,780 billion, down 2.2%, a contraction Chainalysis links to a brutal market cycle in which bitcoin lost more than half its value between its October 2025 peak and a trough in June. Within that shrinking pie, however, inflows from transfers over $10 million reached 53,200 BTC, evidence that large players kept accumulating while smaller holders exited.
Chainalysis frames the shift as structural rather than incidental. "Since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, the US share of global bitcoin activity has increased in every period," the firm notes, adding that vehicles tied to institutional demand have "added implicit sovereign demand to private supply, even without an explicit purchase program." The report describes the underlying pattern bluntly: "retail sends bitcoin out, institutions bring it in."
Canada outpaces its neighbour
Canada's crypto economy, by contrast, grew 2.3% to $247.7 billion and ranked first worldwide in cross-border flows, though only 10th in Chainalysis's broader adoption index. Remittance-sized transfers from Canada to India, the Philippines and China jumped 141% to $2.36 billion, a figure Chainalysis contrasts with "the near-doubling recorded over the 2025 period," suggesting the pace of growth in these corridors is accelerating further.
The dollar's other export route
For European observers, the more consequential half of the report concerns stablecoins. Dollar-pegged tokens now account for 99.1% of stablecoin order books globally, against just 0.45% for euro-pegged alternatives — a gap that leaves MiCA's euro-stablecoin ambitions looking marginal by comparison. France, despite its regulatory head start under MiCA, sits outside the top 20 in Chainalysis's adoption rankings.
Circle's USDC alone had $73.3 billion in circulation at quarter's end, up 19% year-on-year, generating $14,800 billion in on-chain volume over the period. Chainalysis ties this expansion directly to the GENIUS Act, passed in the US in 2025, which it says formalised the country's role as "the leading exporter of digital dollars." As the report puts it, "a dollar stablecoin is a way to hold dollars without a US bank account, and Americans already have one" — a convenience that, the firm suggests, pushes international users to "rely more on bitcoin as an infinitely scarce store of value" as a counterweight.
For a European market still building out its own stablecoin infrastructure under MiCA, the figures underline how far behind the euro remains in a space where the dollar's digital reach keeps expanding even as physical dollar dominance is debated elsewhere.
