In the entire history of Mercado Bitcoin, the leading digital asset platform in Latin America, a stablecoin (a crypto asset pegged to a fiat currency) had never appeared among the five most-traded crypto assets by number of clients on the platform.
That changed in 2026: USDT, the largest digital dollar cryptocurrency, entered the top five for the first time, in third place, behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The finding, however, is not a sudden surprise: looking at the ranking by trading volume, the rise in stablecoins' share had already been under way since 2024, when USDT reached the top three by that measure. In 2025, the dollar-pegged coin had already overtaken Ethereum itself in traded volume, two years before appearing among the assets most used by the average client.
"What the data shows is that the shift toward stablecoins didn't start now. It began with institutional clients, who tend to anticipate trends, and only in the first half of this year did it start to show up in retail investor behaviour too. It's a sign that the digital dollar is becoming increasingly popular in Brazil and often ends up being an important entry point into the crypto market," says Fabrício Tota, VP of Crypto Business at Mercado Bitcoin.
From USDT to the digital real: stablecoins loom large in 2026 trading volume
Between January and July 2026, for every €100 equivalent traded in Bitcoin on the platform, roughly €50 equivalent was traded in USDT and €50 equivalent in USDC — a combined dollar-stablecoin volume equal to that of Bitcoin itself. Together, the two coins held 2nd and 3rd place among the most-traded assets by volume in the period.
The trend is not limited to the dollar. In 2026, BRL1, a stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian real, entered the top five by trading volume for the first time — in 5th place, with a volume equivalent to €11 for every €100 traded in Bitcoin. Even so, the asset does not yet appear in the top five by number of clients, which points to an early stage of adoption, concentrated in higher-value transactions — the same pattern USDT showed in 2024.
The short life of memecoins: many clients, little money
Shiba Inu illustrates a pattern opposite to that of stablecoins. It reached 3rd place in the ranking by number of clients in 2022 and 2023 — a substantial number of people trading the asset — but never carried equivalent weight in trading volume, showing that most trades involved small amounts. From 2025, the asset dropped out of the top five by clients entirely, giving way to another short-lived phenomenon, TRUMP, which also failed to hold and no longer appears in the 2026 ranking.
The pullback mirrors a broader market context: the world's leading exchanges cut new memecoin listings by 79%, from 196 at the end of 2024 to 41 in the second quarter of 2026, according to an industry survey. Even so, this does not mean the end of the category.
"Memecoins follow a well-defined behaviour pattern: they attract a large number of investors per cycle, generally with small tickets, and lose ground quickly once the community's attention moves elsewhere. That's a direct contrast with what we see in stablecoins, whose growth is quieter, but also longer-lasting," explains Tota.
Bitcoin remains the leader on every measure
Amid all these shifts, Bitcoin held on to the lead in both number of clients and trading volume in all six years analysed, ahead of any other individual asset on the platform.
Mercado Bitcoin offers special terms for Passive Income in digital dollars
Amid the rise of stablecoins, Mercado Bitcoin is running a campaign, until 15 September, with special terms for Passive Income in Digital Dollars. The initiative offers promotional terms for new deposits in USDT and USDC in Passive Income, with returns of up to 8% per year between September and December 2026.
With Passive Income, returns are credited daily and automatically added to the balance. Clients can request a withdrawal at any time, with no requirement to keep funds locked in for a set period.
Check the terms and details of the campaign on the website.
