China’s P2P stablecoin wallets surge 43x, Korea’s $450B crypto economy: Asia Express

Despite ongoing bans, China has seen a big surge in peer-to-peer stablecoin use. New figures show South Korea’s $450B crypto economy is the largest in East Asia.

The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis.

The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026.

Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital.

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