Stablecoin Holdings in Western Europe Jump 131%, More Than Double Global Pace

TLDR

Stablecoin holdings in Western European personal wallets rose 131%, compared with 52% globally.
Total crypto activity in the region reached $2.08 trillion, up 1.2%.
UK domestic stablecoin transfers climbed from $109 million to $2.09 billion.
French stablecoin balances in personal wallets grew 192%.
Spain’s exchanges drew rising inflows from Italy and Portugal.

Stablecoin holdings in personal wallets across Western Europe rose 131% between July 2025 and June 2026. That is more than double the 52% global growth rate, according to a November 9 report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
The region’s share of global stablecoin balances rose from 3.4% to 5.1%. Austria and France posted some of the strongest gains.
Total crypto activity in Western Europe reached $2.08 trillion, up 1.2% over the period. That makes it the world’s second-largest regional crypto economy.
Only three regions recorded growth during the period. The other two were Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Germany ranked second in the region with $288.8 billion in activity, followed by France at $215.8 billion. The Netherlands recorded $207.8 billion, Spain $156.1 billion and Switzerland $132.8 billion.
UK Leads Local Stablecoin Payments
The UK remained the region’s largest market with $424.5 billion in activity. That figure fell 8% from the year before, mainly because of lower trading on decentralized exchanges.
Domestic stablecoin transfers in the UK moved the other way. They climbed from $109 million to $2.09 billion over the period.
The UK made up 60% of Western Europe’s domestic stablecoin transfer value. That was more than the $1.41 billion recorded across the rest of the region combined.
UK domestic transfers were 1.32 times the value of its measured cross-border activity. Other Western European markets still relied more on international transfers.
Retail users also shifted toward stablecoins. About 1.03% of eligible UK retail wallets converted at least 80% of their crypto into stablecoins, up from 0.66% a year earlier.
The Financial Conduct Authority is preparing new rules for digital assets. Crypto firms can apply between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027, ahead of the regime’s October 2027 start.

LATEST: Visa is integrating Western Union’s USDPT stablecoin as a native settlement asset on its network, working with Anchorage Digital, which issues the token through its federally chartered bank.#cryptonews #latestnews #cryptoexchange #nexdax pic.twitter.com/AymcPX6GOS
— NexDAX (@nexdax_exchange) November 13, 2026

France Moves to Self-Custody as Spain Draws Foreign Funds
In France, stablecoin balances in personal wallets rose 192%. The country faced fiscal pressure and political uncertainty during the period.
The number of French personal wallets holding stablecoins grew from 3,577 to 12,255. Stablecoins made up 54.2% of French withdrawals from centralized exchanges by June 2026, the highest share among the major markets studied.
Spain’s registered exchanges drew more funds from other European countries than from local users. Cross-border inflows from Western Europe rose 79.1%, compared with 24.6% growth in Spain’s overall crypto economy.
Italy and Portugal led the trend, with inflow growth of 329% and 751%. Gabriel Ayala, director of API and banks at Spanish exchange Bit2Me, linked part of it to fragmented exchange markets in nearby countries.
European banks are also building regulated stablecoins under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA. The Qivalis banking consortium won approval in October to operate as an electronic money institution in the Netherlands, though its euro stablecoin has not launched.
Qivalis CEO Jan-Oliver Sell said regulated euro stablecoins could serve as the on-chain cash side of tokenized asset deals. He added that they could also support programmable business payments.
In October, the European Banking Authority named Circle’s USDC the first stablecoin placed in MiCA’s top tier for large electronic money tokens. Direct EBA supervision of its reserve and redemption safeguards began on November 12.
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