China P2P stablecoin wallets grew 43x despite crypto restrictions: Chainalysis
Unique wallets sending P2P stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between Q1 2024 and Q2 2026 as crypto activity increasingly shifted toward direct wallet-to-wallet transfers.
Chainalysis reports a 43-fold increase in unique wallets conducting peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China between Q1 2024 and Q2 2026, despite stringent crypto restrictions. The blockchain analytics firm recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China's self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the July 2025 to June 2026 period.
Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, significantly higher than the global average of 9.3, indicating users treat stablecoins as working capital. China's crypto economy is estimated to be worth at least $176 billion, with domestic P2P activity accounting for 59.1% of the total, up from 3.5% in 2025. The growth outpaces South Korea, the region's second-largest crypto economy, which saw $449.1 billion in activity, growing by 12.3%.
Hong Kong's institutional activity stands out, with 16% of service inflows from institutional platforms, translating to nearly $24 billion in inbound business-to-business flows. Notably, Hong Kong issued its first stablecoin licenses in April. In Japan, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) accounted for nearly 35% of service activity, with a surge of over 200% since 2022.
Japanese lawmakers recently expanded digital asset regulation under the country's financial-markets framework.
Written by urgent.news from Cointelegraph's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
