Visa Updates Stablecoin Data Filters, Lowering Reported Volume Without Proof of Payment Drop

Visa recalibrates stablecoin metrics

On September 18, Visa updated its on-chain analytics data, resulting in a lower reported dollar volume for stablecoin transfers. This change occurred because the company expanded the list of known digital addresses it tracks. Despite the drop in total value, the number of transactions counted fell by less than 2%. Visa stated that this adjustment does not prove that actual payments using stablecoins have decreased.

Key changes in the data update

• The set of labeled addresses used to identify activity grew from about 15 million to roughly 600 million.
• Adjusted transaction counts dropped by less than 2%, while the dollar value of transfers declined more significantly.
• Visa added new rules to filter out short-term routing and better distinguish between organic use and automated activity.
• No direct comparison of pre- and post-update totals was published, making the exact size of the value reduction impossible to calculate from the available data.

How Visa defines the adjustment

According to the Visa Onchain Analytics changelog, the goal of "adjusted volume" remains unchanged. It aims to exclude transfers involving labeled exchanges, smart contracts, bots, bridges, and other infrastructure. It also excludes the creation (minting) and destruction (burning) of tokens. With the larger database of addresses, more transfers now fall into these excluded categories. However, the underlying blockchain records did not change; only how Visa classifies them shifted.

Why value drops faster than transaction counts

A single transaction can move a small amount or a very large sum. When filters remove high-value transfers, the total dollar volume drops sharply, even if the number of remaining transactions stays mostly the same. Visa provided an example of an automated program on Solana that moved large sums through thousands of temporary wallets. This pattern is now excluded from the adjusted volume. While this explains the mechanism, the source material does not confirm if similar programs operated on every blockchain or quantify their specific impact on the total figures.

Limits in tracking real-world payments

Visa separates payments from other activities like decentralized finance (DeFi), trading, and store-of-value transfers. A transfer included in the "adjusted" count is not automatically a payment. For instance, a "retail-sized" transfer under $250 might be a purchase, but it could also be a personal transfer or part of a larger financial operation. Additionally, a single blockchain transaction can contain multiple token movements. A study cited in the report found that nearly 60% of transfer events on Ethereum in 2025 were part of complex transactions, meaning counting every event as a standalone payment can be misleading.

Unresolved questions on network rankings

Because Visa did not publish matched data showing how the revision affected specific blockchains like Ethereum, Tron, or Solana, it is unclear how the rankings of these networks have changed. The updated filters may allow for sharper comparisons in the future, but the current release does not provide a before-and-after breakdown by chain. Furthermore, there is a discrepancy in Visa's public materials: the methodology page still mentions "over 3 million" labeled addresses, which conflicts with the changelog's figure of 600 million in the new identity set.

Sources

• CryptoSlate

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