Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimates that China generated at least $176 billion in crypto activity between July 2025 and June 2026, despite the country's longstanding ban on digital assets. A significant 59.1% of this activity occurred through domestic peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, a 3.5-fold increase from the previous period, indicating a shift away from centralized exchanges.

The report highlights a rapid acceleration in stablecoin payment activity, particularly in smaller transaction sizes, which began around March 2025. Monthly new activity grew from approximately $240 million to almost $5 billion a year later. Chainalysis also found that self-custodied stablecoin holdings in China had an annual turnover rate of 33.2 times, significantly higher than the global benchmark of 9.3 times, suggesting stablecoins are being used as transactional liquidity and potentially forming a domestic payment rail. The firm hypothesizes this trend may be linked to the tighter integration of China's social-credit system with financial infrastructure, encouraging some users to transact outside traditional channels.