Just over six months after Shopify partnered with Coinbase, payments $USDC The combined activities at Base represent only a small portion of the e-commerce giant’s activities.
Announced last June and involving Shopify, Coinbase, and Stripe, this integration allows Shopify merchants to: $USDC Payments are settled at Base. Payments are settled through the Commerce Payments Protocol, an open source protocol developed by Shopify and Coinbase and launched at the time of their integration.
But so far, adoption rates appear to be relatively low. According to data from blockchain analytics platform Growthhiepie, since June, blockchain analytics platforms have grown by just $1.2 million. $USDC Payments at Base are processed through the Commerce Payments Protocol from 5,700 merchants and approximately 3,200 customers.
Growthepie also noted that these numbers reflect activity across “multiple companies” that use the Commerce Payments Protocol, not just Shopify.
$USDC Commerce Payments Protocol trading volume since June 2025. Source: Grooveepie
A Coinbase spokesperson confirmed to The Defiant that the Growthpie data “represents a piece of the puzzle,” adding that the Shopify rollout is underway and early signs are solid.
“Trade volumes are on the rise and we are seeing merchants increasingly leaning towards cryptocurrencies, especially when it comes to cross-border payments,” a Coinbase spokesperson said, adding that several other operators are also participating in the plan.
When the partnership was first announced in June, Shopify described the move as an effort to “provide smooth and secure stablecoin payments to merchants around the world.”
but, $USDC That number is just a small part of Shopify’s extensive footprint. In 2024, the e-commerce giant reported more than 5.5 million merchants, 875 million customers, and annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) of approximately $300 billion.
growth trajectory
In an interview with The Defiant, Lorenz Lehmann, head of research at GrowthEpi, said that a small absolute number should not be taken as a failure.
“Although the absolute number ($1.2 million) is small compared to Shopify’s global GMV, in our opinion, growth trajectory is what matters in early-stage technologies,” Lehman told The Defiant.
monthly volume $USDC Payments are made via Commerce Payments Protocol. Source: GrowthPy
Of the $1.2 million that has been settled since Shopify went live, he said, $USDCwhich has generated approximately $750,000 in the past two months alone, describes its progress as “the classic ‘slow-then-fast’ compound growth curve common in cryptocurrencies.” Mr. Lehman elaborated as follows.
“We see this as typical of the pilot phase, where we see high ‘novelty’ usage (people trying it once to see if it works) in the early days of a new payment rail. The fact that volumes have accelerated significantly over the past 60 days suggests that we are moving beyond the “curiosity” stage and into more consistent utility.
Payment methods for new and repeat customers $USDC Based on Commerce Payment Protocol. Source: GrowthPy
Still, the Growthpie dashboard shows that most wallets are only transacted once, with limited repeat usage. As Lehman explained, a “repeat customer” is defined as a wallet that makes a payment on another day after the first transaction, and the wallet address represents a lower bound for actual users.
As Lehman noted, the risk of “ghost towns” is “real with any new technology,” but as growth accelerates, both seller interest and customer habit formation are “heading in the right direction.”
The Defiant reached out to Shopify for comment on this initiative, but did not receive a response as of press time.
According to a recent report from S&P Global Ratings, the total supply of USD-pegged stablecoins is just over $300 billion, but only 5% are currently used for private sector payments.
