As 2025 winds down, stablecoins like USDC are being used for more than just trading. They are increasingly part of payments, business transfers, and routine movement of funds, not only activity tied to market cycles. As more money moves more often, the way those transfers settle has started to matter far more than it used to. 

That change has put pressure on existing blockchain networks. Activity picked up over the second half of the year, and during busy periods this showed up through higher fees, slower confirmations, and less predictable transfer costs.

On Ethereum, for example, sending USDC late in 2025 has often cost anywhere from a few dollars to well over ten dollars during periods of congestion, meaning even a basic transfer can end up costing more than expected.

By the second half of the year, fee volatility had become another familiar issue. Gas-based pricing means the cost of a stablecoin transfer can change quickly depending on network conditions, making routine payments harder to plan for traders, businesses, and treasury teams. In practice, once exchange and transfer fees are factored in, the cost advantage of using stablecoins can narrow more than many users expect.

That’s where Bybit’s decision to add USDC support on the XDC Network fits in. As stablecoin transfers become part of everyday activity, exchanges are under pressure to offer routes that are easier to manage and more predictable. How quickly and cheaply funds can move now matters as much as access itself.

“Most users don’t care about blockchain labels anymore. They care about whether a transfer clears quickly and what it costs them in the end,” said Angus O’Callaghan, head of trading and markets at XDC Network. “If stablecoins are going to function as everyday financial tools, the infrastructure underneath them has to feel reliable, not stressful.”

Bybit Waives USDC Fees on XDC and Launches $200,000 Reward Program

For most stablecoin users, access isn’t the problem anymore. USDC is already available on nearly every major exchange. What people care about now is whether moving funds actually works the way they need it to: quickly, regularly, and without having to think twice about the cost.

Bybit’s recent changes make sense within this context. Alongside opening another route for USDC transfers, the exchange is waiving withdrawal fees on XDC from December 1, 2025 through January 1, 2026, and offering a 200,000 USDC reward pool for new users who register and make qualifying deposits.

From a user point of view, this is less about features and more about convenience. When transfers start to feel expensive or unpredictable, people naturally change how they move money. Some wait longer to transfer, others batch payments, and some avoid smaller transactions altogether. Having another option available makes those decisions easier.

For Bybit users, USDC on XDC simply adds flexibility. It gives them another way to move funds when the usual routes don’t feel like the best choice, without changing what they’re using or how they think about stablecoins.

What This Signals for Exchanges

Bybit’s recent move around USDC transfers reflects a change that’s starting to show up across the exchange landscape. While Bybit has taken a clear step in expanding how users can move funds, it’s also part of a wider pattern playing out over the past few weeks.

BTSE, KuCoin, MEXC, Gate.io, Bitrue, and Pionex have also expanded support for XDC, enabling deposits, withdrawals, and trading. Taken together, these moves point to growing interest among exchanges in settlement networks that can handle regular transfer activity without the fee swings seen on more congested chains.

For exchanges, the reasoning is largely practical. As stablecoin flows increase, relying on a small set of networks can make platforms more exposed to sudden cost changes and slower settlement during peak periods. Adding alternative routes gives exchanges more flexibility, helps smooth out those pressures, and offers users more consistent ways to move funds without changing the assets they already use.

All of this is also happening as stablecoins start to be treated more like real payment tools. In the U.S., proposals such as the GENIUS Act are focused on putting clearer rules around how stablecoins are issued and used, especially for payments and institutional activity. As that happens, the way stablecoins move between platforms and networks becomes more than a technical detail and part of what users and institutions expect by default.

“When stablecoins start getting used outside of trading, the conversation changes,” O’Callaghan added. “Once there are clearer rules around how they’re meant to work, like what’s being discussed with the GENIUS Act, people stop treating transfers as experiments. They expect them to behave like regular payments: to go through on time, at a cost they can understand, and without needing to second-guess every move.”

XDC in Practice

XDC Network is mostly used for practical, behind-the-scenes work rather than consumer-facing crypto activity. It’s been used in areas like trade finance, real-world asset tokenization, and settlement processes where systems need to work consistently and without surprises.

That same setup also works well for moving stablecoins. Transfers on XDC tend to go through quickly and usually cost very little, which matters more now that stablecoin transfers became more common. For people or businesses sending USDC often, lower and more predictable costs make those transfers easier to manage over time.

This is starting to show in the data. The amount of USDC issued on XDC has continued to rise and recently passed $200 million, indicating that usage is moving beyond early tests and into more regular activity. Rather than brief spikes, the numbers point to steady use by participants who move funds often.

Image source: USDC.COOL

From XDC’s side, integrations like Bybit’s are mainly about being useful. The network is being used as another place where stablecoin transfers can happen reliably, rather than as something meant to attract attention on its own.

XDC was also designed with institutional payment flows in mind, where predictable settlement and consistent costs matter more than short-term optimization. That makes it practical for businesses and financial institutions moving stablecoins at scale, where delays or sudden fee swings quickly turn into operational problems.

That focus is already showing up in how the network is being used. Beyond basic transfers, XDC supports more complex financial workflows, including global payments, tokenized settlement, and stablecoin-based liquidity. Assets like USDC are increasingly used within these flows, including as collateral, and more than $500 million worth of assets have already been tokenized and settled on the network.

Image source: TradeFi Network

This kind of activity is especially relevant for trade finance and cross-border settlement, where funds need to move reliably across jurisdictions rather than fluctuate with market conditions. As more payment and trade processes move on-chain, infrastructure that can handle steady, high-volume transfers becomes less of a nice-to-have and more of a requirement.

Closing

In the end, decisions like Bybit’s USDC support on XDC are not about any single network or promotion and more about how exchanges are adjusting to a maturing market. For the exchange, offering another way to move USDC is part of that adjustment – making sure the experience holds up not just during quiet periods, but when activity picks up and small frictions start to matter. XDC’s role in that setup reflects how infrastructure choices are becoming part of the exchange’s responsibility, even if they stay largely out of sight.

“Good infrastructure doesn’t draw attention to itself,” O’Callaghan concludes. “When it works properly, users barely think about it, and that’s usually the goal.”

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