This Dollar Pays Exchanges to Distribute It. Nearly Half of It Now Sits on OKX's Chain.
Most stablecoins are neutral infrastructure: the issuer keeps the interest on the reserves, and the coin sits wherever users take it. USDG is built the other way. It rebates almost all of its reserve yield to the exchanges that distribute it — and each exchange, paid to grow the supply it hosts, pulls that supply onto its own chain. The result is visible onchain: X Layer, the chain OKX built, holds more of USDG's supply than any other chain — more than double its nearest rival — while Ethereum holds just 10%, the least of its four main chains. It is a small coin, but it is the clearest early picture of a model that could split the onchain dollar by exchange.
- USDG — the dollar stablecoin issued by Paxos Digital Singapore Pte. Ltd., part of the Paxos group, and backed by Robinhood, Kraken and the Global Dollar Network — keeps just 10.3% of its roughly US$3.25 billion supply on Ethereum. X Layer, the chain built by the exchange OKX, holds 45.5% (US$1.48 billion) — more than double the next-largest chain — and has been USDG's largest chain on every day we measured over the past three weeks. see data →
- The reason is structural. USDG rebates almost all of its reserve interest (Paxos has cited ~97%) to the exchanges that distribute it — the inverse of USDC and USDT, where the issuer keeps the float. Every distributor thus profits from the supply on its own books, and OKX pays up to about 3.85% APY on USDG held on X Layer, the chain it built.
- USDG is small — seventh among the majors we measure — but it is the first at-scale test of the revenue-share dollar, and its chain map is the earliest sign of what that model does: pull the dollar off neutral ground and onto the rail of whoever pays you to hold it. If it spreads, the onchain dollar fragments by exchange.
Revised October 7, 2026: wording corrected.
Revised October 5, 2026: figures corrected.
Revised September 28, 2026: figures corrected.
A stablecoin is usually neutral ground. The issuer collects the interest on the reserves, and the coin sits wherever its users happen to take it — mostly on Ethereum, the chain the market treats as home. USDG, a dollar stablecoin issued by Paxos Digital Singapore Pte. Ltd., part of the Paxos group, is built the other way. Through the Global Dollar Network — Robinhood, Kraken, OKX, Gemini and other exchanges — it hands almost all of its reserve yield back to the firms that distribute it, in proportion to the supply each one brings. The dollar itself pays its distributors, and that changes where it lives.
You can see the consequence in USDG's chain map. X Layer, the chain OKX built, holds US$1.48 billion of USDG's roughly US$3.25 billion total — 45.5%, more than double the US$682 million on Robinhood Chain and the US$680 million on Solana, the next-largest chains. Ethereum holds just 10.3%, the smallest of USDG's four main chains, ahead of only Ink, Arbitrum and Mantle. Reading the same balances every day for the past three weeks, X Layer has held the largest share on every day we measured. USDG is small — at roughly US$3.2 billion it ranks seventh among the major dollars we track, a fraction of USDC or USDT. The point is not its size. It is that when a dollar pays an exchange to grow it, the exchange grows it on its own rail.
A dollar that pays its distributors
The mechanism behind the concentration is the whole point. USDG's issuer, the Global Dollar Network, rebates almost all of the interest earned on its reserves — Paxos has described it as roughly 97% — back to the exchanges and wallets that circulate the coin, in proportion to the supply each brings. Circle and Tether keep that income; USDG gives it away to its distributors. So an exchange that lists USDG is not just offering a stablecoin, it is holding a revenue stream that grows with the balance on its own books. OKX pays rewards on USDG held on X Layer, the chain it built — a program paying up to about 3.85% APY. The supply gathered where the reward is paid, because the venue paying it is also the venue that earns from it.
Fig 1 — USDG supply by chain, Sep 28, 2026
OKX's chain, not Ethereum
USDG supply by chain, in US$. X Layer (green) — the chain OKX built and pays rewards on — holds US$1.48 billion, 45.5% of the total and more than double Robinhood Chain and Solana, its nearest rivals. Ethereum holds the smallest share of the four main chains. Figures are native-mint USDG supply.
Why the model exists now
The design is a product of this regulatory moment. The GENIUS Act , the US stablecoin law enacted in 2025, bars a payment-stablecoin issuer from paying interest or yield to holders — the coin itself cannot be a savings product. But the statute does not stop an exchange from paying rewards on a stablecoin held on its platform. That gap is the whole game: yield reaches the user, legally, only if it is routed through the venue rather than the issuer. A dollar built to hand its reserve income to distributors is a dollar built to fit exactly through that opening.
It is also not as fringe as its size suggests. Even Circle, the issuer of USDC, already pays a share of its reserve interest to Coinbase in proportion to the USDC held there — the largest compliant dollar routes float to its largest distributor. USDG's difference is one of degree made into a strategy: where Circle rebates to one primary partner, the Global Dollar Network rebates to a whole roster of exchanges and makes that the reason to hold the coin at all. When trust is commoditized — every regulated dollar now clears the same legal bar — the competition moves to distribution, and distribution is bought with the float.
Still the outlier, and that is the point
Against a set of major dollar stablecoins we measure, USDG is so far alone: it is the only one whose biggest chain is an exchange's own. DAI and USDe are issued effectively entirely on Ethereum; USDC (66.7%), PYUSD (62.0%) and RLUSD (55.9%) all anchor there too; USDT (50.5%) and USDD (95.7%) anchor on Tron. USDG's 45.5% X Layer share is, in fact, the second-lowest largest-chain concentration of the set, after USD1 (36.1%), and its center of gravity is still an exchange's own rail, not neutral ground. The pull toward exchange chains is not everywhere — but USDG is the first major dollar built so that the pull defines it.
Fig 2 — Largest chain of each major dollar stablecoin
Eight dollars anchor on neutral chains; one anchors on an exchange's
For each of nine major dollar stablecoins we measure, the share of supply on its single largest chain, and what that chain is. Every one except USDG is anchored on neutral infrastructure — Ethereum or Tron. USDG (green) is the only one whose largest chain is an exchange's own, OKX's X Layer — and its share there is the second-lowest of the set, after USD1, reflecting a more even spread across its secondary chains. Shares are of each coin's total onchain supply we measure, Sep 28, 2026.
The float is the prize being given away
What USDG hands to its distributors is the single most valuable thing about a stablecoin. The interest earned on the reserves — billions of dollars a year across the market at current rates — is what turned the largest issuers into some of the most profitable companies in the industry, precisely because they keep it. USDG gives nearly all of it away. That buys distribution, but it raises the question underneath the whole model: is a dollar that surrenders its float running a durable business, or subsidizing share it will have to stop subsidizing? And note who is paid. The rewards flow to the exchange, in proportion to the balance it hosts; the holder on X Layer earns up to about 3.85% APY, while the economics of the float accrue to the venue. This is a distribution machine first and a consumer-yield product second.
A dollar per exchange
This is why a small coin is worth watching. If the revenue-share model works — if handing the reserve yield to distributors is what buys distribution — then every large exchange has the same reason OKX does to run a house dollar on its own chain and gather the balance there. The endpoint is not one neutral dollar on shared infrastructure but a dollar per venue, each concentrated on the rail of the exchange that profits from it, and “which stablecoin” becomes a question of whose ecosystem you are standing in. USDG is the first version of that at scale, and its chain map is the earliest place the fragmentation is legible. The counter-case is real: USDC and USDT remain overwhelmingly neutral and overwhelmingly larger, their scale a moat that a rewards program has to overcome coin by coin; bridging and wallet abstraction may yet make which chain a dollar sits on matter less to the user than it does to the balance sheet; and USDG's own hold is not fixed — its exact chain mix moves week to week even as X Layer has stayed the largest chain throughout. A supply map an incentive built is a supply map an incentive can move. But the direction is set by economics, not sentiment, and the economics now reward the venue that keeps the dollar close. The open question is which model the next hundred billion onchain dollars are issued under: the neutral one, or the one that pays for proximity.
USDG's roughly US$3.25B supply is 45.5% on X Layer (US$1.48B), 21.0% on Robinhood Chain, 20.9% on Solana, 10.3% on Ethereum (US$0.33B), 1.9% on Ink, 0.4% on Arbitrum and under 0.1% on Mantle. X Layer has held the largest share on every day we measured over the past three weeks (21 days: 2026-09-08 through 2026-09-28; one day, 09-21, is excluded from that count as a same-day data gap on X Layer, not a real supply move). Figures are native-mint USDG supply.
Verified Sep 28, 2026 · onchainbenchmark.com/methodologyUSDG's Global Dollar Network rebates almost all of its reserve interest (Paxos has cited ~97%) to the exchanges and wallets that distribute the coin, in proportion to the supply each brings — the inverse of USDC/USDT, where the issuer keeps the float income. So a distributor profits from the balance on its own books. OKX, a network member, pays up to about 3.85% APY (subject to change) on USDG held on X Layer, the chain it built. The report measures where the supply sits; the model is the documented reason it concentrates there.
Paxos / Global Dollar Network · OKX learn page, The BlockOf nine major dollar stablecoins we measure, USDG is the only one whose single largest chain is an exchange's own. DAI and USDe are issued effectively entirely on Ethereum; USDC (66.7%), PYUSD (62.0%) and RLUSD (55.9%) anchor on Ethereum; USDT (50.5%) and USDD (95.7%) anchor on Tron. USDG's 45.5% is the second-lowest largest-chain share of the set, after USD1 (36.1%), while still anchored on an exchange's own rail rather than neutral ground. Classification of 'exchange chain' = a chain built and operated by a single exchange as its own venue (X Layer/OKX); Ethereum and Tron are not exchange-owned.
Verified Sep 28, 2026 · onchainbenchmark.com/methodologyThe GENIUS Act bars a payment-stablecoin issuer from paying interest or yield to holders, but does not stop an exchange from paying rewards on a stablecoin held on its platform — the carve-out the revenue-share model is built to use. It is not unique to USDG: Circle already pays Coinbase a share of USDC's reserve interest in proportion to the USDC held there. Regulators are examining whether routing yield through affiliates to holders tests the prohibition, which is a live risk to the model.
GENIUS Act coverage · Paul Hastings, Congress.gov CRSUSDG is a smaller stablecoin — seventh by total onchain supply among the majors we measure, a fraction of USDC or USDT. Measures where a dollar stablecoin's supply sits following a disclosed incentive; the figure is onchain supply on X Layer, not bridged or unreleased inventory.
Coverage notes · onchainbenchmark.com/methodology- Where does USDG actually live?
- As of September 28, 2026, 45.5% of USDG's roughly US$3.25 billion supply (US$1.48 billion) sits on X Layer, the chain built by OKX. Robinhood Chain and Solana each hold about 21%, and Ethereum just 10.3%. X Layer has held the largest share every day we measured over the past three weeks.
- Why is so much USDG on X Layer instead of Ethereum?
- Because of how USDG is built. Its Global Dollar Network rebates almost all of the reserve interest (Paxos has cited ~97%) to the exchanges that distribute the coin, in proportion to the supply each brings — the opposite of USDC and USDT, where the issuer keeps the float. That gives a distributor like OKX a direct reason to grow USDG on its own chain, X Layer, where it also pays rewards of up to about 3.85% APY. The supply concentrated where the distributor both pays and profits.
- Is paying rewards on a stablecoin legal under the GENIUS Act?
- The GENIUS Act bars the issuer of a payment stablecoin from paying interest or yield to holders, but it does not stop an exchange from paying rewards on a stablecoin held on its platform. That gap is what the revenue-share model uses: yield reaches the user through the venue rather than the issuer. It is not unique to USDG — Circle already pays Coinbase a share of USDC's reserve interest in proportion to the USDC held there. Regulators are examining whether routing yield through affiliates to holders tests the prohibition, so it is a live area, not a settled one.
- Is this a broad trend, or just USDG?
- Just USDG, for now — which is the point. Of the nine major dollar stablecoins we measure, USDG is the only one whose single largest chain is an exchange's own. Every other is anchored on neutral infrastructure, Ethereum or Tron.
- Is USDG a major stablecoin?
- No — it is a smaller one. At roughly US$3.2 billion, USDG ranks seventh among the major dollar stablecoins we measure, a fraction of USDC or USDT. Its chain concentration is a case study in how incentives shape where a dollar stablecoin sits, not a market-moving flow.