We Measured What It Costs to Move a Stablecoin on Ten Chains
Same day, same method, public data. The gap between cheapest and dearest is about 30,409 times, and the busiest chain is the most expensive one in the table.
We measured what it costs to send a stablecoin on every chain AIO settles on, and how long a block takes. Same day, same method, public data. Here is the table, and then the part that surprised us.
The measurements
Taken 2026-09-02 10:34 UTC. Cheapest first.
| Chain | Send a stablecoin | Block time |
|---|---|---|
| Litecoin | $0.000069 | 2 min |
| Optimism | $0.0002 | 2.0s |
| Solana | $0.0005 | 0.4s |
| Base | $0.0014 | 2.0s |
| BNB Chain | $0.0022 | 0.5s |
| Polygon | $0.0023 | 1.5s |
| Arbitrum | $0.0031 | 0.2s |
| Ethereum | $0.0271 | 12.0s |
| Bitcoin | $0.1078 | 10 min |
| Tron | $2.0982 | 3.0s |
The gap is larger than anyone guesses
The cheapest chain costs $0.000069. The most expensive costs $2.10. That is a difference of about 30,409 times for moving the same dollar to the same person.
People argue about which chain is better. The honest answer is that they are not close enough to argue about. They are different products.
And now the strange part
Tron is the most expensive chain in this table. Tron also carries more stablecoin payment traffic than any other chain in the world.
Both of those are true, and the reason is the number in the table is the sticker price.
On Tron you can lock some coins and receive the right to send, which is called renting energy. While the coins stay locked, the transfer costs almost nothing. The $2.10 above is what you pay if you do not rent. Businesses that send often do rent, so they never pay it.
That is the lesson in the whole table. A published fee is not a price. A price is what you pay after you have set the account up properly.
What a business should take from this
Do not pick the cheapest chain. Pick the chain your customer already holds money on. A transfer that costs nothing on a chain your customer has never used is worth less than a transfer that costs a cent on the chain they are already in.
Then reduce the cost of that chain. Renting energy on Tron, batching transfers, choosing the right moment on Ethereum. The chain is the constraint. The cost is a setting.
How we measured this
Everything here can be checked. Gas prices come from public nodes on each chain. Fee rates for Bitcoin and Litecoin come from public mempool data. Prices come from a public price API. Block times are measured from real block timestamps, not from what each chain says it aims for.
The assumptions are stated rather than hidden. An EVM stablecoin transfer is priced at 65,000 gas units. A Bitcoin or Litecoin transaction is priced at 141 virtual bytes, which is one input and two outputs. A Tron transfer is priced at 65,000 energy with nothing rented.
Numbers move every day. We will publish this again next week.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which blockchain is cheapest for sending stablecoins?
On 2026-09-02 10:34 UTC the cheapest in our measurement was Litecoin at about $0.000069 for one transfer, followed by Optimism and Solana. Fees move daily, so we re-measure and republish weekly.
Why is Tron the most expensive chain but the most used for stablecoins?
The published fee is the sticker price. On Tron you can lock coins and receive the right to send, which is called renting energy, and while those coins stay locked a transfer costs almost nothing. Businesses that send often rent, so they never pay the headline figure.
How much does an Ethereum stablecoin transfer cost?
About $0.0271 at the time of measurement, priced at 65,000 gas units for an ERC-20 transfer. Ethereum fees vary widely with demand, so this figure changes more than most.
Should a business choose the cheapest blockchain?
No. Choose the chain your customer already holds money on. A free transfer on a chain your customer has never used is worth less than a one cent transfer on the chain they already have a wallet for.
How were these blockchain fees measured?
Gas prices from public nodes on each chain, mempool fee rates for Bitcoin and Litecoin, and a public price API for conversion. Block times are measured from real block timestamps rather than each chain's stated target. Assumptions are published with the figures.