SideShift.ai Weekly Report | 15th - 21st September 2026

Welcome to the two hundredth and twenty-second edition of the weekly stats report - your one-stop shop for all things SideShift.ai.

Highlights

• SideShift cleared $10m in volume and 10,000 shifts in consecutive weeks for the first time in 15 months, with $10.19m (-1.7%) across 10,862 shifts.
• Shifts above $50k took 20.6% of gross volume, well clear of their yearly average nearer 15%.
• SideShift recorded $1.15m in net stablecoin flow (inflow - outflow), the third largest in its history.
• The Solana network took first among alt networks with $1.61m, in the tightest top three finish of 2026, just $255k separating first from third.
• Top affiliate volume climbed +19.1% to $4.38m, with third place setting a new high for the third week running.

General Business News

Crypto took two hits in two days to open last week, with the clarity act failing its Senate vote on Tuesday and the Fed raising rates for the first time since 2023 on Wednesday. BTC dipped under $75k as sentiment soured, then proved immune to the FUD and turned higher, ETFs taking in $433m on Friday alone as more than $1b of short positions were wiped out along the way. The move carried it straight through the $83k ceiling that had held since February and on to tag $87k, finishing the week up +11.8%, with SOL (+16.4%) and HYPE (+20.7%) running harder still. NEAR led the entire top 100, nearly doubling at +93.9%, while TAO (+41.9%) and Venice's privacy-focused VVV (+44.3%) kept the AI trade moving, VVV printing an all-time high of $34.51 on Monday. 

SideShift held its ground and processed $10.19m in gross volume (-1.7%), averaging $1.46m a day and giving the site back-to-back finishes above $10m for the first time since early February. User shifting barely budged at $8.04m (-0.1%) while liquidity rebalancing slipped to $2.15m (-7.0%). USDT (Liquid)/USDT (ERC-20) led the pairs once again, growing to $867k from $701k, and the Liquid network followed last week's record with $4.11m for its strongest back-to-back weekly performances on record.

Shift count rose to 10,862 (+0.5%), with the growth coming from bigger tickets this time. Shifts above $1,000 climbed +13.2% to 1,373, a figure only one week of 2026 has beaten, while the sub-$100 band fell to 6,164 shifts (-3.7%) even as its volume rose +9.1% to $191k. The week also stretched SideShift's run above 9,000 shifts per week to five, now the fifth-longest in its history.

Among the largest shifts, those above $10k fell to 179 (-11.8%) for $5.47m (-8.1%), holding 53.6% of gross volume and sitting right in line with the 2026 average. The very biggest tickets however moved the other way, with 26 shifts above $50k carrying $2.10m (+9.5%) and representing 20.6% of the week's total against a yearly average nearer to 15%. That left the meat of the range, the $10k to $50k middle zone, as the part that gave way, with its share of volume dropping from 39.2% to 33.0%.

Stablecoins dominated the leaderboard, claiming four of the top five places. USDT (Liquid) retained first at $3.81m (-22.0%), with user deposits of $1.84m against just $263k settled, a seven to one lean as users kept moving off the chain. USDT (ERC-20) absorbed a good deal of that, climbing +24.4% to $3.19m and taking second place off BTC, while USDC (ERC-20) jumped +59.4% to $1.40m to break into the top five. Only USDT (TRC20) went the other way at -43.4% to $1.29m, for a fifth place finish overall. Add it all together and SideShift took in $1.15m more in stablecoins than it paid out, the third largest net inflow in its history and the biggest of 2026 by 30%.

Users spent a good deal of that on BTC, which grew +10.5% to $2.96m with $1.48m settled against $1.14m deposited, a modest lean toward buying in the week it ran to $87k. That was still only good enough for third overall this week, having led the site a seven days earlier. After that, ETH added +20.3% to $1.19m and XRP nearly doubled to $359k (+88.4%) for its best week in the past four. DEPIX on Liquid climbed +39.8% to $298k, its strongest of the past nine weeks, even as the chain's USDT emptied out around it. Finally, SOL dropped out of the top five at $958k (-11.1%) due to the strength of other stablecoins, and ETH on Robinhood fell -12.2% to $436k for a second straight weekly decline.

The top of the alt network table produced the tightest finish of 2026, with Solana, Tron and BSC differentiated by just $255k, as compared to a typical first-to-third gap that usually sits closer to $1.1m. The Solana network took first at $1.61m (-7.8%), ending a six week run at the top for the Tron network, which fell -40.6% to $1.46m. BSC barely moved at $1.36m (-0.6%) for its first back-to-back pair above $1.3m since last October. The group as a whole dropped -20.8% to $6.05m, but still ended 11% clear of its running YTD weekly average. Meanwhile, the benchmark Ethereum network climbed +33.9% to $6.13m and outweighed all nine alt networks combined, leaving the alts with 49.7% of that combined volume, only the sixth week this year they have held less than half. Arbitrum added +46.7% to $309k, while Polygon and Robinhood both finished a hair above $500k.

Affiliate News 

Top affiliate volume climbed +19.1% to $4.38m, lifting the group's share of the total to 43.0% from 35.5%. First place changed hands again, with last week's runner-up nearly doubling to $2.05m (+94.0%) on 1,068 shifts while the previous leader slipped to second at $1.27m (-26.8%). For both of them, those were the second best weekly volume performances ever posted since integrating with SideShift. Third place set a new high for the third week running at $389k (+68.2%), and did it across 1,198 shifts, more than any other affiliate, on under ⅕ of the leader's volume.

That’s all for now - thanks for reading and happy shifting.