Tether Nears 50% Of Stablecoin Market, Highest in 14 Months

As the SEC looks set to clamp down on dollar-pegged tokens, the oldest stablecoin, Tether, is looking as dominant as ever

article-image

Source: Shutterstock / Wit Olszewski, modified by Blockworks

share

Tether (USDT) is once again coalescing as crypto’s pegged token of choice, with its stablecoin market share nearing 50% for the first time since December 2021.

The top stablecoin issuer has deployed an additional $2.4 billion USDT this year, now with $68.4 billion circulating supply, representing about 3% growth.

Circle’s offering, USDC, has meanwhile shed more than $3.3 billion in supply year to date. There’s now $41.2 billion USDC floating around the crypto ecosystem, down 7.5%.

Binance’s branded stablecoin, BUSD, stewarded by New York outfit Paxos, comes in third with $16.1 billion. 

BUSD has given up around $590 million supply since the start of the year, a 3.5% reduction. All eyes will be on that figure potentially falling following word of the SEC’s intent to sue. The regulator has reportedly claimed that BUSD is an unregistered security in a Wells notice.

The total stablecoin market capitalization currently stands at around $138.5 billion, per The TIE and CoinGecko data compiled by Blockworks, and:

  • Tether makes up 49.39%,
  • USDC boasts 29.76%,
  • BUSD is 11.63%.
Circle’s USDC is trending downward while USDT is on the up

Tether, Circle and Paxos, alongside several other stablecoin firms, allow token holders to exchange stablecoins for US dollars. Their supplies increase as market participants acquire the tokens directly from their respective issuers.

Conversely, stablecoin supplies shrink when their issuers burn tokens as they’re redeemed, although tokens are often reissued to other customers without burning.

Fourth-place DAI, the decentralized stablecoin maintained by MakerDAO, is much smaller than the top three with around $5.19 billion. DAI has lost $563.4 million from its market cap in 2023, equal to 10% of its supply, making it the biggest loser of the top-tier stablecoins.

FRAX, DAI’s direct competitor with an algorithmic element, has remained steady over the past three months, persisting in fifth place. 

TrustToken’s trueUSD (TUSD) is in sixth but stands out for growth, having added $190.4 million this year; 25% more supply.

TUSD is advertised as fully backed by US dollars, but its attestations include references to cash equivalents and other short-term liquid investments. They’re similar to Tether’s and Circle’s with less granularity.

Overall, the stablecoin market has shrunk by 1.5% this year, losing a little more than $2.1 billion. 

Total stablecoin dominance hit a record high just below 20% as FTX collapsed last November, but has since retreated to 14.38% as crypto markets have recovered.

Ether dominance is hovering around 20% while stablecoin dominance has pulled back

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

LTIPPanalysis.png

Research

This report is a retroactive analysis of Arbitrum's Long Term Incentives Pilot Program (LTIPP). We collect relevant data at a protocol level and review bi-weekly updates to analyze recipients, their strategies, and the impact of the incentives on high level growth metrics. In particular, we want to highlight outperformers and underperformers, and glean any best practices or lessons learned for protocols distributing ARB incentives in the future. The overarching goal is to synthesize lessons learned that the DAO can reference as it begins thinking about future incentives programs–namely, the working group for incentives that is being actively discussed–especially as Timeboost introduces new conditions for trading and economic activity.

article-image

BuilderNet is a new block building network designed to return more MEV and gas fees to users

article-image

Ledn’s John Glover gives some price targets to watch for bitcoin

article-image

Sponsored

AI project Zerebro intersects the spheres of artificial intelligence, finance, art, music, and culture

article-image

Allmight is focused on furthering the United States’ leadership in crypto

article-image

The conditions Charles Schwab is waiting for before jumping headfirst into crypto could take shape soon

article-image

The FCA’s director of payments and digital assets shared some takeaways from chats with crypto companies and law firms