USD Coin Reaches All-Time Market Cap of $60 Billion, Exceeding 2022 Peak and Outpacing USDT Expansion

The stablecoin USDC, issued by Circle, has hit a new milestone of $60 billion in market capitalization, exceeding its previous record of $55 billion set in June 2022.

USD Coin (USDC) has reached an all-time high, surpassing the $60 billion mark in market capitalization. It has outperformed its main competitor, Tether (USDT), in terms of growth over the past three months. According to Artemis Analytics, USDC has added $16.3 billion to its supply during this period, while the supply of USDT has only increased by $4.4 billion. Despite this, USDT still leads the stablecoin market cap rankings with a market capitalization of $144 billion.

The primary reason for this growth was the increase in stablecoin activity on the Solana network (SOL). The value of stablecoins on the network recently surpassed $10 billion for the first time, mainly due to Circle's USDC issuance. According to DefiLama, USDC now accounts for nearly 80% of Solana's total stablecoin marketcap, which is over $12 billion.

Stablecoins have been gaining popularity recently as governments worldwide provide more clarity on their regulation and use. According to the Stablecoin Landscape report by CEX.io, stablecoin transaction volumes surpassed Visa and Mastercard's combined total by nearly 8% in 2024. During this period, the stablecoin supply increased by 59%, exceeding $200 billion, and stablecoins' share of the total U.S. dollar supply reached 1%, up from 0.63% at the beginning of the year.

Many financial and cryptocurrency service providers have introduced their own stablecoins. For example, PayPal has launched PYUSD, which is backed by U.S. dollar deposits and short-term Treasuries, and Ripple has launched RLUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin.

World Liberty Financial Inc. recently launched USD1, a stablecoin fully backed by U.S. Treasuries and cash deposits, initially deployed on Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Smart Chain (BNB). Addressing concerns that the USD1 might replace USDT and USDC, Changpeng Zhao recently stated that the more stablecoins, "the merrier." The growth of stablecoins is positive for cryptocurrency because they are the primary source of liquidity, and their expanding supply indicates growing investor demand.