USDT Market Cap Reaches $100 Billion

The largest stablecoin issued by Tether (USDT) has hit a new all-time high. According to data from aggregator Coinmarketcap, USDT’s market capitalization has increased by 10% since the beginning of the year, reaching $99.57 billion.

The decline in the stablecoin market, which lasted for a year and a half, has stopped. Since November 2023, there has been a recovery in the stablecoin market. The total market capitalization of stablecoins has reached $142 billion, the highest since December 2022.

Analysts attribute the growth of the stablecoin market to the steady demand for USDT and USD Coin (USDC) from Circle, the second-largest stablecoin.

Tether’s stablecoin prevails on non-US exchanges, including the world’s leading exchange, Binance. The head of USDT’s issuing company, Paolo Ardoino, expects increased consolidation of cryptocurrencies with traditional finance. He attributes this to the growing interest of hedge funds and corporations in the «stable coin».

In early March, Tether issued an additional 1 billion tokens on the Ethereum network. As a result, the circulating supply of USDT has exceeded $99.5 billion. For comparison, the nearest competitor stablecoin USDC has a significantly lower figure of $28.9 billion.

USD Coin remains the second-largest stablecoin. USDC is gradually regaining the positions lost in 2023. Since the beginning of the year, the stablecoin’s market capitalization has continued to grow. Analysts attribute this trend to increased liquidity and an influx of new users into the cryptocurrency market. Demand for USDC is also fueled by the fact that many of the bitcoin ETFs launched in January use the US crypto exchange Coinbase for bitcoin settlements.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US and the bitcoin rally this year are fueled by inflows from US investors who prefer USDC for cryptocurrency settlements. The stablecoin’s growth was also helped by the relisting of several trading pairs on Binance with USDC at the end of 2023.

The USDC operator has abandoned the issuance of the token on the Tron network. Currently, the leading networks for USD Coin issuance are Ethereum and Solana. USDT, on the other hand, most actively uses Tron for token issuance and circulation.

According to data from the DefiLlama service, the market value of stablecoins on the Tron network is $52 billion. Almost all of it is accounted for by USDT ($50 billion). The volume of USDC tokens issued on the Tron network is $250 million.

Analysts note that changes in the market capitalization of stablecoins are a kind of «litmus test» that determines the movement of funds in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.