Circle’s USDC stablecoin has reached a record $60 billion market cap

USD Coin (USDC) has reached a new historical high, surpassing a $60 billion market cap and outpacing its main competitor Tether (USDT) in growth

USD Coin (USDC) has reached a new historical high, surpassing a $60 billion market cap and outpacing its main competitor Tether (USDT) in growth over the past three months.

During this time period, USDC has added $16.3 billion to its supply while USDT supply has grown by only $4.4 billion, according to Artemis Analytics. However, USDT still dominates stablecoin market cap rankings, with its market capitalization currently at $144 billion.

The key driver of this growth was the surge in stablecoin activity on Solana (SOL), with the value of stablecoins on the network recently surpassing $10 billion for the first time, largely fueled by Circle’s USDC issuance. According to DefiLama, USDC now represents almost 80% of Solana’s total stablecoin marketcap of over $12 billion.

Stablecoins have been gaining traction recently as governments around the world provide greater regulatory clarity on their issuance and use. In 2024, stablecoin transaction volumes surpassed Visa and Mastercard’s combined total by nearly 8%, according to Stablecoin Landscape report by CEX.io. During this period, stablecoin supply grew by 59%—exceeding $200 billion—pushing stablecoins’ share of the total U.S. dollar supply to 1%, up from 0.63% at the start of the year.

Moreover, many financial and crypto service providers have been launching their own stablecoins. Notable examples include PayPal’s PYUSD, backed by U.S. dollar deposits and short-term Treasuries, and Ripple’s dollar-backed RLUSD.

Most recently, World Liberty Financial Inc. has 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.” Stablecoin growth is good for crypto because they serve as the key source of liquidity, and their expanding supply means growing investor demand.