Market wrap: Circle’s USDC stablecoin market dominance rising as that of Tether diminishes

Circle’s USDC, which is the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market cap, is steadily growing and it is eroding the dominance of Tether (USDT), which is currently the largest stablecoin by market cap.

Circle’s share of the stablecoin market stands at about 30% after hitting the 50 billion circulation USDC milestone.

The shifting stablecoin landscape

As the dynamic of the stablecoin landscape constantly shifts, one trend is very clear, and that is the diminishing Tether dominance.

Circle, which is Tether’s main rival, reached 50 billion USDC coins in circulation today. Tether’s co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire tweeted saying:

50 BILLION USDC (w/ thread below) pic.twitter.com/5FEaPmXjup

— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) February 1, 2022

Allaire also added:

“It’s the massive growth and ecosystem around it that tells the broader story.”

The CEO also said that the USDC has seen a growth of over 10,000% over the past two years.

Currently, the total stablecoin cap stands at $177 billion, which is about 9.7% of the total crypto market cap. Out of that, Tether commands about 45% while Circle commands 29%.

It is clear that the gap between the two top stablecoins is narrowing by the day. Same time last year, Tether had a dominance of 74% while Circle dominance stood at 16%.

Circle’s market cap grew by over 987% in 2021 while Tether only grew by 275%, which is less than a third of circle’s growth.

In 2021, Circle saw over $2.5 trillion in on-chain transactions across over 4.6 million wallets addresses.

Currently, USDC runs on more than eight blockchains, is supported by over 200 protocols, and is traded in over 180 countries on over 34 exchanges.