The growth rate was overtaken by USDC, and the USDT market share fell below 75% for the first time

In the past three years, Tether has been dominating the stablecoin market. The latest official data shows that nearly $27 billion USDT is in circulation.

According to CryptoQuant data, as of January 30, the stablecoin holdings of global crypto exchanges continued to hit a record high, with a total of 4.989 billion US dollars. At the same time, CoinGecko data shows that the total market value of stablecoins once exceeded 38 billion U.S. dollars (now fell back to 37.7 billion U.S. dollars). At present, the daily trading volume of all stablecoins is approximately US$80.68 billion, of which Tether (USDT) accounts for US$75.35 billion, and USDC ranks second with US$1.16 billion in trading volume.

However, the latest data from CoinMetrics shows that USDT's market share has fallen below 75% for the first time in history. In general, having more stablecoin options is good for the industry as it is never a good idea to rely on a centralized supplier to provide assets pegged to the dollar.

CoinMetrics said on Twitter today thatUSDT's market capitalization in the stablecoin market has fallen below 75% for the first time. On the other hand, the share of USDC's market value has grown to a historical high of 15%.

USDT growth rate has been overtaken by USDC

Tether's main competitor is Circle's other centralized stablecoin USDC. CoinMetrics reports that its market share has climbed to the highest level of about 15%. According to the company's own statistics, USDC issuance is US$5.1 billion, but the number reported by CoinGecko is even higher, at US$5.9 billion.

Integrating CirclePay and its stablecoin into Blockfolio's new transaction application will also help promote the adoption of USDC. The company claims that USDC is issued by a regulated financial institution and backed by all reserve assets.

On the other hand, Tether is still undergoing audit investigations, and if US lawmakers pass the new STABLE Act, it may be under pressure.

On December 3, 2020, members of the United States Congress introduced a new bill that will require issuers to obtain bank franchise licenses and obtain regulatory approval before issuing any stablecoins. Councillors Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) introduced a bill called "Stablecoin Tethering and Bank License Enforcement Act." Licensing Enforcement Act, referred to as STABLE), and stated in the press release that the bill will focus on regulating stablecoins, using the Libra (renamed Diem) stablecoin led by Facebook as an example.

The press release stated that “digital currencies whose value is permanently linked to traditional currencies such as the U.S. dollar or remain stable with them have brought new regulatory challenges and also represent a growing source of market, liquidity and credit risks”. The 18-page bill will specifically require stablecoin issuers to obtain bank licenses; the issuance of stablecoins requires approval from the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) banking regulators; and requires these entities to continue to maintain any systemic risks. Analyze; and require the issuer to have FDIC insurance, or reserve reserves for easy exchange back to U.S. dollars. The bill stated that this will apply to stablecoins linked to currencies of other countries.

According to the Tether Transparency Report , since the same period last year, the market value or supply of USDT has increased by 520% ​​and is currently $26.77 billion. On the other hand, the supply of Circle's stablecoin USDC has soared by 1225% in the past 12 months.

In the new year, USDC is likely to continue to eat away at Tether's market share, because the use of USDC in DeFi will increase .

Tether's other competitors

Dai is the third largest stablecoin after the above two stablecoins. Its advantage is that it is completely decentralized and supported by encrypted collateral on MakerDAO.

In the past year, Dai's circulating supply has also exploded. Dai in circulation now reaches a record 1.6 billion, an increase of 1400% over last year.

According to CoinGecko's data, Binance's USD-pegged stablecoin BUSD is the fourth largest stablecoin asset with a market value of approximately US$1.4 billion. BUSD was launched in September 2019, and its growth rate since April 2020 is about 600%.

There are also some small market value stablecoins such as Paxos, TrueUSD and GUSD, but the market is still dominated by the top three.