USD Coin (USDC) Surpassed Tether on the Ethereum Blockchain

Original author: Chayanika Deka

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USDC has surpassed USDT in terms of total supply on the Ethereum network, meaning there are more USDC on Ethereum than Tether.

The Stablecoin Battle

The total supply of USDC on Etheruem is now more than that of its long-time rival Tether. According to Etherscan, USDC has a total supply of $40.5 billion, while USDT’s current total supply stands at $39.8 billion on the Ethereum blockchain.

However, in terms of transfers, Tether appears to be a clear winner here. The latest stats reveal that Tether has witnessed a total transfer volume of 136.7 million while USD Coin has seen a little over 33 million. This essentially depicted that ERC20 USDT has been more transacted than ERC20 USDC.

Tether has carved a niche since its very inception. Despite the emergence of several stablecoins, it continues to enjoy its position as a market leader. Even today, Tether holds the lion’s share of stablecoins in circulation. At the time of writing, its market cap was found to be at $80 billion.

Even though Tether’s largest market is on Ethereum, the increasing network fees have forced the stablecoin to move to other networks. Many crypto traders turned to efficient blockchains that offer less expensive transaction fees. For instance, more than 50% of the supply or $42 billion is on the Tron network. The rest is fanned out on Omni, EOS, Algorand, Solana, Liquid, and SLP blockchains.

On the other hand, the circulating supply of USD Coin on Tron blockchain is over $528 million, while its total market cap stands at $46 billion.

What’s Driving USDC’s Growth?

Undoubtedly, Tether is still the most popular and go-to stablecoin, but USDC Coin has carved a niche in decentralized trades. As activity across DeFi continued to intensify, so did USDC’s growth. Contrastingly, the demand for USDT is primarily fueled by centralized cryptocurrency exchange users and institutions. Taking into account the stagnancy in the market, it is surprising that USDT’s demand has hit a slump.

It is also important to note that Tether has been at the receiving end of severe backlash because of its “backing.” It has faced several lawsuits over the past couple of years. As a result, the firm’s efforts to provide transparency have failed to derail the bad press surrounding it.

On the other hand, Circle, the regulated crypto-focused financial service firm behind the dollar-pegged stablecoin, hasn’t faced such regulatory hurdles.