The total supply of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin from the Centre Consortium on the Ethereum blockchain has for the first time surpassed that of Tether (USDT).
According to Etherscan, as of writing, the network’s second-largest cryptocurrency had issued свыше 40 млрд USDC. The competitor’s figure stood at ~39,83 млрд USDT.
USDT is available in eight networks: Ethereum, Tron, EOS, Liquid Network, Algorand, Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), Omni, Solana and Avalanche. USDC is issued on seven blockchains: Ethereum, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, Tron, Hedera Hashgraph and Avalanch.
For both assets, Ethereum remains the dominant network.
In an interview with The Block, a Circle representative cited the broad use of USDC in the DeFi sector as one of the main reasons for the growth. He also noted that increases in supply on Ethereum were driven by significant market moves observed in recent months.
According to Tether’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino, in the context of rising USDT supply, unlike its rivals, it does not rely as heavily on the DeFi sector. He explained that demand for the asset is largely driven by its popularity among institutional investors and users of centralised platforms.
On-chain data corroborate these theses. Glassnode indicates that more than 42% of the total USDC supply is locked in smart contracts. For USDT the figure is ~22%.
Another factor behind this dynamic is growing popularity of USDT on the Tron network. Since 2021, the stablecoin’s supply on that blockchain has risen nearly sixfold—from 6.8 bn USDT to 38.75 bn USDT. For comparison, Ethereum has issued 39.83 bn USDT.
For USDC, Ethereum remains the primary network. It accounts for more than 88% of the asset’s total supply.
Earlier, Protos analysts calculated that from 2014 to October 2021 nearly 55% of USDT were issued at the request of Cumberland Global and Alameda Research.
Read ForkLog’s bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.