USDT market cap climbs to record $187.3B as crypto weakens post-October liquidations

Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT closed the fourth quarter of 2025 with a record-breaking market cap of $187.3 billion. The expansion followed the cascade of liquidations in October, which triggered heavy losses across the digital asset space and sent competing stablecoins running for cover.

According to Tether’s latest quarterly report, USDT has added $12.4 billion to its net market capitalization in Q4. As a result, its dominance grew, while rivals scrambled to regain momentum. Circle’s USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, experienced volatility after the October 10 liquidation event but largely closed at the quarter’s level. Meanwhile, Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe lost more than 57% of its market cap.

USDT expands supply while rivals lose ground

USDT’s growth was remarkable despite the falling crypto prices and liquidity. While the total crypto market cap lost more than a third between October 10, 2025, and early February 2026, USDT still attracted inflows. Tether reported that USDT grew by 3.5% in the same period, and outperformed both USDC and USDe, which declined by 2.6% and 57%, respectively.

Furthermore, the data show that the demand for USDT went beyond speculative trading. About two-thirds of the total supply was in savings wallets and centralized exchanges. The remaining third were in favor of payments, remittances, and decentralized finance activity.

Beyond supply growth, on-chain USDT activity reached record levels. Average monthly active wallets jumped to 24.8 million during the quarter, representing nearly 70% of all stablecoin-holding wallets. At the same time, the transfer volume in quarters skyrocketed to $4.4 trillion, with a total of 2.2 billion on-chain transfers.

User adoption also picked up. Tether estimated that it added 35.2 million new users in Q4, bringing the global total to 534.5 million. Notably, the quarter was the eighth consecutive quarter in which the stablecoin added more than 30 million users.

On-chain holders grew 14.7 million to 139.1 million, with USDT wallets holding over 70% of all stablecoin wallets. In addition, Tether estimated that more than 100 million users hold USDT on centralized platforms, reinforcing its role as a core settlement infrastructure.

Reserves grow as Tether boosts treasury exposure

Tether’s balance sheet has also become more robust during the quarter. Total reserves increased by $11.7 billion to $192.9 billion, with net equity of $6.3 billion. Exposure to U.S. Treasuries rose to $141.6 billion, making Tether one of the largest holders worldwide and ahead of many sovereign nations. Reserves also consisted of 96,184 BTC and 127.5 metric tons of gold, giving more diversification.

However, the report recognized the remaining challenges. USDT was the most used among stablecoins in illicit transfers. According to Bitrace, $649 billion in stablecoins flowed to high-risk addresses in 2024, of which Tron-based USDT accounted for well over 70%.

Tether has had a few shifts in its capital strategy, with Tether’s advisers discussing a potential $5 billion fundraising round, down sharply from earlier numbers.  In January, Tether introduced USAt, a US-focused stablecoin by Anchorage Digital Bank within the framework of the GENIUS Act. As Cryptopolitan previously reported, Tether partnered with Opera to bring USDT and Tether Gold into Opera’s MiniPay, targeting digital payments adoption in emerging markets.

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