Circle’s USDC doubles market cap in one year reaching a new all-time high above $60 billion

Circle USDC has reached $60 billion in market cap, marking a new high for the stablecoin as it continues its resurgence. According to Defillama, the stablecoin is now at $60.1 billion in circulating supply.

With this milestone, USDC supply has doubled in the past year, as its market cap was $30 billion in March 2024. The quick turnaround highlights how USDC has been able to rebound after struggling in 2022 and 2023.

The stablecoin reached its previous peak in 2022 with a $55 billion market cap but soon fell on hard times due to several reasons, including the collapse of the FTX in 2022 and the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in early 2023.

SVB collapse particularly affected USDC, as the bank held around 8% of the stablecoin reserves. This caused the stablecoin to lose its peg to the US Dollar for a brief period before regaining it. All of these challenges led to the market cap falling to $23 billion by late 2023.

So far, all of those struggles are in the past, with USDC seeing continuous growth over the last 15 months. Most of the USDC in circulation is on Ethereum, with the network accounting for over $36 billion of the supply. Solana comes second with around $10 billion, while Base, Hyperliquid, Arbitrum, and Berachain also have between $3.8 billion and $1 billion of the stablecoin supply.

Interestingly, most of the USDC growth in the past few months has come from other chains besides Ethereum. According to Defillama, its supply of Solana increased by 5.4%, Arbitrum by 19%, and Berachain by 56%, while Sonic and Aptos increased by 104% and 105%, respectively. Its dominance on Solana is quite significant, with USDC accounting for more than 80% of the network’s stablecoin market cap.

USDT dominance shrinks as USDC continues to gain momentum

Meanwhile, USDC growth has been good for the stablecoin ecosystem, where the overall market cap has now reached a new all-time high of $234.6 billion. Although firmly rooted in the second position, the Circle-issued stablecoin is now the fastest-growing.

According to Artemis Analytics, USDC has seen the most increase in value of all top stablecoins in the past three months. Over that period, its supply increased by $16.6 billion, which puts it ahead of Tether USDT, which had a $4.7 billion increase. USDS market cap also rose by $3.6 billion, and the newly launched Ethena-issued USDtb supply increased by $1.3 billion.

The massive growth of USDC is already affecting Tether USDT dominance. While the stablecoin with $144 billion in market cap remains the overall leader, its dominance has shrunk from around 70% to 61.67%, showing that USDC is also claiming more market share. Together, the two account for 87% of the total stablecoin supply.

However, their dominance could soon be challenged by other stablecoins that are already emerging. More stablecoins are already emerging, leading to the sector gaining interest from regulators. Several countries are already regulating the issuance of stablecoins, with the US House of Representatives and Senate having different bills on the issue.

More players are venturing into the space. According to a report by the Financial Times, Fidelity Investments, a $5.9 trillion asset manager, is working on its own stablecoins. If it happens, the firm will join the likes of Paypal, Ripple, World Liberty Financial, and Ethena as the newest entrant into the crowding sector.

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