USDC stablecoin supply on Ethereum surpasses USDT for the first time

Total supply of USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin from the Center consortium on the Ethereum blockchain exceeds Tether (USDT) for the first time.

According to Etherscan , at the time of writing, over 40 billion USDC have been issued on the network of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization. The value of the competitor was ~39.83 billion USDT.

The USDC stablecoin is available on eight networks: Ethereum, Tron, EOS, Liquid Network, Algorand, Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), Omni, Solana and Avalanche. USDC is released on seven blockchains: Ethereum, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, Tron, Hedera Hashgraph and Avalanch. 

For the two assets, the Ethereum network is dominant. 

In a conversation with The Block, a representative of Circle cited the widespread use of USDC in the DeFi sector as one of the main reasons for the growth. He also noted that the increase in supply in Ethereum was influenced by significant market movements that have been observed in recent months.

According to Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino, in the context of increasing supply, USDT, unlike its competitors, does not rely as heavily on the DeFi sector. He explained that the demand for the asset is mainly due to its popularity among institutional investors and users of centralized platforms.

On-chain data confirm these theses. According to Glassnode, over 42% of the total USDC supply is locked in smart contracts. For USDT, the value was ~22%. 

The amount of USDC locked in smart contracts (percentage of total supply). Data: Glassnode.

At the same time, another reason for such dynamics is the increased popularity of USDT in the Tron network. Since the beginning of 2021, the stablecoin supply on this blockchain has increased almost sixfold, from 6.8 billion USDT to 38.75 billion USDT. For comparison, 39.83 billion USDT has been issued on the Ethereum network.

Data: The Block.

For USDC, Ethereum remains the mainnet. This blockchain accounts for more than 88% of the total supply of the asset. 

Recall that Protos analysts have calculated that between 2014 and October 2021, almost 55% of USDT was issued at the request of Cumberland Global and Alameda Research.