Stablecoin Market Cap Hits All-Time High: What’s Driving the Growth?

• The total market capitalization of stablecoins is $169 billion in 2024, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC recording high growth rates.
• New professional participation and PayPal’s PYUSD are actively increasing the market capitalization, although trading turnover is decreasing.
• Stablecoins dominate the rest of the crypto space, including being essential to Bitcoin, reaching the $65,000 mark.

Holders of stablecoins have set a new all-time high at $169.57billion, setting a new record in the crypto space. According to DefiLlama data, which looks at the stablecoin market for almost a year, this increase has risen higher than the previous record high of $167 billion at the beginning of March 2022.

Among different kinds of stablecoins, Tether’s USDT has actively participated in this market cap increase. At the start of 2024, it reached almost $92 billion; as of August 26, it has increased by nearly 28 percent to $118 billion. 

This growth adds to the increased market dominance of USDT, which now claims almost 70% of the entire stablecoin market cap. Likewise, Circle’s USDC has shown an unbroken upward curve, rising from nearly $24 billion in January to around $34.67billion in late August, although it had few fluctuations.

Newcomers and Institutional Interest

Besides that, new entrants to the stablecoin market have also boosted the market capitalization. For instance, PayPal’s PYUSD , which has recently surpassed USDD, has become the fifth most popular stablecoin to date and with a market capitalization of over $1 billion. Such intent signals a bigger sentiment among institutional investors to enter the digital asset space as highlighted by crypto analyst Patrick Scott.

However, we can see that the market cap of stablecoins has grown; nonetheless, this has not impacted the trading volume. CCData reported that stablecoin trading volumes dropped down 8 percent to $795 billion in July. This decline is because of the low trading volume on large platforms and regulation issues in Europe mainly across the MiCA. Trading volumes stabilized slightly in July compared to June, while the dynamics in August once again showed a decline that indicates that the functioning of the cryptocurrency market is built on quite specific principles that cannot be explained solely by external factors.

Stablecoins and Bitcoin’s Rally

The growth of stablecoins is also influencing the broader crypto market, particularly Bitcoin. Matrixport’s recent analysis reveals that stablecoin minting has significantly impacted Bitcoin’s recent climb to $65,000, despite the inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs. Stablecoins act as a crucial gateway for fiat currencies into the crypto market, and their steady growth suggests that they are a key driver behind Bitcoin’s upward momentum.