Circle's USDC to topple Tether's USDT in the 2022 stablecoin race

USDC has already flipped USDT in terms of real volume on the Ethereum blockchain

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

Circle's native stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) has shown tremendous growth in the last two months in comparison to its $66 billion rival stablecoin giant Tether. USDC's improved regulatory position and DeFi capabilities have made it more popular as the stablecoin sector sees an increase in institutional participation.

Since May, USDC's market capitalisation has increased by 8.27 percent, reaching $55.9 billion–its highest level–on July 2, while USDT's market valuation has dropped by more than 19 percent, with the stablecoin currently trading at around $66.14 billion. Circle's USDC had $1.1 billion daily real volume on the Ethereum network earlier in June. It was more than double the USDT's real volume of $579 million at the time.

In particular, the USDT to USDC market cap ratio was greater than '9' in August 2020. However, it fell to 1.20 in July. It is the lowest level on record. At this rate, and with less than $10 billion separating the two stablecoins, USDC could overtake USDT in market capitalisation in a matter of months, if not weeks.

Tether's circulating supply has dropped nearly 20 percent since its all-time high on May 11, from 83.1 billion coins in circulation to an eight-month low of 67.9 billion in June. USDC, on the other hand, has increased its supply by 13 percent since May 11 to 55.9 billion.

Tether has come under fire for being secretive about the assets in its reserve, and it only published its first reserve breakdown in May 2021. As a result, investors rushed to exchange their Tether for Circle’s USDC. This happened because USDC had already been audited and was fully backed by cash and US Treasuries.

Circle also operates as a money transfer service. It is registered with FinCEN as well as 46 other state regulators in the United States. Grant Thornton, a leading global accounting firm, audits Circle. As a result, in accordance with money transmission laws, the firm reports its reserves to the authorities.

During times of extreme market volatility, the USDT has a history of falling below or above its $1 peg, though this was more pronounced in its early days. Tether's chief technical officer, Paolo Ardoino, announced in June that the stablecoin platform will have its reserves fully audited by one of the top 12 accounting firms. However, if current trends continue, Tether's dominance in the stablecoin space may come to an end.

The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

Crypto wallet users are warned as scammers might get active during the potential Ethereum hard fork