USDC surpasses USDT in stablecoin transactions

Circle’s US dollar-backed stablecoin, USDC, has surpassed the world’s largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), in transactions with this type of cryptocurrency. USDC recorded 166.6 million transactions in April 2024, surpassing USDT’s 163.6 million monthly transactions, according to payments giant Visa’s on-chain analysis.

This change marks a significant point in the stablecoin transaction market considering that USDT has been dominant. Until recently, USDC had been increasing its share of this market. In December 2023, for example, USDC’s 145 million monthly transactions surpassed USDT’s 127 million transactions for the first time.

With a market cap of over $110 billion, USDT represents over 68% of the total stablecoin market. In contrast, Circle’s USDC, with a market cap of $33.5 billion, lags significantly behind.

USDC surpasses in transactions, but is still small

Despite surpassing USDT in transactions, USDC still lags behind in terms of total users. As of April 2024, the stablecoin was used by more than 34.2 million unique wallets. Meanwhile, USDC saw just 9.57 million unique users, according to data provided by Visa.

Additionally, over the past 30 days, there have been a total of 27.3 million unique stablecoin users and 21.4 million unique sending addresses. This number reflects the growing adoption of stablecoins as a popular option for financial transactions.

The four stablecoins tracked by Visa, including Paxos Dollar (USDP) and PayPal Dollar (PYUSD), have recorded more than $2.3 trillion in total transaction volume across more than 352 million transactions over the past 30 days.

Visa recently launched a stablecoin analytics dashboard aimed at providing accessible and understandable data on four stablecoins across nine blockchains, eliminating information overload and making it easier to understand market movements.

Stablecoins play a crucial role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, allowing traders to quickly move their assets. With a total market value of more than US$161 billion, stablecoins represent 6.63% of the cryptocurrency market cap, according to data from CoinGecko.