USDT and USDC dominate as stablecoins record $46B quarterly inflows

TL;DR Breakdown

Stablecoins recorded more than $46 billion in net inflows last quarter.
USDT and USDC dominated the inflows with Ethena’s USDe impressing in the quarter.
Ethereum cements its place as the most dominant chain when it comes to stablecoin.

Stablecoins recorded more than $46 billion in net inflows in the last quarter, a development that highlights the rising demand for the US dollar-pegged assets in the crypto industry. Interestingly, data from RWA.xyz showed that USDT, a stablecoin produced by Tether, led the quarter, while Circle’s USDC came in second.

According to the report, USDT led the quarter with $19.6 billion in net inflows, while USDC followed up with $12.3 billion. Ethena’s synthetic stablecoin Ethena USDe also impressed with $9 billion in the quarter. Other players in the stablecoin market also contributed their little pieces, including PayPal USD, with a net inflow of $1.4 billion, and MarkerDAO’s USDS with inflows of $1.3 billion. New stablecoins like Ripple’s RLUSD and Ethena’s USDtb also showed slight gains.

USDT and USDC lead as stablecoins record $46 billion in the quarter

Stablecoin net inflow is a metric that measures the difference between the total amount of stablecoins minted and redeemed over a period of time. Positive inflows mean that more tokens were moved into circulation than removed, a move that signals the demand for dollar-pegged stablecoins.

Stablecoin inflows in the past six months were about $56.5 billion, with only $10.8 billion recorded in the second quarter. The third quarter accounts for most of the inflows, highlighting how fast demand has accelerated. The rise in demand is not only driven by the traditionally known stablecoins like USDT and USDC, but it has also been seen in the rise of algorithmic stablecoins like USDe.

USDT accounted for most of the issuance in the second and third quarters, minting $19.6 billion this quarter, and $9.2 billion in the previous one. USDC also showed a dramatic rise in net issuance, jumping from $500 million in net issuance last quarter to $12.3 billion in Q3. Ethena witnessed most of its expansion in the last quarter, with $9 billion in inflows compared to the $200 million that it recorded last quarter.

Ethereum ranks as the most dominant chain for stablecoins

The report also highlighted that Ethereum remained the most dominant network for stablecoins. RWZ.xyz mentioned that Ethereum currently hosts $171 billion in circulating stablecoin supply. Tron ranked second, with the network hosting a total circulating supply of $76 billion. Networks like Arbitrum, BNB Chain, and Solana trailed behind them, with the chains hosting a combined $29.7 billion in stablecoin supply.

Meanwhile, Tether’s USDT remains the most dominant among the stablecoins in the market, with the token representing nearly 59% of the total stablecoin market. According to data from DeFiLlama, the stablecoin is followed closely by Circle’s USDC, its closest competitor, which boasts about 25%. Meanwhile, Ethena’s USDe, which is still relatively new, boasts about 5% of the entire stablecoin market.

Also, data from RWA.xyz and DeFiLlama showed that the overall stablecoin market cap grew to around $290 billion over the past 30 days. However, while the market cap and net inflows grew, the report claimed that other metrics dropped. For instance, the data showed that monthly active addresses were about 26 million, a decline of about 22% compared to a month ago. In addition, transfer volumes also fell by 11% compared to the previous month to stay at around $3.17 trillion.