Stablecoin Market Soars Past $310 Billion Milestone

Digital dollar-pegged tokens just punched through another ceiling—the stablecoin market cap now clocks in at a staggering $310.117 billion.

Why This Number Matters

Forget the noise. This isn't just another stat for a quarterly report that gets filed away. This figure represents real, usable capital parked at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto—money that's ready to move, trade, and settle in seconds, not days.

The Engine Room of Crypto

Think of stablecoins as the high-octane fuel for the entire digital asset engine. They power everything from multi-million dollar DeFi trades to remittances that bypass the usual banking tollbooths. This growth signals that institutional and retail players aren't just dipping a toe in; they're building infrastructure.

A Quiet Revolution in Settlement

The old system watches from the sidelines. While legacy finance still debates settlement times, this $310.117 billion ecosystem settles transactions globally, 24/7. It cuts out intermediaries, slashes costs, and redefines what 'liquidity' actually means.

Sure, some will call it a giant pool of 'yield-chasing hot money'—and they're not entirely wrong. But even the cynics have to admit: when you're talking about a third of a trillion dollars, it's no longer a niche experiment. It's the new plumbing. And it's being installed right under Wall Street's feet.

Stablecoin market continue to grow rapidly

The stablecoins sector has been growing massively. In the past 12 months, stablecoins grew by 52.1%, from $203.728 billion to $309.911 billion.

During the October market crash, stablecoins maintained a growth trend. In November 2024, the market cap of stablecoins dropped to $302.837 billion, but it bounced back to record a new peak of $310.117 billion yesterday.

In the past seven days, Tether’s USDT ROSE by 0.32%, adding $593.34 million to its circulation. The newly minted coins were added to multiple networks, including Tron, Solana, Arbitrum, Aptos, and Polygon.

Circle’s USDC jumped by 0.71%, adding $555.56 million worth of coins to Ethereum, Solana, Hyperliquid, Base, and BSC. Sky’s USDS, PayPal’s PYUSD, and World Liberty Financial’s USD1 minted new coins during the same timeframe.

Beyond the top ten coins, Tron’s USDD rose by 23.46%, while crvUSD jumped by 28.92%. Overall, the stablecoins sector gained 0.57%, with a total addition of $1.79 billion.

But not all stablecoins were in the green. BlackRock’s BUIDL dropped by 13.24%, and its market cap is standing at $1.321 billion.

Yield-bearing stablecoins keep declining

Ethena’s stablecoins stayed in the red. USDe dropped by 2.98% this week, and USDtb posted a sharper 18.99% drop. USDe has a market cap of $6.525 billion, while USDtb sits at about $850.8 million.

Most yield-bearing stablecoins, like Ethena’s USDe, became unattractive to investors, especially after the October crypto crash. The negative trend over such coins began after USDe lost its peg to the U.S. dollar, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

According to data obtained from StableWatch, the market cap of yield-bearing stablecoins has declined by 1.9% in the last 30 days. Redemptions have exceeded the minting of new coins. Over the past week, alUSD tanked by 80.5%, smsUSD dropped 68.1%, and sBOLD slipped 13.6%.

As of press time, there is around $19.86 billion in the yield-bearing stablecoin sector spread across 64 coins. The growth of the stablecoin market sector is mainly driven by payment stablecoins, or non-yield-bearing stablecoins.

According to an exclusive report published by Fortune, YouTube started letting content creators receive their payouts in PayPal USD (PYUSD).

May Zabaneh, PayPal’s head of crypto, confirmed the news to Fortune. She added that the feature is live, but it is only available for U.S.-based content creators. A Google spokesperson confirmed the addition of the feature as well.

Google has experimented with stablecoins in the past. An executive from the tech giant said that Google received payments from two customers in PYUSD.

PayPal is leveraging its status as a fintech giant to spread PYUSD and drive more adoption. A few months ago, PayPal introduced an option that allows recipients to receive their payments in PYUSD.

PayPal USD rose by 13.33% in the last 30 days, and its market cap stands at $3.863 billion. The stablecoin is the sixth biggest coin among other payment-focused stablecoins.

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