Stablecoin Market Surges to $270B—Tether Dominates with $6B July Minting Spree

The stablecoin arena just flexed its muscles—adding $13.5B in a single month while Tether’s printing presses churned out $6B. Who needs the Fed when you’ve got crypto’s favorite liquidity engine?

Market cap nears $270B as institutions and degens alike pile into dollar-pegged safety. Meanwhile, TradFi bankers still can’t decide if stablecoins are ‘too risky’ or ‘stealing their lunch’.

One thing’s clear: When the next bull run hits, these digital IOUs will be the grease that keeps the crypto economy humming—whether regulators like it or not.

• Stablecoin market cap added $13.5B in July to reach $267.41 billion by August 2.
• Tether and Circle increased supply after the GENIUS Act set national rules for stablecoins.
• Deutsche Bank launched EURAU under MiCA as Hong Kong introduced new stablecoin rules in July.

The market capitalization value of stablecoins reached $267.41 billion at the beginning of August, marking a 5.33% increase during the month. The increase added $13.537 billion to the market between July 1 and August 2, according to data from DeFiLlama.

Stablecoins are digital currencies tied to real-world assets like the US dollar to maintain a stable price. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, which tend to have wide price fluctuations, stablecoins have minimized volatility.

The rise of the stablecoin market was also accompanied by regulatory and corporate events in key global markets, which have led to the renewed and broadened issuance.

On July 18, U.S. President Donald TRUMP signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing the first national legal framework for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins. The act requires full reserve backing, monthly audits, and oversight from both federal and state agencies. 

Following the legislation, major issuers scaled supply. Tether issued $6 billion in new USDT supply during the month, raising its total circulation to $164.71 billion and lifting its market dominance to 61.60% by August.

USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, increased its supply by $2.53 billion in July, pushing its market valuation to $63.99 billion. Ethena’s USDe posted the fastest monthly gain among top stablecoins, growing by 62.55% to reach $8.62 billion. Sky’s USDS rose by $296.82 million, ending the month at $4.85 billion.

In addition, other tokens that had notable positive gains included DAI and USDf. However, BlackRock’s tokenized U.S. Treasury fund BUIDL and USD1 which World Liberty Financial backs, recorded net outflows.

In addition to U.S. regulatory changes, stablecoin developments advanced in Europe and Asia. On July 2, German authorities issued a MiCA license to Deutsche Bank’s joint venture, which officially launched the EURAU euro-backed token on July 31. EURAU also operates as an ERC-20 token under BaFin oversight.

In Asia, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued new stablecoin market licensing guidelines in the last week of July. These rules set minimum reserve and audit requirements for issuers operating in the region. The regulations are also expected to ease the approval process of compliant projects.

On the corporate front, PayPal expanded the availability of PYUSD. On July 17, the company deployed the token on the Arbitrum Layer-2 network. On July 28, PayPal also launched “Pay with Crypto,” a product enabling instant fiat-PYUSD conversions for online merchants.

Visa Boosts Stablecoin Settlement with PYUSD, USDG, EURC and Blockchain Support

Stablecoin Market Approaches $270 Billion in Early August

Data from rwa.xyz on August 1 recorded a total stablecoin market cap of $256.88 billion, reflecting a 4.49% increase over the past 30 days. Monthly transfer volume ROSE to $3.20 trillion, up 7.51% in the same period. The number of monthly active addresses was also up by 6.54% to 40.21 million, and the number of active holders increased 2.92% to 186.97 million.

At the beginning of August, the stablecoin market was only $2.6 billion away from exceeding the $270 billion mark. The rise in supply and usage in July was a combination of regulatory changes, cross-border product launches, and renewed institutional activity marked in U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Peter Schiff Warns Stablecoins Could Undermine Treasury Demand: Report