USDT Soars to Record $156.1B Supply – Tron and Ethereum Dominate 90% of Circulation
Stablecoin giant Tether just smashed another milestone—its supply now towers at $156.1 billion, with Tron and Ethereum hosting nearly all of it. Here’s why traders aren’t surprised.
The 800-pound gorilla of crypto liquidity
USDT’s market cap surge mirrors DeFi’s insatiable appetite for stable liquidity—even as traditional banks still treat blockchain like a sci-fi plot. Tron handles the speed trades; Ethereum anchors the smart contracts. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s ‘stablecoin task force’ remains stuck on slide three of their PowerPoint.
When centralized meets decentralized
90% dominance across two chains proves one thing: crypto runs on USDT, whether purists like it or not. The numbers don’t lie—but they might make goldbugs and Fed devotees sweat.
USDT outstanding supply | Source: Token terminal
Over half of USDT stablecoins, or 50.47%, are now on Tron (TRX), while almost 40% are on Ethereum (ETH). Less than 10% of USDT supply is distributed across other blockchains, including BNB Chain, Solana, Cosmos, Avalanche, and others.
Circle’s USDC has gained more traction on many of these smaller chains. For instance, solana hosts nearly $7.5 billion worth of USDC compared to just $2.3 billion of USDT. Still, despite USDC’s growing popularity, USDT’s dominance has remained largely stable.
Currently, USDT accounts for 62.10% of stablecoin supply across all chains, while USDC holds around 24%. However, USDT saw a dip in dominance NEAR the end of 2024, coinciding with the implementation of the European Union’s MiCA stablecoin regulations.
What’s the future for USDT?
Instead of trying to comply with MiCA regulation, Tether chose to withdraw from the market completely. It had discontinued its EURT stablecoin, as well as faced delisting on several major exchanges. Still, Tether’s leadership would not relent, declining to enact full reserve transparency.
Still, the passage of the U.S. GENIUS Act could pose new problems for Tether, where it controls a dominant market share. However, experts are not convinced that the GENIUS Act WOULD force the Tether out of the U.S. market.
For now, Tether’s strategic focus remains on Asia, where it continues to be a preferred option for crypto payments—particularly on the Tron network.
