Stablecoin supply
Updated
Summary
Stablecoin supply is the total value of stablecoins in circulation, usually measured as their combined market capitalisation. Because almost every stablecoin is meant to trade at one US dollar, supply is close to the number of dollars that holders have parked on blockchains through private issuers. DefiLlama, which publishes the most widely used dataset, showed $300.9 billion on 2026-10-23. Two coins dominate: Tether's USDT at about $182.5 billion (60.65% of the total) and Circle's USDC at about $72.2 billion. Every other coin is under $7 billion, including Ripple's RLUSD at about $2.4 billion. Supply is not the same as usage: the BIS estimates 2025 transaction volume at about $28 trillion gross, but far lower once transfers between a party's own wallets are netted out.
Key numbers
Total stablecoin market capitalisation (DefiLlama dataset): $300.911 billion (30-day change -0.65%) (as of 2026-10-23). Source: defillama.com
USDT / USDC market capitalisation (DefiLlama dataset): $182.514 billion (60.65% dominance) / $72.222 billion (as of 2026-10-23). Source: defillama.com
Mid-2026 peak readings (Fed note; BIS): $317 billion (2026-04-06); about $320 billion (end-May) (as of 2026-05-31). Source: bis.org
USDT issued: end-2025 / end-Q1 / end-Q2 2026 (Tether attestations): $186.45 billion / $183.44 billion / about $184.6 billion (as of 2026-06-30). Source: tether.io
USDC in circulation: end-2025 / end-Q2 2026 (Circle): $75.3 billion / $73.3 billion (as of 2026-06-30). Source: circle.com
RLUSD in circulation / reserve funds (Ripple): $2,405.8 million / $2,534.5 million (as of 2026-10-15). Source: ripple.com
T-bills and near-maturity Treasuries held by stablecoin providers (Treasury): nearly $200 billion (as of 2026-09-22). Source: home.treasury.gov
3-month T-bill yield effect of a $3.5 billion stablecoin inflow (BIS WP 1270): -0.71 bp on impact; up to -4 bp within 10 days (as of 2025-05-28). Source: bis.org
Share of fiat-backed stablecoins pegged to the US dollar (BIS): about 99.4% (as of 2026-05-31). Source: bis.org
Estimated 2025 stablecoin transaction volume, gross (BIS): about $28 trillion (as of 2025-12-31). Source: bis.org
GENIUS Act state-issuer ceiling / transition window: $10 billion outstanding / 360 days (as of 2025-07-18). Source: govinfo.gov
Timeline
2026-10-21 — OCC issues the first final GENIUS Act rule (new 12 CFR 15), effective 2027-01-18; BSA/AML and sanctions left to a separate rule with Treasury. (Source: occ.gov)
2026-10-14 — EBA classifies USDC as the EU's first significant e-money token; EBA reserve supervision starts 2026-11-12. (Source: eba.europa.eu)
2026-09-24 — Federal Reserve proposes full-reserve, capital and application rules for Board-supervised issuers; comments close 2026-11-30. (Source: federalreserve.gov)
2026-09-22 — Treasury Deputy Secretary Brooke says stablecoin providers own nearly $200 billion of bills and near-maturity Treasuries. (Source: home.treasury.gov)
2026-08-17 — Treasury proposes the GENIUS section 3 rule on what counts as issuing or offering a stablecoin in the US. (Source: home.treasury.gov)
2026-08-07 — IMF's Katz: market roughly flat at about $300 billion for a year; warns of dollarization in emerging markets. (Source: imf.org)
2026-07-31 — Tether Q2 attestation: about $184.6 billion USDT issued, excess reserves down to $4.11 billion. (Source: tether.io)
2026-06-23 — BIS Annual Economic Report puts supply at about $320 billion at end-May and warns of run spillovers to money markets. (Source: bis.org)
2026-06-01 — ECB's Schnabel compares stablecoins with money market funds and says both are exposed to runs. (Source: ecb.europa.eu)
2026-05-01 — Tether Q1 attestation: about $183.44 billion USDT issued, down from $186.45 billion at end-2025. (Source: tether.io)
2026-04-08 — Fed staff note: supply $317 billion on 2026-04-06 after about 50% growth in 2025, then flat. (Source: federalreserve.gov)
2026-04-08 — FinCEN and OFAC propose the GENIUS Act AML and sanctions rule for issuers. (Source: home.treasury.gov)
2026-02-25 — Circle reports USDC at $75.3 billion at end-2025, up 72% in the year. (Source: circle.com)
2026-01-30 — Tether reports USDT above $186 billion at end-2025 and over $141 billion of Treasury exposure. (Source: tether.io)
2026-01-27 — Tether launches USA₮, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank under the GENIUS framework. (Source: tether.io)
2025-12-12 — OCC conditionally approves five national trust banks, including Ripple National Trust Bank and Paxos. (Source: occ.gov)
2025-07-18 — GENIUS Act becomes Public Law 119-27: 1-to-1 reserves, no holder yield, $10 billion state-issuer ceiling. (Source: govinfo.gov)
2025-05-28 — BIS working paper finds stablecoin inflows push down 3-month T-bill yields. (Source: bis.org)
Key actors and links
Stablecoins (theme:stablecoins): The parent theme; this node is its main quantitative gauge.
USDC (asset:crypto-usdc): Second-largest coin, about $72.2 billion (24% of supply); down from $75.3 billion at end-2025.
RLUSD (asset:crypto-rlusd): Ripple's bank-trust-issued coin, about $2.4 billion: under 1% of total supply.
RLUSD growth (indicator:rlusd-growth): A sub-measure of supply for a single issuer; RLUSD growth can diverge from the flat total.
U.S. Treasury (actor:us-treasury): Writes GENIUS rules with FinCEN and OFAC; counts nearly $200 billion of stablecoin bill holdings.
Federal Reserve (actor:federal-reserve): Its staff track supply and run risk; its own issuer proposal closes for comment 2026-11-30.
U.S. Treasuries (market:us-treasuries): Reserves are mostly short bills, so supply changes add or remove bill demand at the margin.
Fed funds / policy rate (indicator:fed-funds-rate): Sets reserve income for issuers and, via deposit rates, the cost to holders of a zero-yield coin.
US dollar (asset:usd): About 99% of fiat-backed supply is dollar-pegged, so supply is a measure of offshore private dollar demand.
Tokenized deposits (theme:tokenized-deposits): Competing bank product that can pay interest; BIS finds deposit pricing affects stablecoin growth.
ECB (actor:ecb): Its board members warn of run risk; euro stablecoins are only about EUR 500 million.
BIS (actor:bis): Publishes supply estimates and research tying stablecoin flows to T-bill yields and deposit rates.
International Monetary Fund (actor:imf): Calls supply flat near $300 billion and warns of dollarization in emerging markets.
Regulated intermediaries (theme:regulated-intermediaries): Licensing under GENIUS and MiCA decides which intermediaries may issue and distribute supply.
Ethereum network (actor:ethereum-network): A main chain hosting USDT and USDC; supply on a chain is not by itself value for its native token.
Why it matters now
Supply has stopped growing. The Federal Reserve counted $317 billion on 2026-04-06 after about 50% growth in 2025, and the BIS about $320 billion at end-May. DefiLlama now shows $300.9 billion, down 0.65% over 30 days. Issuer reports show the same drift: USDT went from $186.5 billion at end-2025 to $184.6 billion at end-June, and USDC from $75.3 billion to $73.3 billion. The IMF calls the market roughly flat for a year. One mechanism is the rate on alternatives. A BIS working paper finds that higher bank deposit rates predict slower stablecoin growth, more for USDC than for USDT, because holders earn nothing on a stablecoin and the GENIUS Act bars yield paid solely for holding one.
The number matters outside crypto because of what backs it. Reserves sit mostly in short Treasury bills, repo and bank deposits. Treasury says stablecoin providers already own nearly $200 billion of bills and near-maturity Treasuries, and a BIS paper finds a $3.5 billion inflow lowers 3-month bill yields by about 0.71 basis points on impact and up to 4 basis points within ten days. So supply growth adds bill demand, and a fall removes it. The same link runs the other way in stress. In March 2023, when Circle could not reach $3.3 billion of reserves at Silicon Valley Bank, USDC traded as low as 86 cents until redemptions resumed. The BIS and ECB warn that a large run could force reserve sales into money markets.
Rules are now arriving that will shape the next leg. The OCC issued the first final GENIUS Act rule on 2026-10-21, effective 2027-01-18. The Fed's proposal closes for comment on 2026-11-30. In the EU, MiCA requires e-money tokens to be redeemable at par and pay no interest, and the EBA takes over supervision of USDC's reserves on 2026-11-12.
Risks and open questions
Bull case: The US licence arrives on a fixed date. The OCC's final rule and the GENIUS Act take effect on 2027-01-18, and Treasury, the Fed and the FDIC are writing their pieces on the same timetable. Five crypto trust banks already hold OCC conditional approvals, and Tether has launched a US product, USA₮, through Anchorage Digital Bank. From 2028-07-18, service providers serving US persons generally must use licensed-issuer coins, which could pull offshore demand into regulated supply. Treasury officials say they expect providers to keep adding to their Treasury holdings. The EU now has a supervisor for the largest regulated dollar coin. Issuers remain well capitalised by their own reports: Tether reported $4.11 billion of excess reserves at end-June, and RLUSD shows reserves above circulation. Inference (AA): if banks and payment firms that stayed out because of legal risk enter after January, supply could resume growth even with flat crypto trading, and the composition would shift toward licensed issuers.
Bear case: Supply is shrinking before the rules bite: from about $320 billion at end-May (BIS) to $300.9 billion now (DefiLlama), with both USDT and USDC below their end-2025 levels in issuer reports. The IMF calls the market flat for a year. Holders earn nothing, and the GENIUS Act and MiCA both bar interest on the coin itself, so money funds and tokenized deposits compete for idle balances; a BIS paper finds higher deposit rates slow stablecoin growth, though its instrument is weak and its sample covers one high-rate episode. Licensing adds capital, liquidity and AML costs. The largest issuer is not yet inside the US federal framework, and the Fed note puts USDT's higher-quality reserves at about 0.74x per coin. Run risk is real: USDC fell to 86 cents in March 2023 when a bank holding reserves failed, and the BIS and ECB warn that a large run would force reserve sales into money markets. Transaction volume is a weak substitute measure: the BIS's $28 trillion gross figure is far lower once self-transfers are netted out. Inference (AA): licensing may shrink some offshore supply rather than move it onshore.
Falsifiers: - Stall reading fails if DefiLlama total supply moves back above the mid-2026 peak of about $320 billion before 2027-01-18. - Growth reading fails if total supply is still at or below about $300 billion two quarters after the 2027-01-18 effective date. - Growth reading fails if Circle's Q3 2026 results on 2026-11-04 show USDC circulation below the $73.3 billion reported at end-Q2. - AA's bill-demand link fails if Treasury reports stablecoin bill holdings falling from nearly $200 billion while total supply holds steady (a shift to deposits or repo). - The deposit-rate mechanism fails if supply grows while bank deposit rates rise, contrary to BIS Working Paper 1382. - Fragmentation risk fails if Tether discloses a plan to bring USDT, not only USA₮, under a US federal or state licence by 2027-01-18.
Value accrual gate: Stablecoin supply growth accrues first to issuers, through the spread between reserve income on T-bills, repo and deposits and the zero yield paid to holders, and then to distributors who share that income (Circle paid out $412 million of $668 million of Q2 2026 reserve income). It is not automatically value for any blockchain's native token: a chain gains only if stablecoin use produces fees or token demand that must be shown separately for that asset. It is not automatically value for an issuer's equity holders either: reserve income falls with short rates and is shared with distributors, and the GENIUS Act and MiCA forbid passing yield to holders, so holders get a dollar claim, not a share of the income.
What to watch
Circle Q3 2026 results: USDC circulation, reserve return rate and distribution costs. (2026-11-04); Source: circle.com
EBA takes over supervision of USDC's reserve of assets, own funds and liquidity in the EU. (2026-11-12); Source: eba.europa.eu
Comment period closes on the Federal Reserve's GENIUS Act proposal (R-1899). (2026-11-30); Source: federalreserve.gov
OCC announces when it will accept GENIUS applications and waiver requests. (no scheduled date (before 2027-01-18)); Source: occ.gov
GENIUS Act and OCC final rule take effect; issuing without a licence becomes unlawful in the US. (2027-01-18); Source: occ.gov
FinCEN/OFAC final AML and sanctions rule for issuers, the piece the OCC rule leaves out. (no scheduled date); Source: home.treasury.gov
Tether Q3 2026 attestation: USDT issued, excess reserves and Treasury exposure (Q2 was published 2026-07-31). (2026-10-23 to 2026-11-30 (AA expectation)); speculative, no scheduled source
Service providers generally limited to licensed-issuer stablecoins for US persons. (2028-07-18); Source: home.treasury.gov
AA inference
Inference (AA): This indicator is the scoreboard for theme:stablecoins and the link from crypto to the Treasury bill market. AA reads it as dollar demand routed through private issuers, not as crypto adoption or token value. The chain AA tracks is: licence clarity after 2027-01-18, then bank and nonbank entry, then supply, then reserve demand for short bills. Only the first link is moving; supply is drifting down from about $320 billion to about $301 billion while deposit rates set the cost of holding a zero-yield coin. A rise above the mid-2026 peak after licensing would support the growth reading; a continued slide would suggest licensing raises costs more than it attracts holders. Concentration matters: about 61% of supply is USDT, whose issuer is not yet inside the US federal framework, though Tether has launched USA₮ through Anchorage Digital Bank.
Sources
DefiLlama's stablecoin dashboard showed total stablecoin market capitalisation of $300.911 billion on 2026-10-23, with a 7-day and 30-day change each shown as -0.65% and USDT dominance of 60.65%. (Source: defillama.com, accessed 2026-10-23)
DefiLlama's top stablecoins on 2026-10-23: USDT $182.514 billion, USDC $72.222 billion, USDS $6.743 billion, DAI $4.745 billion, USDe $4.628 billion, USD1 $3.982 billion, USDG $3.052 billion, PYUSD $2.937 billion, RLUSD $2.398 billion, BUIDL $2.167 billion. (Source: defillama.com, accessed 2026-10-23)
Federal Reserve FEDS Note, 8 April 2026: aggregate stablecoin market capitalisation reached $317 billion as of 6 April 2026, after growing about 50% in 2025, and flattened in Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. (Source: federalreserve.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
Federal Reserve FEDS Note, 8 April 2026: USDT holds about 1.04x reserves per coin but only about 0.74x in higher-quality reserves (Treasuries, Treasury-backed repo and bank deposits), while USDC is backed 1.0x in higher-quality assets; run risk can rapidly propagate through interconnections between crypto and traditional finance. (Source: federalreserve.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
BIS Annual Economic Report 2026, chapter III: stablecoin market capitalisation was around $320 billion as of end-May 2026; about 99.4% of fiat-backed stablecoins by market value are pegged to the US dollar; estimated 2025 transaction volume was about $28 trillion gross, with netted figures far lower. (Source: bis.org, accessed 2026-10-23)
BIS Annual Economic Report 2026, chapter III: in a run, forced sales of reserve assets would pass stress into money markets, and large redemptions could have outsized, asymmetric effects on sovereign yield curves; the BIS recommends capital requirements for issuers and liquidity requirements for reserves. (Source: bis.org, accessed 2026-10-23)
BIS Working Paper 1270 (Ahmed and Aldasoro, 28 May 2025): a $3.5 billion (2-standard-deviation) stablecoin inflow lowers 3-month Treasury bill yields by 0.71 basis points on impact and by up to 4 basis points within 10 days. (Source: bis.org, accessed 2026-10-23)
BIS Working Paper 1382 (Ahmed and Aldasoro, October 2026): bank deposit rate increases predict slower stablecoin growth, with effects stronger for USDC than USDT; the authors conclude that the size of the stablecoin sector depends in part on how banks price deposits, and note a first-stage F-statistic of 9.78 and a sample with only one high-rate episode. (Source: bis.org, accessed 2026-10-23)
Treasury Deputy Secretary Francis Brooke, 22 September 2026: stablecoin providers 'already own nearly $200 billion of Treasury bills' and other close-to-maturity Treasuries, and 'we may see stablecoin providers continue to grow and add to their holdings of Treasury securities.' (Source: home.treasury.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
TBAC presentation, February 2026, slide 15 (Tether and Circle financials to 30 September 2025): T-bills were 53% of the two issuers' assets, their T-bill holdings rose about $70 billion since 2022, stablecoin assets grew at a 35% compound annual rate, and issuers held less than 1% of Treasuries outstanding. (Source: home.treasury.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
Tether, 30 January 2026: USDT in circulation exceeded $186 billion at 31 December 2025 (tokens issued $186,450,610,920), with direct and indirect US Treasury exposure above $141 billion and $6.3 billion of excess reserves. (Source: tether.io, accessed 2026-10-23)
Tether Q1 2026 attestation release (1 May 2026): about $183.44 billion of USDT issued at 31 March 2026, about $141 billion of direct and indirect US Treasury bill exposure, and record excess reserves of $8.23 billion. (Source: tether.io, accessed 2026-10-23)
Tether Q2 2026 attestation release (31 July 2026, BDO): about $184.6 billion of USDT issued at 30 June 2026, total assets $187.75 billion, total liabilities $183.64 billion, excess reserves about $4.11 billion, and net operating profit of about $1.5 billion led by US Treasury and repo income. (Source: tether.io, accessed 2026-10-23)
Tether, 27 January 2026: launched USA₮, a dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. and designed to operate under the GENIUS Act framework, with Cantor Fitzgerald as designated reserve custodian. (Source: tether.io, accessed 2026-10-23)
Circle, 25 February 2026: USDC in circulation was $75.3 billion at end-2025, up 72% year over year; Q4 2025 reserve income was $733 million despite a 68 basis point fall in the reserve return rate. (Source: circle.com, accessed 2026-10-23)
Circle Q2 2026 results: USDC in circulation $73.3 billion at quarter end, up 19% year over year; reserve income $668 million with the reserve return rate down 66 basis points year over year; distribution, transaction and other costs $412 million. (Source: circle.com, accessed 2026-10-23)
Circle, 7 October 2026: Circle will report third-quarter 2026 results on Wednesday 4 November 2026. (Source: circle.com, accessed 2026-10-23)
Ripple's RLUSD transparency page, as of 15 October 2026: RLUSD in circulation $2,405.8 million against reserve funds of $2,534.5 million, issued by Standard Custody, a NYDFS-chartered limited purpose trust company, with monthly attestations by a US-licensed CPA. (Source: ripple.com, accessed 2026-10-23)
Federal Reserve FEDS Note, 17 December 2025: after Circle said it could not withdraw $3.3 billion of USDC reserves (about 8%) from Silicon Valley Bank on 10 March 2023, USDC traded as low as 86 cents while primary redemptions were halted over the weekend, and fully recovered when Circle resumed redemptions on 13 March. (Source: federalreserve.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
Federal Reserve FEDS Note, 4 September 2026: payment stablecoins are not currently included in the US monetary aggregates; the OCC's February 2026 proposal set two business days for 'timely redemption'. (Source: federalreserve.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
GENIUS Act (Public Law 119-27, 18 July 2025), as compiled by govinfo: issuers must hold identifiable reserves at least 1-to-1 in assets including US currency, insured deposits, short-dated Treasuries, certain repos and government money market funds; issuers may not pay interest or yield solely for holding the coin; holders' claims on reserves rank senior to other creditors; a state issuer that reaches $10 billion outstanding must transition to the federal framework within 360 days or stop new issuance. (Source: govinfo.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
OCC Bulletin 2026-50, 21 October 2026: the GENIUS Act final rule 'will be effective on January 18, 2027'; most provisions sit in a new 12 CFR 15, covering reserve assets, redemption and capital among other topics; Bank Secrecy Act, AML and OFAC sanctions requirements will be handled in a separate rulemaking with Treasury. (Source: occ.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
OCC News Release 2026-92, 21 October 2026: the final rule and the GENIUS Act take effect on 18 January 2027; the OCC will announce separately when it begins accepting applications and waiver requests. (Source: occ.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
Federal Reserve Board, 24 September 2026: proposed that Board-supervised issuers fully back their stablecoins with permissible reserves such as short-term Treasury bills, with standardized capital requirements; the R-1899 comment period closes 30 November 2026. (Source: federalreserve.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
Treasury, 17 August 2026: under the GENIUS Act, from 18 January 2027 a person generally may not issue a payment stablecoin in the US without a federal or state licence, and from 18 July 2028 digital asset service providers generally may not offer or sell to US persons stablecoins not issued by a licensed issuer. (Source: home.treasury.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
Treasury, 8 April 2026: FinCEN and OFAC proposed a joint rule applying Bank Secrecy Act obligations and sanctions compliance programs to permitted payment stablecoin issuers. (Source: home.treasury.gov, accessed 2026-10-23)
EBA, 14 October 2026: classified USDC (issuer Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS) as the first significant e-money token under MiCA; the EBA takes over supervision of its own funds, reserve of assets, liquidity and recovery and redemption plans on 12 November 2026; 45 e-money tokens have been notified under MiCA. (Source: eba.europa.eu, accessed 2026-10-23)
MiCA (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114), recitals 67 and 68: holders of e-money tokens should always be granted a right of redemption at par value, and issuers and crypto-asset service providers should not grant interest on e-money tokens. (Source: eur-lex.europa.eu, accessed 2026-10-23)
ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel, 1 June 2026: stablecoins are subject to the risk of runs; global market capitalisation is close to $300 billion with Tether and USDC about 90%; euro stablecoins total roughly EUR 500 million; under MiCAR at least 30% of reserves must be bank deposits, rising to 60% for significant stablecoins. (Source: ecb.europa.eu, accessed 2026-10-23)
IMF First Deputy Managing Director Dan Katz, 7 August 2026: stablecoin market capitalisation nearly tripled between 2021 and 2025 and has held at roughly $300 billion over the last year; nearly 99% is dollar-denominated; stablecoins can amplify dollarization forces in emerging markets. (Source: imf.org, accessed 2026-10-23)