Stablecoins are the most important part of crypto that most non-crypto people have never heard of. Total supply sits around $250+ billion at current levels — larger than the Federal Reserve’s own M-Zero figure for several smaller countries — and daily transfer volume regularly exceeds Visa and Mastercard combined.
The aggregate market cap figure at the top of this page is tracked by every serious crypto analyst because it is a near-real-time read on capital flows into and out of the entire asset class. When stables are growing, dollars are entering the ecosystem. When they are shrinking, the opposite. Correlation to total market cap is roughly 0.8 over multi-month windows.
The Big Four
Tether (USDT). The original, the biggest, and the most-transacted token in crypto by count. USDT is the stablecoin of choice on Tron (where most retail activity happens outside the US), across Asian exchanges, and in every informal dollar market from Argentina to Nigeria. Tether has had controversies but has, to date, always honoured redemptions.
USD Coin (USDC). Issued by Circle, regulated, audited, the stablecoin most institutions prefer when they can pick. Had a brief depeg to $0.87 during the SVB banking crisis in March 2023 before recovering fully within 48 hours. The event is still cited as the reason some teams prefer to hold multiple stables rather than one.
DAI / USDS. The original decentralized stablecoin, issued by MakerDAO (now Sky). Backed by on-chain collateral (ETH, USDC, real-world assets) rather than a bank account. USDS is the rebranded version that pays a variable savings rate to holders.
USDe (Ethena). Launched 2024, grew from zero to $5B+ market cap in its first year. Uses a delta-neutral strategy — long ETH spot, short ETH perp — to keep the peg and distribute funding rate yield to holders. Completely different risk profile from USDT/USDC; worth understanding before holding any meaningful amount.
The Newer Generation
A cluster of smaller stablecoins has appeared since 2023:
- PYUSD — PayPal’s stablecoin, growing on Solana after a slow Ethereum start
- FDUSD — First Digital USD, big on Binance
- USDY / BUIDL / USYC — tokenized Treasury products from Ondo, BlackRock, Hashnote (also appear in the RWA sector)
- GHO — Aave’s native stablecoin
- crvUSD — Curve’s stablecoin
- USD1 — World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin
Each has its own backing, its own yield profile, and its own liquidity depth. The table above tracks them all by market cap.
How to Use This Page
Watch the aggregate market cap at the top. Growing? Capital is entering crypto. Shrinking? Capital is leaving. The directional signal here matters more than any individual coin’s ranking.
If you are looking for a place to park value in crypto without price exposure, USDT and USDC on a major Layer 2 (Arbitrum, Base, Optimism) are the most conservative choice. The convert tool shows you live rates for any crypto into any fiat, and the portfolio tracker lets you log a stablecoin balance alongside the rest of your holdings.
For a deeper explanation of how stablecoins work and the different backing models, see the stablecoin glossary entry and our what is Ethereum guide, which covers how the big stables are issued on-chain.
The data below refreshes every few minutes from CoinGecko.