USDC’s ‘fueling’ stablecoin market cap rise: Wintermute

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Just last week, the FT reported that Tether’s considering a US-only stablecoin. Why? Because their current $144 billion-dollar stablecoin USDT may not comply with potential new US regulation (which is still making its way through the relevant checkpoints down in DC).

Wintermute, in its last weekly market update, noted that some of USDT’s market share had been “eroding,” thanks to both the as-of-yet nonexistent US regulation and, of course, MiCA.

Here’s why it matters: No doubt, Tether is still the biggest and — as we’ve seen Circle’s S-1 — most profitable player in the space right now. But, as I’ve been writing the past couple of months, regulation and adoption could lead to further shakeups as we get new entrants into the space and as others eat up more market share.

“The stablecoin market cap soared 15% in 2025 to a record $233 billion, with USDC fueling much of the growth by adding $16 billion compared to USDT’s $7 billion increase,” Wintermute wrote.

Then, let’s take a look at specific ecosystems.

You have Tron, which saw a $6 billion bump — from $61 billion to $67 billion — pretty much only driven by USDT.

Solana’s stablecoin market cap sits at $12 billion now, up from $5.3 billion.