While the stablecoin sector of the cryptocurrency space grew rapidly in the past, it has now been declining for 13 months in a row, while Tether’s USDT stablecoin has maintained its dominance. Its market capitalization is now approaching a new all-time high, with TUSD gaining market share on Binance thanks to zero-fee trading.
According to CCData’s latest Stablecoins & CBDCs report, USDT’s market capitalization increased 2.03% in April to $81.5 billion, close to its all-time high of $83.7 billion in May last year. The stablecoin’s market dominance has increased for the fifth month, reaching 62.1%.
USDT accounted for 79% of all stablecoin trading volume on centralized exchanges in April, according to the report, making it the largest counterparty with 2,931 trading pairs. According to CCData, the total market capitalization of the stablecoin sector fell by 1.08% to $131 billion in April, the lowest level since September 2021.
The drop coincided with a 13.6% drop in trading volumes to $775 billion in March, owing to multiple stablecoins depegging that month. As of April 23, the trading volume in April was only $365 billion.
However, these declines have not resulted in a cessation of competition in the sector. The introduction of zero-fee spot trading for TUSD’s BTC and ETH trading pairs on Binance has resulted in a significant increase in the stablecoin’s market share on the exchange. According to the report, TUSD’s market share reached an all-time high of 15.9% on April 22nd, with a trading volume of $987 million.
TUSD has surpassed USDC for the first time since June 2020 to become the third-largest stablecoin by trading volume on centralized exchanges, with a market share of 6.5%.
It’s worth noting that Binance’s stablecoin BUSD has been declining due to regulatory pressures such as an investigation by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and instructions from the regulator to stop minting new BUSD tokens, as well as a Wells Notice from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
