USDC Surpasses USDT as the Leading Stablecoin in Transaction Volume According to Visa's April 2024 Data Analysis, Highlighting Its Growing Dominance in the Market
In a recent revelation by Visa, the USDC (USD Coin) stablecoin has taken the lead in transaction volumes among stablecoins, notably surpassing USDT (Tether). April 2024 saw USDC achieving a significant milestone with a transaction volume exceeding $1.69 trillion, starkly higher than its closest competitor, USDT, which recorded a transaction volume of $445.2 billion. This data underscores USDC's ascending position in the cryptocurrency market.
Visa's insights, derived from its analytical platform developed in collaboration with Allium Labs, indicate that USDC, issued by Circle, now dominates the stablecoin landscape. This platform, as stated on its official site, aims to provide a precise reflection of the stablecoin market by filtering out any "potential distortions that could arise from inorganic activities."
From April 22 to April 28, 2024, alone, USDC recorded a weekly transaction volume of $455.51 billion, which serves to highlight the increasing trust and utilization of this digital currency. According to Visa's analytics, a total of 172.26 million USDC transactions were logged in April, contrasted with 169.24 million transactions in USDT. The substantial part of these transactions occurred over the networks of Solana and Ethereum. It's noteworthy that Visa had integrated USDC transactions into the Solana network back in September 2023, which significantly boosted the transaction volume in this ecosystem.
Commenting on these developments, Noelle Acheson, the author of the newsletter "Crypto Is Macro Now," told Bloomberg that while USDT is predominantly used as a store of value, USDC is gaining popularity in the US for micro-level settlements. This suggests a shift in how these stablecoins are perceived and used in various financial contexts.
Further data from DeFiLlama reveals that USDT's market dominance stands at 77.17%. Although it is often seen as the undisputed leader in the stablecoin segment, the recent data from Visa suggests that a large portion of transactions involving USDT could be inorganic, potentially skewing its perceived market leadership.
This shift in the stablecoin hierarchy not only illustrates changing market dynamics but also points to a broader acceptance and integration of USDC in high-volume transaction environments, signifying its growing importance in the digital economy. As the landscape of digital currencies continues to evolve, the role of stablecoins like USDC will likely become more crucial, especially in facilitating efficient, large-scale digital transactions across various platforms and networks.