Circle, the company issuing the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), released a report on the performance of the stablecoin during the recently completed 2024, highlighting that this cryptocurrency had greater growth in terms of circulation compared to USD Tether (USDT) and others. “important stablecoins”.
According to him reportshared by Circle CEO and founder Jeremy Allaire, in 2024 the circulation of USDC grew 78% year-on-yearoutpacing the growth rate of all other major global stablecoins.
The term circulation refers to the amount of USDC that has been issued and is in the hands of companies, users or digital wallets, ready to be used for transactions, savings and other financial functions. That 78% increase in circulation It means that more people and entities are using that stablecoinreflecting increase in the adoption and use of USDC.
This record in circulation of USDC over USDT and other important stablecoins is extrapolated to the market capitalization of both currencies. This, remembering that these assets have 1:1 parity with the US dollar and that capitalization is the total market value of a cryptocurrency, the amount of which is obtained by multiplying the current price of each unit by the total number of units in circulation.
According to data available on CoinMarketCap, USDC started the year with a capitalization of $24.4 billion and closed at $43.9 billion. indicating an increase of 78%.
On the other hand, USDT closed 2023 with a capitalization of $91.7 billion and reached over $137.5 billion by December 2024, an increase of 50% in one year.
“A turning point”
In an email sent to Circle investors, Allaire indicated that last year marked a “turning point” in the growth and maturation of the USDC economy, because it allowed “the number of lasting connection points between USDC and the traditional finance is proliferating.”
Furthermore, he suggested that the growth seen by USDC during 2024 responds to different factors, such as the maturation of regulatory clarity in the main markets, the scalability of cryptocurrency network infrastructure “and our relentless focus on trust, transparency and utility.”
The manager also stood out that in 2024 Circle reached about 18 trillion dollars in on-chain transactions with USDC since its launch in 2018. “With 2024 being the biggest year in history by far,” according to Allaire.
He also stated that USDC was made available “to more than 500 million end users through partnerships with wallets, exchanges, banks and Fintech.” And since the launch of USDC, Circle has minted and redeemed more than $850 billion in stablecoins. “No one else comes close to this figure,” he asserted.
USDT remains the leader
Despite this year-on-year increase, USDC is still It is still 22% below its record in market capitalization, reached in June 2022, and which was 55.9 billion. In current terms, USDT’s market capitalization is almost triple that of USDC, and USDT remains the absolute leader of the stablecoin market.
Still, USDC has expanded and is currently one of the first options to consider in Europe, taking into account that Circle became the first global cryptocurrency issuer stable in complying with the EU Digital Asset Markets (MiCA) regulation.
In addition, USDC has reached different networks natively and Circle has sought to position itself in the political arena, donating 1 million USDC to the committee organizing Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
