USDC stablecoin net outflows have surpassed $10 billion.
Tether reached its 22-month high in market share.
USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin outflows have exceeded $10 billion since March 10. Investors feel that Circle’s USDC stablecoin, with many of them switching to Tether, has reached its 22-month high in market share.
When the regulators shuttered the critical reserve banking partner, Silicon Valley Bank, the U.S. payments firm Circle weathered SVB’s collapse. The USDC re-established its dollar price peg, but the token has declined 23% from its one-time market capitalization of $43 billion.
However, USDC remains the second-largest stablecoin with a $33 billion market capitalization. The Circle backs the USDC’s value with short-term government bonds administered by the investment management firm BlackRock and cash reserves at several U.S. banks. After the failure of the banking system, the Circle has managed to transfer all cash to BNY Mellon, one of the world’s largest custodian banks.
USD Coin Survives the Battle
The outflow surges started on March 10 as SVB collapsed, locking $3.3 billion of cash reserves in its wallets for days until the government intervened. The event threw the stablecoin market into turmoil as USDC and other smaller stablecoins temporarily lost their pegs.
Over the last week, investors have redeemed more than $1.5 billion USDC than the new issuance, including the bankrupt crypto broker Voyager, who redeemed 150 million USDC on Thursday. The USDC pegs its price at $1. The decreased token supply means the investors start exchanging the USDC for the U.S. Dollars, which results in net outflows.
Most of the investors seem to have fled to Tether USDT, the largest stablecoin in the crypto market, which has boosted its level to the highest level of market dominance since May 2021. USDT is the key infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem and is used widely for facilitating trading on the exchange.
Since March 10 USDT’s market capitalization has increased by $8 billion, and now the token’s market capitalization is $79.5 billion. Moreover, it holds 60% of the market shares. The last time the Tether had such a large share was in May 2021, according to DefiLlama.