Circle's USDC accounted for roughly 80% of the net 30-day decline across the 13 largest stablecoins as of Oct. 25, according to monthly DeFiLlama figures. The token shed $4.69 billion in value during the month, while the 13 tokens collectively lost $5.82 billion in net value.

USDC's market capitalization stood at $71.743 billion, down $878.72 million in the last week alone.

Tether gives up $1.29 billion, keeps 60.74% share

The total stablecoin market declined to $300.36 billion on Oct. 25. DeFiLlama data shows the sector has lost $12.73 billion since May 22.

Tether's USDT fell less over the month. Its market cap stood at $182.423 billion, down $1.29 billion over 30 days and $990.43 million over seven days, while it retained a 60.74% share of the market. Together, the two largest tokens account for roughly $254 billion — about 85% of the $300.36 billion total — which is why their net issuance and redemption flows largely determine the direction of the sector's overall supply.

Across the 15 largest stablecoins, the seven-day contraction totaled roughly $1.90 billion.

Other tokens moved in different directions over the 30-day window. Ethena's USDe fell $305.61 million, while World Liberty Financial's USD1 dropped $444.67 million, a decline of 10.10%. Falcon's USDf bucked the trend, adding $511.16 million for a 42.32% increase, and PayPal's PYUSD gained $239.53 million over the same period.

Tokenized Treasuries shed $1.55 billion since August

Stablecoin supply generally expands when new tokens are minted and contracts when holders redeem them for fiat, potentially drawing away money that might otherwise have flowed into purchases of Bitcoin or Ether. Because tokens like USDC and USDT are designed to hold their dollar pegs, changes in their market capitalization track these mint-and-redeem flows rather than price swings. Supply grew through the 2020-2021 bull market and shrank after Terra's collapse in May 2022, when the algorithmic stablecoin UST lost its peg, which coincided with a protracted crypto bear market. Bitcoin is currently trading near $80,000, more than a third below its October 2025 record of around $126,000.

Tokenized U.S. Treasury products such as BlackRock's BUIDL and Ondo's USDY have also contracted, declining from $16.2 billion on Aug. 12 to $14.65 billion on Oct. 25, according to rwa.xyz data — a combined fall of $1.55 billion. Holders of these Treasury tokens can redeem them to buy stablecoins or risk assets, or shift cash back into bank accounts.

Standard Chartered has postponed its prediction of a $2 trillion stablecoin market from 2028 to 2030. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's head of digital assets research, said the stall in supply growth is cyclical and tied to weak crypto markets, noting that supply has been stuck between $300 billion and $320 billion over the past year, as Cryptopolitan reported. Whether supply can break out of that range is the metric to watch for signs that the sector's growth resumes.

Circle defends USDC economics

Circle, which listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2025, is also defending the economics of USDC. According to a Cryptopolitan report, a Circle blog post published Oct. 16 disclosed that roughly $819 million — about 59 cents on the dollar — of the company's approximately $1.4 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026 went to firms distributing USDC and to transaction costs. Stablecoin issuers typically earn the bulk of their revenue from interest on the reserve assets backing tokens in circulation, so distribution costs bear directly on issuer margins.

The post was seen as a reaction to Open USD, a rival token launched June 30 that promises free minting and redemption. The consortium behind Open USD says partners can keep all of the interest its reserves earn, minus a small management fee.