From mere fringe assets used for hedging volatility, stablecoins have developed into essential components of the contemporary economy, spreading the usage into various decentralized and centralized applications. As more and more issuers launch new stablecoins, it has become increasingly difficult to choose the right one that suits our purposes.
This article will list the top stablecoins by market capitalization and dive deeply into their details. Additionally, we will provide a simple definition of stablecoins. Let’s get started.
What is Stablecoin?
A stablecoin is a blockchain-based coin pegged to a reference asset such as fiat money, ETFs, or another cryptocurrency. It usually has a 1:1 peg to the reference asset. Stablecoins are mainly used for payments and as a safe option to retain value in the middle of highly volatile coins. The most popular stablecoins, such as USDT and USDC, are pegged to the U.S. dollar, the dominant fiat currency.
The first stablecoin, BitUSD, was launched on July 21, 2014, five years after Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin to the world. However, in 2018, it lost 1:1 parity to the U.S. dollar, paving the way for the rise of other sophisticated stablecoins. Various stablecoins have crashed or lost their pegs over the course of 11 years.
Top 5 Stablecoins in 2025 by Market Cap
With an incredible 155 billion dollar market cap, Tether continues to dominate the stablecoin milieu of the cryptocurrency industry, followed by prominent coins like USDC and DAI. Let us dive deeply into the top 5 stablecoins of the market at the moment.
1. Tether (USDT)
| Ticker | $USDT |
| Market Cap | $155.18 Billion (17/04/2025) |
| Circulating Supply | 155.18 Billion USDT |
Tether Limited Inc. launched its stablecoin USDT in 2014, soon after the release of BitUSD. Headquartered in Hong Kong, the company’s CEO is Paolo Ardoino, an Italian billionaire businessman and computer scientist. Despite many allegations regarding market manipulation and dollar backing, Tether remains the top multichain stablecoin issuer, exhibiting a linear growth in its market cap.
2. USD Coin (USDC)
| Ticker | $USDC |
| Market Cap | $60.41 Billion |
| Circulating Supply | 60.42 Billion USDC |
USDC is an Ethereum ERC-20-native stablecoin founded through a collaboration between crypto exchange Coinbase and Peer-to-peer payments company Circle. USDC’s market cap began to increase with the 2021 bull phase of the crypto market. The peak of the bull run helped the coin to touch $55 billion; however, it reversed to $24 billion in the following bear phase. From the downtrend, it exhibited an impressive upward movement, touching an all-time high of $60.42 billion cap recently.
3. Dai (DAI & USDS)
| Ticker | $DAI | $USDS |
| Market Cap | $5.36 Billion (17/04/2025) | $7.24 Billion (17/04/2025) |
| Circulating Supply | 5.36 Billion DAI | 7.23 Billion USDS |
DAI is a stablecoin issued by the decentralized protocol MakerDAO, which was rebranded recently into Sky, upgrading the DAI to USDS. Now, DAI and USDS stand as separate assets with separate market caps. DAI’s market cap touched its all-time high of $10.37 billion around February 2022, at the peak of the previous bull market. Meanwhile, USDS has been exhibiting incredible growth this quarter.
4. Ethena (USDe)
| Ticker | $USDe |
| Market Cap | $4.99 Billion (17/04/2025) |
| Circulating Supply | 4.99 Billion USDe |
Built on Ethereum, Ethena is a synthetic dollar protocol that offers USDe stablecoins. As a recent addition to the market, it provides high yields to the hodlers. Users can directly mint, stake, and redeem USDe within the permitted jurisdictions or acquire it on any secondary markets. The pegging with the US dollar is ensured through delta hedging derivatives positions against protocol-held collateral, with a mint and redeem arbitrage mechanism alongside it.
5. First Digital USD (FDUSD)
| Ticker | $FDUSD |
| Market Cap | $1.59 Billion (17/04/2025) |
| Circulating Supply | 1.59 Billion FDUSD |
Launched in June 2023, FDUSD is a dollar-backed stablecoin managed by First Digital Limited, a Hong Kong-based firm. As a censorship-resistant stablecoin with high scalability, it witnessed a sudden growth in 2025.
Also Read: Dark Stablecoins: What They Are and How They Impact
Conclusion
Stablecoins have transformed themselves from a closed blockchain environment into a larger financial system, facilitating anything from tokenised asset transfers to instantaneous international payments. With applications in scalable transfers, loans, remittances, payroll, and other areas, their impact in both centralised and decentralised finance is expanding.
While USDC’s institutional legitimacy makes it perfect for regulated finance, Tether’s enormous market capitalisation exhibits its global usefulness. The switch to USDS by MakerDAO demonstrates how decentralised protocols are evolving to satisfy practical needs. Newcomers like USDe and FDUSD, however, explore the stablecoin industry’s continuous innovation and regional diversity.
The industry is expected to grow much further as jurisdictions throughout the world begin to establish more precise regulatory frameworks for stablecoins. Understanding stablecoins is crucial for everybody involved in the financial industry’s future, whether they be developers, traders, institutions, or independent web3 enthusiasts.