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A cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value relative to a reference asset, typically the US dollar. Most stablecoins are backed 1:1 by reserves of fiat currency, treasury bills, or other assets held by the issuer. Major stablecoins include USDT (Tether), USDC (Circle), and USDS (Sky). Stablecoins enable dollar-denominated transactions on blockchain networks without the price volatility of assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

An informal term for U.S. dollar value represented on blockchain networks, primarily through privately issued USD stablecoins. It does not mean a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The term reflects that stablecoins are pegged to the dollar, redeemable for dollars, and used as dollar substitutes in global commerce and finance.

A benchmark that measures circulating USD stablecoin supply as a percentage of U.S. M2 broad money. It answers the question: how large is on-chain USD stablecoin supply relative to the wider dollar money supply? Track the live reading on the DDD dashboard. See methodology for how it is calculated.

The total value of all units of a stablecoin currently in circulation. For a stablecoin pegged at $1, market cap is effectively equal to total supply. USD stablecoin supply is the numerator of the DDD ratio. In aggregate, stablecoin market cap is now measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

A measure of broad money in the U.S. economy. M2 includes cash, checking deposits, savings deposits, and short-term time deposits. Published monthly by the Federal Reserve via the FRED API, M2 is the denominator of the DDD ratio. Stablecoins are not counted as part of M2 in DDD; they are compared against it.

The target price a stablecoin aims to maintain, usually $1.00 for USD stablecoins. A stablecoin is said to "hold its peg" when it trades at or very near this target. A "depeg" occurs when the market price deviates significantly, which can happen due to reserve concerns, liquidity events, or market panic. Depegged stablecoins are still counted in DDD data if tracked by DeFi Llama.

The largest stablecoin by market cap, issued by Tether Limited. USDT remains the leading stablecoin by tracked supply. It is available on multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and others. USDT is backed by reserves including US Treasury bills, cash, and other assets.

The second-largest stablecoin, issued by Circle. USDC remains one of the dominant issuers in tracked supply. It is regulated, fully backed by cash and short-term US treasuries, and available on Ethereum, Solana, Base, and other networks. Circle publishes monthly reserve attestation reports.

The upgraded stablecoin from Sky (formerly MakerDAO). Unlike USDT and USDC, USDS is crypto-collateralised — generated by users depositing collateral into smart contracts rather than being issued by a centralised company. USDS replaced DAI as Sky's primary stablecoin in 2024.

Issuer dominance shows how circulating stablecoin supply is grouped by issuer. It is a structure layer beneath DDD, not a usage score or adoption ranking. USDT and USDC together account for a large majority of tracked supply. See the Issuers board and individual issuer pages for current figures.

Supply movement is the observed change in stablecoin supply between snapshots. Daily Tape uses conservative language such as expanded, contracted, net movement, and snapshot delta. Event-level mint/burn language should only be used when transaction-level evidence supports it. See Supply Momentum for the live supply-pressure read built on top of this concept.

Chain distribution shows where circulating stablecoin supply is held across blockchain networks. It is a structure layer beneath DDD, not a separate adoption score. Ethereum and Tron host the largest share, with other major networks including BSC, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, and more. See the Chains board and individual chain pages for current figures.

The current circulating USD stablecoin supply, tracked live on Stablecoin Supply Today. This is the same figure that feeds the DDD numerator, alongside daily supply movement and its share of U.S. M2. It measures scale, not usage.

A live read of whether stablecoin supply is expanding, contracting, or mostly flat, built from frozen Daily Tape records. Supply Momentum is a snapshot-to-snapshot supply-pressure read, not transaction-level mint/burn tracking — see Supply Movement for the underlying concept. Track it on Daily Tape.

Stablecoin Velocity compares adjusted stablecoin transfer volume with USD stablecoin supply to estimate how actively stablecoins are moving: adjusted transfer volume divided by average USD stablecoin supply over the same window. It is in research beta and is not a measure of adoption, users, or payments by itself. Track the current reading on the Stablecoin Velocity page.

Currency breakdown shows the fiat units represented in the broader stablecoin universe, not just USD. DDD uses the USD stablecoin numerator only; non-USD stablecoins are supporting context, not part of the DDD headline. See the Currencies board.

Stablecoin transfer volume filtered to remove noise such as wash trading, internal transfers, and other non-economic activity, before comparing it against supply. It is the numerator in the Stablecoin Velocity formula, sourced from filtered transfer data paired with Stable Tape's own frozen Daily Tape supply records. It is an activity proxy, not a count of users or payments.

A status label for Stable Tape metrics that are published for transparency but not yet treated as a finished, citable headline figure the way DDD and Daily Tape are. Stablecoin Velocity currently carries this label. See Metrics for the status of every layer in the product stack.

A research Pulse component for whether major USD stablecoins are trading close to $1.00, or showing a deviation that has persisted rather than a single bad print. It reads price proximity to $1 only — it does not measure reserves, solvency, redemption risk, issuer health, systemic risk, or investment signals. It is not a public benchmark layer, not intraday monitoring, and not a trading alert. See Metrics for its current research status.

A research idea for checking whether large reported mint or burn events translate into durable circulating supply changes after 1D, 3D, and 7D. Mint headlines show the event; Daily Tape shows what stuck. It is separate from Supply Momentum, which is a live, ongoing read rather than an event-triggered one. Not yet live — see Metrics for status.

The growing use and acceptance of stablecoins across financial markets, payments, and commerce. Stablecoin adoption can be measured by market cap, transaction volume, number of active wallets, or geographic reach. DDD measures one dimension of this — the scale of USD stablecoin supply relative to U.S. M2 broad money — not transaction volume, active wallets, or geographic reach. See Stablecoin Adoption Metrics for how Stable Tape frames the other dimensions.

The increase in total stablecoin supply over time. Stablecoin supply has grown from a niche base in the late 2010s into a market measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. DDD tracks the scale of circulating USD stablecoin supply relative to U.S. M2; it does not identify the cause of growth by itself. The historical chart in Metrics visualises this growth.