Supply movement
Expanded
−
Contracted
=
Net movement
Daily Tape keeps each published supply reading as a frozen dated record.
What it is
What a stablecoin is
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value against a reference asset, usually the US dollar. The largest are USDT (Tether), USDC (Circle), and USDS (Sky), but the market is wider than a few names. ODS combines tracked USD-pegged supply into one benchmark total.
Two ways
Two ways stablecoins move
Supply moves when dollars are created or destroyed. Settlement moves when existing dollars change hands. A single stablecoin can be sent many times without supply changing once.
Settlement movement
Existing stablecoins can move between wallets, apps, and chains without total supply changing.
Illustrative only. ODS Flow is not live and requires event-level transfer evidence.
ODS measures supply today. Settlement requires different evidence and is not part of the benchmark.
The benchmark
What ODS measures
ODS measures how big that pool is next to the US dollar itself. It compares total USD-pegged stablecoin supply against U.S. M2, the Federal Reserve’s broad-money measure.
USD stablecoin supply
÷
U.S. M2
=
ODS%
The benchmark can also read “$1 of stablecoins for every $N of US M2”. ODS does not claim stablecoins are part of M2. The comparison shows relative size, nothing more.
Schematic only, not to scale
M2 is published monthly by the Federal Reserve via FRED. Between releases, ODS updates against the latest available value. The full formula, sources, and caveats live in the Methodology.
Three lenses
One supply, three lenses
The same pool of supply can be cut three ways. These are lenses on one number, not separate markets.
Issuer lens
Who created it
Supply split by the companies that mint and redeem each coin.
Chain lens
Where it sits
Supply split by the network it settles on. Location is not volume.
Currency lens
What it’s pegged to
Supply split by reference currency. Today that is almost entirely USD.
The daily record
What the Daily Tape records
Each Daily Tape edition compares two supply snapshots and reports the expansion, contraction, and net change.
Expanded
−
Contracted
=
Net
Around 12:00 UTC, ODS takes a fixed snapshot and saves it, dated and never recomputed after the fact. Each day is one record: how much supply expanded, how much contracted, and the net.
Daily Tape measures snapshot-to-snapshot supply movement, not transfer volume or transaction-level mint/burn events. A single coin can be sent a thousand times without supply moving once.
One dated record per day. See the live records on the Daily Tape.
Why it’s citable
A stable number to cite
Live figures change. Dated Daily Tape records do not: once published, they are never recomputed, so a citation keeps the same number.
Sources, formula, and caveats are documented in full on the Methodology.
See the live records on the Daily Tape · issuer structure on Issuers · chain distribution on Chains · sources and caveats in the Methodology · definitions in Learn.