In 2024, USDC has made a strong recovery, pushing its market capitalization up to $34 billion from a low of $24 billion in November 2023.
This stablecoin saw a sharp decline during the Terra collapse in mid-2022, but it faced an even steeper fall a year later. Following a brief debug during the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, USDC’s market cap tumbled to $32 billion on April 5, down from $44 billion the previous month, as reported by CoinGecko.
This dramatic reduction was largely blamed on Operation Choke Point 2.0, a coordinated initiative by the Biden administration and the banking sector aimed at sidelining crypto within the U.S. Crypto investor Nic Carter highlighted this effort, showing how it drove investors away from USDC and towards its leading rival, the offshore-based USDT. During this period, USDT’s market capitalization surged from $71 billion to $80 billion.
USDC Increases Its Utility
The prediction that the Biden administration, along with their allies in Congress, may be easing their stranglehold on the U.S. crypto sector has led to increased adoption of USDC by investors. However, some analysts argue this optimism may be premature.
Yet, there’s more to the story, although. USDC and its parent company, Circle, have been creating new partnerships and expanding integrations throughout the cryptocurrency space. In August, Arbitrum Orbit introduced USDC as a custom gas token, enhancing the utility of the $1.6 billion USDC held within the Arbitrum ecosystem. Also, Brazil’s leading neobank, Nubank, collaborates with Circle in December 2023, granting its 80 million users access to USDC.
Tether Continues to Reign
In the stablecoin market, competing with Tether remains an uphill task. USDT maintains a huge lead, accounting for $117 billion of the $170 billion total market capitalization— which is an impressive 68%. However, if the next U.S. administration adopts a true crypto-friendly stance, domestic stablecoins like USDC might gain momentum and begin to challenge Tether’s dominance.
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