Key Takeaways
How is the GENIUS Act influencing Tether’s growth?
It prompted Tether to launch USA₮, a compliant dollar-backed token tailored for U.S. regulations.
Is USDT still the dominant stablecoin?
Yes, but USDC is gaining ground in transaction volume and institutional adoption.
The rise of stablecoins is increasingly being felt beyond the digital asset market.
Tether becomes the 17th largest U.S. debt holder
Tether’s USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin, now backs its token supply with approximately $135 billion in U.S. Treasury bills, according to recent disclosures.
That figure makes Tether the 17th largest U.S. debt holder globally, surpassing countries such as South Korea and nearing Brazil, as noted by Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino.
The development underscores how dollar-pegged crypto assets have evolved into meaningful participants in global liquidity flows, particularly in the short-term bond market.
This comes at a time when the stablecoin market is entering a new regulatory and competitive phase, especially after U.S. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act, establishing a clearer regulatory path for compliant stablecoins in the U.S. market.
How is the GENIUS Act boosting Tether’s growth?
In response, Tether introduced USA₮, a dollar-backed token specifically designed to meet the new U.S. regulatory requirements.
Rival issuer Circle, meanwhile, has been expanding partnerships and infrastructure placements, and overseas players like Japan’s JPYC are also scaling operations to tap into rising global stablecoin demand.
At the transaction level, stablecoin usage remains massive.
Visa’s on-chain analytics further show that stablecoins facilitated $6.4 trillion in total transfers over the past 30 days.
While USDT typically leads market activity, October data illustrate a competitive shift.
This is because USDC recorded approximately $669.15 billion in monthly transaction volume, slightly ahead of USDT’s $607.98 billion during the same period.
The figures suggest that while USDT still dominates overall market share and circulation, USDC is gaining meaningful traction in payments and institutional pipelines.
Tether is stepping up its stablecoin game
At the same time, Tether is expanding beyond stablecoins altogether.
Tether Data, the company’s technology unit, recently announced the launch of QVAC Genesis I, a 41-billion-token synthetic dataset built to train science- and engineering-focused AI models.
Alongside it, the firm introduced QVAC Workbench, an application that allows users to run AI models directly on local devices.
USDT vs. USDC
However, AMBCrypto’s analysis shows USDT still leads the market with a 79% share in August 2025, but its dominance is slowly slipping as USDC gains ground.
While USDC offers stronger transparency and fully liquid reserves overseen by BlackRock, USDT’s mix of assets, ranging from Treasuries to Bitcoin and commodities, raises more debate.
However, the 10th October flash de-peg proved that stability isn’t just about reserve composition.
This is because USDT briefly traded above $1 while USDC dipped, highlighting that trust in stablecoins now depends as much on real-world performance as the assets backing them.
