In 2021, the stablecoin market increased to a total value of around $95 billion. The best-known stablecoin is of course Tether, now in sixth place by market capitalization with over $55 billion, but we know that this token pegged to the US dollar is not the only one.
In the crypto sector, we can find DAI, USDC, Binance USD, Paxos and many others, which behave like stablecoins and whose value is therefore always around 1 dollar.
This sector has grown significantly in 2021 for various reasons, ranging from the lack of volatility that distinguishes them from cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, to the increased adoption of DeFi platforms, to the higher trading volumes where stablecoins such as Tether serve investors to move capital from one platform to another and as a privileged pair to buy and sell quickly a large number of cryptocurrencies without going through wire transfers and fiat currencies every time.
As we said, Tether is the most widely used stablecoin because it can be found on several blockchains and not just Ethereum; USDT is supported by Bitcoin Cash, Omni, Tron, EOS and Solana, making this stablecoin also a great bridge to move between blockchains.
Tether in 2021 also rose notably in capitalization due to several factors, including increased transparency and listing on the famous US exchange Coinbase.
Stablecoins are also very useful for those who want to shop around with cryptocurrencies, staying pegged to the value of the dollar and not risking volatility and therefore price fluctuations. Tether is supported by many debit cards in the crypto world and recently Bitfinex has also stated that it wants to focus on USDT adoption and to do so it wants to launch its own card.
The market for stablecoins pegged to euros and gold
When talking about stablecoins, it is worth noting that there are also stablecoins that are pegged to the euro or gold, although these are less successful than those pegged to the US dollar.
Tether Gold (XAUT) has a market cap of less than 100 million, while the stablecoin Stasis pegged to the euro is 85 million dollars. The reason is of course simple: the dollar is the reference point for traders and the economy as a whole, but in any case stablecoins of this type have also risen sharply in 2021, with the market cap of Stasis, for example, tripling in the course of a year.
