JPMorgan "USDC growth faster than Tether...driven by institutional demand"

Global investment bank (IB) JPMorgan analyzed that "Circle's stablecoin USDC is growing faster than Tether (USDT)," saying clear regulatory frameworks and increasing demand from institutional investors are driving this.

On the 30th (local time), The Block reported that analysts at JPMorgan said in a report, "USDC's market capitalization surged 72% from about $43 billion in January this year to about $74 billion now," adding "this greatly outpaced USDT's 32% growth over the same period." They assessed that "this shows the market is moving toward stablecoins that prioritize transparency, regulatory compliance, and reliability."

The report emphasized, "USDC has established itself as a stablecoin that institutions and regulators can trust through transparent reserve management and regular audits," and "it closely follows the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, emerging as a 'preferred stablecoin' among financial institutions."

JPMorgan particularly analyzed that the MiCA regulation, which took effect in July 2024, widened the on-chain transaction speed gap between USDC and USDT. It added that the 'Genius Act' stablecoin bill enacted in the U.S. last summer also further boosted USDC's trading activity.

Meanwhile, USDT faced regulatory headwinds, such as being delisted on major European exchanges due to insufficient MiCA approval. In contrast, USDC is expanding its position as a payment and commerce stablecoin through integrations with major payment networks such as Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe.

USDC is also showing rapid growth on blockchain networks with active decentralized finance (DeFi) activity, such as Solana (SOL) and Base (BASE). JPMorgan analyzed, "Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) enables USDC movement between chains without custodial bridges, increasing liquidity."

It continued, "USDT is still being used as a major trading asset in emerging markets outside the U.S. On a centralized exchange (CEX) basis, trading activity for USDT remains higher," and forecasted, "if USDC's model becomes the global regulatory standard for stablecoins in the future, USDT's market dominance could be threatened."