Major stablecoins: USDC, USDT and EURC

Key facts (as of 29 October 2026)

• Size: USDT about US$181bn, USDC about US$71bn, EURC about €485m in circulation (DefiLlama, 29 October 2026). USDT and USDC together are about 83% of the roughly US$302bn of dollar stablecoins DefiLlama tracks.
• EU status: USDC and EURC are e-money tokens under MiCA, issued by Circle's French entity. USDT has no MiCA authorisation.
• Issuer redemption: Tether's direct redemption minimum is US$100,000. The fee is the greater of US$1,000 or 0.1%, plus a US$150 verification fee. Tether also charges 0.1% on issuance (Tether fees page).
• Recent change: Coinbase said it would convert USDT, PYUSD and 12 other restricted tokens held by EEA retail customers on 30 October 2026 (CryptoSlate).
• Chains: more than half of USDT sits on Tron (about US$92bn), with about US$72bn on Ethereum. Most USDC (about US$44bn) sits on Ethereum (DefiLlama).

Comparison

Where each token lives

Chain distribution matters because it decides which networks your counterparties can actually receive on, and what each transfer costs.

Source: DefiLlama chain breakdown read on 29 October 2026, rounded. Dashes mean negligible or not listed among the top chains.

NoteThe Tron figure is the single most important fact for high-risk payments. Many counterparties in Asia, Latin America and Africa hold USDT on Tron. If you only accept USDC on Ethereum or Solana, those counterparties pay a conversion cost to reach you.

USDT (Tether)

USDT is the largest stablecoin by supply. Tether says tokens on different blockchains "should be treated equally and interchangeably". Its supported protocols include Ethereum, Tron (TRC20), Solana, TON, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, Aptos, Near, Tezos, Celo, Kaia, Polkadot AssetHub, Liquid and Cosmos via Kava. Tether no longer issues or redeems on Kusama, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Omni, EOS and Algorand.

Tether has also narrowed its non-dollar range. It wound down its euro token EURT, with redemptions closing for good on 27 November 2025 (private.law). It has said it will stop accepting CNH₮ redemptions from 20 February 2027.

Tether is also an active freezer of addresses. Tether said on 23 April 2026 that it works with more than 340 law-enforcement agencies in 65 countries, has supported more than 2,300 cases and has helped freeze more than US$4.4bn, including over US$2.1bn connected to US authorities (Tether). For a recipient, that means USDT received from a wallet later linked to crime can become unusable.

WarningBecause USDT is not MiCA-authorised, EU-licensed firms are pulling back. ESMA issued an opinion on 8 October 2026 telling authorised firms to stop providing services involving non-compliant stablecoins, with remediation due within three months of publication, so by about 8 January 2027 (ESMA opinion, para. 27). ESMA had already expected CASPs to restrict non-compliant stablecoins by the end of the first quarter of 2025 (ESMA, January 2025 statement). Any flow touching EEA counterparties should plan for this.

USA₮: Tether's US token

USA₮ is a separate product, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. and launched on 27 January 2026, with Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian (private.law). It is designed for the GENIUS Act framework. It is not interchangeable with USDT and has its own liquidity.

USDC (Circle)

Circle states that USDC is "always redeemable 1:1 for US dollars". Its transparency page breaks reserves into bank deposits, deposits at systemically important institutions, overnight reverse Treasury repo and Treasuries maturing within three months. Circle says the majority of the reserve sits in the Circle Reserve Fund, an SEC-registered 2a-7 government money market fund managed by BlackRock (Circle).

Native USDC runs on many chains. Circle's contract-address page lists Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS, Avalanche, Algorand, Aptos, Hedera, Linea, NEAR, Noble, Plasma, Sonic and Starknet, among others. Circle's own Layer 1, Arc, already holds about US$1.1bn of USDC on DefiLlama's data, and Visa has said it plans to use Arc for USDC settlement and to operate a validator node once Arc goes live (Visa, December 2025).

USDC is the token the card networks have chosen so far. Visa's US settlement programme, launched on 16 December 2025, lets issuers and acquirers settle VisaNet obligations in USDC, starting on Solana with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank (Visa). Visa Direct's prefunding product, in production with Inyo Global since 15 October 2026, also uses USDC (Visa).

EURC (Circle)

EURC is Circle's euro token and is redeemable 1:1 for euros. It matters for operators whose costs or players are in euros. Settling in USDC and converting adds FX cost on every cycle.

The euro token market is small. All euro-pegged tokens together total about €0.8bn on DefiLlama, with EURC first and Société Générale-FORGE's EURCV second at about €190m. Liquidity in EURC is therefore thinner than in USDC, and large conversions may move price on exchanges.

NoteMany treasuries hold more than one coin. A common pattern is to receive in whichever token counterparties use, then consolidate into the token that is cheapest to redeem into the currency of the bills. See Stablecoin treasury management.

Other dollar tokens

Supplies from DefiLlama. Check liquidity, redemption access and regulatory status before accepting any of them. Detail in USDT vs USDC vs PYUSD vs EURC.

Timeline of recent events

Illustrative example: what redemption really costs

Illustrative example. Figures are invented; fee terms are Tether's published schedule.

A PSP holds 400,000 USDT and needs US dollars. Redeeming directly with Tether costs the greater of US$1,000 or 0.1%, so US$1,000 (0.1% of 400,000 is US$400), plus a one-off US$150 verification fee the first time. Effective cost on the first redemption: about 0.29%. Selling the same amount through an OTC desk at a quoted spread of 0.05% would cost US$200 but adds counterparty risk on the desk. At US$5m, the Tether fee becomes US$5,000 (0.1%) and direct redemption becomes more competitive. The break-even depends on the quotes you actually get.

Q/A

Is USDT banned in the EU?

It is not banned for individuals to hold. MiCA-authorised firms, however, are restricted from offering services in tokens whose issuers lack authorisation. As a result, major exchanges have delisted or converted it for EEA retail users.

Can a business redeem USDT directly with Tether?

Verified customers can, subject to the minimum and fees on Tether's fees page. Most businesses sell through an exchange or OTC desk instead.

Is USDC on one chain the same as USDC on another?

Native USDC on each supported chain is issued by Circle. Bridged versions issued by third parties are a different risk. Check the contract address against Circle's published list.

Why is USDT bigger if USDC is more regulated?

Network effects. USDT got to emerging-market exchanges and Tron first, and most dollar liquidity in those markets is still USDT. Regulation affects where it can be offered, not whether people already hold it.

Is EURC worth using if volumes are small?

For euro-cost businesses, yes, it can remove an FX leg. But check that your off-ramp quotes tight EURC spreads at your ticket size before committing.

Is USA₮ the same as USDT?

No. It is a separate token from a US bank issuer, designed for the GENIUS Act regime. Liquidity and acceptance differ.

Which token do card networks settle in?

So far mainly USDC. See Card networks and stablecoin settlement.

Sources

• private.law, Stablecoins (updated 25 October 2026): https://wiki.private.law/en/stablecoins
• private.law, OTC: https://wiki.private.law/en/otc
• DefiLlama stablecoins data and API (read 29 October 2026): https://defillama.com/stablecoins
• Curat, PYUSD chain distribution (read 29 October 2026): https://curat.money/stablecoins/pyusd
• Tether, fees: https://tether.to/en/fees/
• Tether, supported protocols: https://tether.to/en/supported-protocols/
• Circle, transparency and stability: https://www.circle.com/transparency
• Circle, USDC contract addresses: https://developers.circle.com/stablecoins/usdc-contract-addresses
• Visa, USDC settlement in the United States (16 December 2025): https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/newsroom/visa-launches-stablecoin-settlement-in-the-united-states.html
• CoinDesk, Allium Q3 2026 report (18 October 2026): https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/18/stablecoin-supply-stalls-but-payments-jump-45-as-visa-mastercard-and-stripe-connect-crypto-to-cash
• CryptoSlate, Coinbase MiCA deadline (27 October 2026): https://cryptoslate.com/coinbase-sets-3-day-mica-deadline-for-usdt-paypal-and-trump-linked-stablecoins/
• Equity Ledger, crypto payments weekly review (23 October 2026): https://www.equity-ledger.com/articles/crypto-payments-weekly-review-2026-10-23
• 15M, iGaming payments news (read 29 October 2026): https://15m.com/news/payments-fintech/
• ESMA, Opinion on non-MiCA-compliant ARTs and EMTs (8 October 2026): https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2026-10/ESMA75-113276571-1742_Opinion_on_the_provision_of_crypto_asset_services_in_relation_to_non-MiCA-compliant_asset-referenced_tokens_and_e-money_tokens.pdf
• ESMA, Statement on non-MiCA compliant ARTs and EMTs (17 January 2025): https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2025-01/ESMA75-223375936-6099_Statement_on_stablecoins.pdf
• OCC, news release 2025-125, conditional charter approvals (12 December 2025): https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2025/nr-occ-2025-125.html
• Tether, freeze of more than US$344m (23 April 2026): https://tether.io/news/tether-supports-freeze-of-more-than-344-million-in-usdt-in-coordination-with-ofac-and-u-s-law-enforcement/
• Circle, USDC contract addresses: https://developers.circle.com/stablecoins/usdc-contract-addresses
• Bridge, OUSD is live (30 September 2026): https://www.bridge.xyz/blog/ousd-is-live-issued-by-bridge
• Stripe, OUSD now the default stablecoin on Stripe (30 September 2026): https://stripe.com/blog/ousd-now-live-on-stripe
• Western Union, USDPT launch (4 May 2026): https://ir.westernunion.com/news/archived-press-releases/press-release-details/2026/Western-Union-Launches-USDPT-on-Solana-Advancing-Regulated-Digital-Infrastructure-for-Global-Payments/default.aspx
• The Block, Coinbase adds RLUSD (28 October 2026, headline read on theblock.co): https://www.theblock.co/