From Tether to USD1: The 7 Most Active Stablecoins in 2025

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: From Tether to Trump’s USD1: The 7 Most Popular Stablecoins of 2025 Original Link:

A Key Year for the Stablecoin Market in 2025

This is a pivotal year for stablecoin development, as the US introduces the GENIUS Act to regulate this asset class, Circle successfully goes public, and many tokens perform exceptionally well.

Since January, the total supply of USD-pegged stablecoins has increased by over $100 billion, reaching $314 billion. However, this does not mean all stablecoins are growing at the same rate.

To measure stablecoin performance, we used historical data from the crypto asset price aggregation platform CoinGecko, with the calculation period from January to December 15. Turnover speed is derived by dividing total trading volume by average supply, reflecting the average number of times each token changes hands.

Timothy Massad, former Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC), explained to the industry that measuring turnover speed is more effective than rankings based solely on total supply:

“Stablecoins can be very useful even with a small market cap. In other words, what really matters is turnover speed and trading activity— even if the circulating amount isn’t large, they can circulate quickly.”

Tether (USDT)

Tether ranks first with a turnover speed of 166, and has long been a pillar of global cryptocurrency trading. While it cannot claim to be the first stablecoin in history (that honor belongs to BitUSD), it was launched in the same year, 2014, and became the first widely used stablecoin.

Tether’s market cap is $186 billion, up 35% since the beginning of the year. Most USDT tokens are traded on Ethereum(46.3%) and Tron(41.4%) networks.

At the start of the year, Tether moved its headquarters to El Salvador, a country friendly to Bitcoin, where President Nayib Bukele announced BTC as legal tender in 2021. However, it also faced some setbacks. In March, a major exchange announced it would delist USDT from its EU user base to comply with MiCA regulations, which require stablecoin issuers to obtain licenses.

Despite this, the company reported strong profits. By 2025, Tether had accumulated $10 billion in profits over the first three quarters.

Ripple USD (RLUSD)

Ripple Labs’ stablecoin RLUSD ranks second, with a turnover speed of 71. This means each RLUSD token changes hands an average of 71 times since the beginning of the year.

In most stablecoin rankings, Circle’s USDC would occupy this position, with a market cap of over $7.8 billion compared to RLUSD’s $1.3 billion. But as Massad emphasized, stablecoin performance is more about the ability to transfer funds efficiently than total supply.

In December, Ripple received temporary approval for a national bank license from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency(OCC). “This is a huge step—first for RLUSD—to establish the highest compliance standards for stablecoins, including federal(OCC) and state(NYDFS) regulation,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse on social media.

Ripple’s senior vice president of stablecoins, Jack McDonald, often emphasizes that RLUSD is designed specifically for institutional use.

In early December, Ripple received approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) to expand XRP and RLUSD for payment applications in the country. Earlier in the year, RLUSD was integrated into Securitize’s asset tokenization platform, making it one of the assets available for investor exchange.

Circle (USDC)

USTC’s turnover speed in 2025 reached 56, with a market cap growth of 78%, reaching $78.4 billion by December 15.

Perhaps more than any competitor, Circle benefited greatly from the approval of the GENIUS Act. Its operational model has already resembled the federal regulatory framework now established as US law. This gave Circle an initial advantage in compliance and investor confidence—something the market took note of.

CRCL stock was highly sought after when listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with trading halted three times. Subsequently, Circle reported third-quarter revenue of $740 million, up 66% year-over-year. The company also launched a testnet for its first-layer blockchain Arc, with multiple major participants.

Circle is also one of several stablecoin issuers— including Ripple, Paxos, and BitGo— that received temporary approval for a national bank license, and is seeking to expand into broader financial services.

USD1 (USD1)

USD1 is an outlier because it was launched in April, so it does not have a full year of data. Nevertheless, it still ranks outside the top four with a turnover speed of 39.

USD1 is issued by World Liberty Financial—a company focused on cryptocurrencies, co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and partners—and was designed from the start as a highly liquid trading stablecoin. Less than a month after launch, in April, it reached a market cap of $1 billion.

Optimistic forecasts for its growth are abundant. Kyle Klemmer of Blockstreet believes USD1 will become the dominant stablecoin worldwide before 2029, surpassing USDT and USDC.

The project has invested heavily in retail distribution and promotional collaborations, including integrations with multiple US crypto exchanges and partnerships within the Solana ecosystem.

PayPal USD (PYUSD)

PayPal USD’s turnover speed is 18, ranking it fifth among stablecoins.

Its launch in 2023 caused a stir, marking the first time a mature payment platform attempted to issue a stablecoin—years before a regulatory framework existed in the US.

Throughout most of the year, PYUSD’s growth was modest. Its market cap surpassed $1 billion in June and stabilized in September. It then nearly tripled, reaching $3.8 billion by December 15.

PayPal partnered with LayerZero to expand the token to nine new blockchains, though this has also been controversial.

In October, observers noted that Paxos(PYUSD issuer) minted and then immediately burned 300 trillion tokens—a number impossible to achieve, as it exceeds twice the global GDP.

“This was an internal technical error. No security breach,” the company wrote on social media. “Customer funds are safe. We have addressed the root cause.”

USDe (USDe)

Ethena Labs’ USDe has a turnover speed of 11 in 2025, with its market cap growing from $5.8 billion in January to $6.5 billion on December 15, an 11% increase.

However, this trajectory overlooks the fact that the token’s market cap approached $15 billion before the October flash crash.

USDe is the only stablecoin on this list not backed by fiat currency. It is supported by a delta-neutral strategy involving Ethereum staking and perpetual futures hedging. But reliance on derivatives makes it highly volatile during periods of high market turbulence and sentiment shifts.

Despite its unconventional structure, the token has heavyweight supporters like billionaire Arthur Hayes. However, not all regulators are convinced. In April, Ethena Labs exited the German market due to increased regulatory scrutiny and “serious flaws.”

USDS (USDS)

Sky’s USDS has an extremely low turnover speed of just 1 in 2025—by design. To clarify: Sky is a rebranding of the veteran DeFi project MakerDAO, and USDS is its rebranded stablecoin DAI.

Unlike USDT or USDC, which are used as trading stablecoins, most USDS tokens are locked in Maker’s vaults or savings contracts as collateral for DeFi loans, not freely circulating. Its role in DeFi is more akin to a yield savings tool than a digital currency, naturally resulting in a low turnover rate.

For example, Sky Protocol currently offers a 4% reward rate paid in SKY tokens to USDS holders(.

In 2025, USDS’s market cap grew from $5.2 billion at the start of the year to $9.8 billion, an 85% increase in less than 12 months.