The Tether (USDT) stablecoin’s adjusted on-chain volume has surpassed the $1 trillion mark on a yearly basis for the first time, according to data compiled by The Block Research.
As of April 30, USDT had an adjusted on-chain volume of $1.01 trillion, i.e., a 64% market share of the total stablecoin transaction volume of 2021 to date (about $1.6 trillion).
On-chain transaction volume is any value transfer within a blockchain network, such as buys, sells (trading), and sends (remittances). Moreover, it is “adjusted” by Coin Metrics, the source firm of the data, in order to filter out duplicates and wash trading as much as possible.
“Surpassing the US$1 trillion mark in on-chain volume represents yet another milestone in Tether’s ascent,” Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino told The Block.
USDT is followed by the USDC stablecoin with a market share of around 20% at $312 billion, and Dai with an 8% market share at $114 billion, as of April 30.
Source: The Block Research, Coin Metrics
To be sure, the on-chain data does not include trading volumes of centralized exchanges for USDT pairs as that data is off-chain. Such trading volume via USDT would likely be higher since USDT is one of the preferred pairs to trade crypto by large investors.