Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin USDt reached a record market capitalization of $187.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, even as the broader cryptocurrency market weakened following October’s liquidation cascade.

According to its latest quarterly report, the USDt market cap increased by $12.4 billion during Q4. Data indicates that USDt continued expanding its dominance while rival stablecoins lost ground.

After the major liquidation event on Oct. 10, the market capitalization of Circle’s USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, fluctuated through the remainder of the quarter but ultimately finished largely unchanged. Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe, ranked third among stablecoins by CoinMarketCap, declined by 57%.

Onchain usage and reserves continue to expand

Network activity also moved to record levels. The average number of monthly active USDt wallets rose to 24.8 million, accounting for nearly 70% of all wallets holding stablecoins. Quarterly transfer volume climbed to $4.4 trillion, while the total number of onchain transactions reached 2.2 billion.

Tether reported total reserves of $192.9 billion at the end of Q4, an increase of $11.7 billion from the prior quarter, leaving net equity at $6.3 billion. Exposure to US Treasurys grew to $141.6 billion, placing the company among the largest holders globally and ahead of several sovereign entities.

The figures also suggest a relatively stable user base. Roughly two-thirds of USDt supply is held in savings wallets and centralized exchanges, while the remaining portion supports payments, remittances and decentralized finance activity.

USDt remains the most frequently used stablecoin in illicit transfers. Bitrace reported that $649 billion in stablecoins, representing about 5.14% of total stablecoin transaction volume, passed through high-risk blockchain addresses in 2024, with Tron-based USDt accounting for more than 70% of that activity. Tether has intensified efforts to address illicit usage, launching joint initiatives with TRM Labs and Tron to monitor and freeze suspicious funds.

Expansion into new products and markets

In January, Tether introduced USAt, a dollar-pegged stablecoin designed specifically for the United States market. Issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, USAt is compliant with the US GENIUS Act and launched with an initial supply of $10 million on Ethereum.

On Monday, Tether also partnered with Opera to expand access to digital payments in emerging economies by integrating USDt and Tether Gold into Opera’s MiniPay wallet.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-usdt-q4-2025-record-market-cap-onchain-activity

https://tether.io/news/usdt-q4-2025-market-report/