The total supply for Circle’s stablecoin USDC on Ethereum has surpassed that of Tether, putting USDT in second place on Ethereum for the first time. USDC’s current supply on Ethereum as of writing is 40.06 billion tokens, just ahead of USDT’s supply of 39.82 billion. Tether has been the most popular stablecoin since at least 2016, after originally sharing the market with BitUSD and NuBits (USNBT) stablecoins when it launched in late 2014.

The current total supply for USDC is 45.7 tokens across 21 chains or layer-two solutions.

In 2014, USDT ran on Omni. As the latter two fell into obscurity due to losing their dollar peg and shedding users, Circle’s USDC emerged in 2018 as a more transparent and more regulated competitor to Tether, which has been under a cloud for years due to doubts over its backing. Although Tether is still the most popular stablecoin with a total supply of 78.5 billion, nearly 50% of the supply, or 38.7 billion tokens, is on the Tron network. The stablecoin can also be found on BSC, Solana, Huobi ECO Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, and 13 other chains or layer two solutions. The current total supply for USDC is 45.7 tokens across 21 chains or layer-two solutions.

USDT has remained surrounded by controversies over the years. 

Doubts over Tether’s 1:1 backing have caused its public image to decline over the years. Controversy has plagued the company over how the stablecoin is collateralized and its managed reserve funds. The issuance of two Consolidated Reserves Reports about Tether’s financial reserves from accounting firm Moore Cayman in 2021 did little to quell the doubters. In its latest financial report, Tether revealed that it holds $30.8 billion in unspecific commercial paper in addition to other assets backing USDT.