The market capitalization of tokenized gold climbed to a record $1.4 billion in March with trading volumes soaring to yearly highs, CoinDesk Data’s monthly stablecoin report shows.
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The growth in market value and activity happened alongside the physical yellow metal’s rally to fresh all-time highs above $3,000 per ounce. Tether’s gold-backed token (XAUT) and Paxos’ PAXG dominate among the offerings, with market capitalizations of $749 million and $653 million, respectively.
The trading volume with gold tokens surpassed $1.6 billion through the month, the highest level in more than a year, according to the report.
The overall stablecoin market, which includes tokens with prices pegged to fiat currencies and commodities, climbed above $231 billion market cap this month, growing for the 18th consecutive month, the report said.
Tether’s USDT, the largest stablecoin on the market, also increased to a record supply of $144 billion. However, its market share dropped to the lowest level (62.1%) since March 2023 as the stablecoin landscape is getting increasingly competitive. Circle’s USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, grew 7% in a month to near $60 billion.
Decentralized finance protocol Ethena’s recently launched dollar stablecoin USDtb, which uses BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL as a reserve asset, quickly gobbled up over $1 billion of assets to become the 8th largest by market cap.
In terms of trading volumes on centralized exchanges, USDT’s dominance slightly declined, but still stood above competition at 75.7% through the month among the top ten stablecoins. Meanwhile, USDC and Hong Kong-based First Digital’s FDUSD saw their trading market cap dominance rise to 13.6% and 10%, respectively.
Regulatory shifts have been reshaping the market of euro-denominated stablecoins, as exchanges moved to comply with the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. Kraken delisted USDT and other non-compliant stablecoins for European users, following the footsteps of other exchanges such as Coinbase and Crypto.com.
Circle’s EURC stablecoin was a notable beneficiary of the developments, growing nearly 30% to $157 million market cap and claiming a 45% market share of all euro stablecoins.
