Key takeaways
Which stablecoin is best to preserve your capital for a while?
USDC, given its compliance and rewards potential.
How about for global trade and transfers?
Tether’s USDT was more stable during the recent flash crash and could offer more security when trading in volatile markets.
Tether’s USDT emerged as the most dominant stablecoin for global transfers in 2025. According to a recent study report According to Artemis, USDT had a 79% market share for August transfers. Circle USDC came in second with 21%.
However, if you look at the year to date, you can see that USDT dominance has been slowly falling: from 90% in January to 79% in August.
Source: Artemis
In contrast, USDC rose from 9% to 21%. In other words, it doubled in 2025 transfers, underscoring significant traction despite ranking second.
Given its global traction, having USDT could be crucial if you travel a lot or handle international transfers.
USDT vs. USDC Security Assessment
How about from a security point of view? Which offers greater peace of mind? Or better yet, if Tether or Circle goes out of business today, which one would you be fully and easily refunded?
Well, Circle’s latest transparency. report indicated that its stablecoin is backed 1:1 by cash and short-term Treasuries held in regulated entities. In fact, the Circle Reserve Fund, which holds the reserves, is being managed by BlackRock, a regulated entity.
Source: Circle
Currently, reserves stand at $76 billion, on par with USDC’s $76 billion in circulation. Therefore, users can expect a refund of around 100% if Circle were to close today.
However, for Tether’s USDT, only 80% of its reserve assets are in cash assets and US Treasuries. the rest are parked in corporate bonds, BTC and commodities that may take a little longer to liquidate to repay holders in the event of bankruptcy.
Source: Correa
So, if you have a huge stash, going for USDC could offer security in an unlikely scenario of things reaching bankruptcy level for both of you. Better yet, holding Coinbase would be gain you will get an additional 4% rewards.
However, the disengagement October 10 also showed that USDT was more stable than USDC. Although the decoupling occurred in USDe on the Binance platform, USDT held up well.
In fact, it rose 17 basis points, while USDC fell slightly between 0.01% and 0.02% from the $1 level.
Source: USDT vs USDC during the October 10 flash crash
USDT’s market capitalization reached $183 billion, more than double USDC’s $76 billion, with a huge global moat and stability.
However, USDC could offer more security, as well as rewards, if held at certain brokers.
