Why Circle’s (USDC) Is Best Placed To Challenge Tether’s (USDT) Stablecoin Dominance

On Monday, March 23, 2020, one of the largest crypto exchanges, OKEx announced the addition of top 10 crypto to USDC pairs including BTC, LTC, ETH and XRP, ushering in a new chapter for the stablecoin. Being listed on OKEx exchange against the top crypto pairs is slowly setting the coin to a prime position to battle the dominance shown by Bitfinex-affiliated Tether in the past few years.

While the two stablecoins are separated by over $3.5 billion USD in market cap, USDCs recent developments shows Circle is ready to challenge the unshakable USDT. Some of the developments include provision of liquidity on Maker, providing APIs for businesses to boost mass adoption and increasing trading volumes – all of which were launched in 2020.

OKEx lists USDC against top crypto assets

In an official announcement, Malta-based OKEx announced the listing of Circle’s USDC against top crypto pairs; BTC, LTC, ETH, OKEx coin (OKB), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), EOS, XRP, Tron (TRX) and Bitcoin SV (BSV).

The ten pairs will start trading on the platform starting Thursday, 26^th March, 2020 at 7.00 AM UTC. The addition is expected to increase liquidity in the market and boost adoption of the stablecoin. Moreover, the market capitalization of USDC is on an uptrend as demand increases – breaching past the $650 million USD mark.

Could the developments witnessed on USDC in 2020 push the stablecoin towards narrowing the $3.5 billion dollar gap?

Why USDC is best to challenge USDT dominance

1. Playing Maker’s savior

In one of the most unexpected moves following the liquidity crisis on Maker that saw a user make an arbitrage profit of $8 million USD on zero Dai (DAI) bids, Maker Dao decided to add Circle’s stablecoin to boost the liquidity.

2. Increasing market for USDC

If there is one area of dominance that USDT beats its competitors on, it’s the wide market that it covers. However, the recent listings on USDC pairs on top exchanges signals a possible fight for the market between USDT and USDC.

Currently ranked 18^th on CMC charts, USDC boasts over 200 market pairs with adjusted daily volumes crossing the $630million mark. Market cap shot up following March 11 events with Maker, from $453 million USD to a current $665 million USD. Tether on the other hand spiked shortly to $4.8 billion USD before dipping to a current market cap of $4.65 billion.

3. Circle Business Account to boost adoption

In an announcement made last week, Circle announced the launch of their “Business Account” API that will help businesses integrate USDC to their system. If the APIs prove successful, USDC will be entering a new period of massive global growth. Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle said during the launch:

“With Circle’s APIs, any fintech company that wants to integrate USDC and have the ability to store it and custody it and build it into a product will be able to do that.”