The stablecoin market is approaching a $300 billion capitalization, but figures differ widely across leading crypto data platforms, highlighting the challenges of measuring the fast-growing sector.
The stablecoin market is approaching a $300 billion capitalization, but figures differ widely across leading crypto data platforms, highlighting the challenges of measuring the fast-growing sector.
The total stablecoin market cap reached $300 billion on CoinMarketCap (CMC) on Thursday, but CoinGecko reported $291 billion and DefiLlama showed $289 billion on Friday, displaying significant discrepancies.
Rafaela Romano, ambassador at the crypto analytics platform Alphractal, told Cointelegraph that these discrepancies “will always exist” because each platform applies different methodologies when calculating market caps.
“With Bitcoin, it is relatively straightforward to calculate supply and market cap,” Roman said. “But with other blockchains, projects, and new tokenomic models, things quickly become more complex.”
Different methodologies, different numbers
CMC tracks around 150 stablecoins, while CoinGecko and DefiLlama report data for a significantly larger number — roughly 300 stablecoins each.
According to Alphractal’s Romano, CMC usually does not disclose per-stablecoin calculation details, while CoinGecko aggregates data across multiple exchanges and applies tools such as volume-weighted algorithm and outlier detection to measure reliability.
“DefiLlama emphasizes onchain TVL [total value locked] and sources token pricing from CoinGecko’s API, so their stablecoin market cap figures often align closely with CoinGecko’s,” she added.
One source of discrepancy is coming from the new blockchain integrations, Romano noted, highlighting potential omissions of newly issued smart contracts and technological complexity of certain networks.
She also observed that while reporting a bigger market cap, CMC does not include Tether Gold (XAUT) in its tracked stablecoins, while CoinGecko does, which creates a $1.3 billion divergence.
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Additionally, CMC does not yet include the new Sky (USDS) contract — the upgraded version of DAI — while CoinGecko does, creating another $8.1 billion discrepancy.
CMC separates “rehypothecated” assets
CoinMarketCap’s head of research, Alice Liu, told Cointelegraph that the platform separates tokens backed by crypto assets or involving complex collateral structures from those backed by fiat.
CMC categorizes such more complex tokens as rehypothecated assets rather than stablecoins, Liu said.
“This ensures that we don’t count the same collateralized value multiple times across different categories. For example, wrapped assets, staking or restaking derivatives, and tokens like USDS fall into this group.”
Stablecoins yet to go mainstream
Stablecoins have emerged as one of the key industry trends in 2025, particularly amid the Trump administration’s push to promote stablecoins to strengthen the US dollar, including the US’s adoption of the Genius Act in July.
After surpassing a $200 billion market cap in late 2024, the stablecoin market growth has accelerated, but stablecoins are yet to gain mainstream adoption, according to Axelar’s head of growth, Chris Robins.
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“$300 billion is an early milestone in the growth of stablecoins,” he said, observing that the stablecoin growth has been mainly contributed by Tether USDt (USDT), Circle’s USDC (USDC), as well as Ethena Labs’ yield-bearing stablecoin USDe (USDE).
A senior analyst at Glassnode told Cointelegraph that despite some analysts projecting stablecoins to reach $400 billion by late 2025, some barriers remain, including regulatory concerns by the European Central Bank and stablecoin transparency issues.
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