Stablecoins: One Year, Big Shifts

A year ago, most people called stablecoins a "crypto thing."

Today, the top 15 tells a different story.

The rankings have changed significantly and three of the biggest movers aren't crypto-native projects: they're banks, payment giants, and asset managers.

We've looked at @DefiLlama's data from Mar '25 to Mar '26 to identify how the market has shifted:

⇗ $USDT grew from $142B to $183B. It holds 60% market share, global liquidity, and now a GENIUS-compliant U.S. version.

⇗ @USDC grew 36% to $76B. Every major regulatory framework that passed in '25 had Circle's name on the compliant side.

While USDC outgrew USDT in percentage terms, USDT still added twice as many dollars thus increasing the gap in absolute dollars (+$20B).

Last year, many predicted USDT would get regulated out. It did, in Europe, but it didn't matter. Tether simply said it would "prioritize other markets" until the EU builds a more risk-friendly framework, and moved on.

So far, it seems that Europe's delisting had no impact on @Tether's domination.

Then, the interesting stories:

⇗ PYUSD went from $759M to $4.2B (+452%). @PayPal moved from experiment to infrastructure.

⇗ BUIDL went from $553M to $2.5B (+358%). @BlackRock's tokenized treasury fund is now a top-10 stablecoin.

⇗ RLUSD went from $92M to $1.6B (+1,623%). @Ripple entered quietly, but it didn't go unnoticed.

⇗ USD1 from @worldlibertyfi didn't exist in the top 15 a year ago. It's now #5 at $4.6B.

Meanwhile, FDUSD dropped from #6 to #24. HONEY, USR, and USDX fell out of the top tier entirely and the total number of tracked stablecoins went from 196+ to 312+.

What this tells us:

The stablecoin race in 2026 is about distribution, compliance, and integration into real financial rails. The winners this year are the ones already embedded in payment flows, treasury management, and institutional settlement.

The five new entrants tell their own story. None are generic stablecoins: USD1 is politically backed, USDG is institutional infra, USDf & U are DeFi-native, and USDD brings @TronDAO's ecosystem into the top 15.

One thing they share in common and that is distribution - each arrived with a built-in user base.

And DAI is the only stablecoin that truly lives up to the name: +1% YoY.

At Acc Ventures, stablecoins represent infrastructure we're actively building on. Our venture studio backed neobank @PulsarMoneyApp is integrating stablecoin rails directly into consumer finance. And through our work with @xMoney_com, @spicenet, @Pi2_Labs, and others in our portfolio, we're building infrastructure for tomorrow's digital economy.