Zero USDT, USDC, BUSD, and TUSD Printed in December 2022: Analysis

Stablecoins have continued to play a very critical role in the crypto economy. The ongoing bear market also demonstrated that dollar-pegged coins like USDT and USDC witnessed a parabolic growth in market cap this year.

However, top stablecoin issuers seemingly took a break from printing in December amidst a great deal of market turmoil and increased scrutiny. According to data from the ‘Stablecoin Printer,’ USDT, USDC, BUSD, and TUSD, have not been printed during the last month of 2022.

• In fact, the two-largest stablecoins by market cap have not been printed for the past several months.
• USDT was last printed by its issuer, Tether, in May 2022, while USDC’s printing continued till June of the same year.
• The two tokens have been in a constant battle for dominance, and the de-pegging and the subsequent collapse of Terra ecosystem’s now-defunct algorithmic stablecoin – UST – did help in closing the gap between them.
• USDT laid low amidst concerns of Terra-induced contagion spread. USDC, on the other hand, saw an increase in consumer confidence. This resulted in 4% growth YTD from $42.9 billion to $44.6 billion.
• Market participants ditched USDT for USDC. The latter went on to become the stablecoin of choice on the Ethereum blockchain.
• The collapse of Terra left a vacuum in the Cosmos ecosystem, where the algorithmically pegged to the US dollar was used heavily across its interconnected family of blockchains. Stablecoin issuer Circle grabbed the chance to natively launch USDC on Cosmos in early 2022.
• Meanwhile, Binance’s branded stablecoin – BUSD – happens to be another prominent contender in the stablecoin space that has seen an upward growth trajectory.
• BUSD more than doubled its market cap from the beginning of 2022 to November. Despite its decline in the weeks that followed, the stablecoin has managed to add added an overall 12% to its market cap YTD.