The global stablecoin supply hit a value milestone of nearly 190 billion USD in April 2022, but declined in subsequent months. This can be attributed to a shockwave within the crypto market in May 2022, when stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) as well as its backing cryptocurrency Terra (LUNA) saw their prices collapse. This volatility for a digital asset that was long thought to not be volatile brought a level of uncertainty in the cryptocurrency market that was not expected in early 2022. When compared to the overall market size of all cryptocurrencies combined, stablecoin take up roughly 15 percent of the global cryptocurrency market.

The market cap of the top 10 stablecoin initially multiplied over time, reaching a combined value of over 221 billion USD in March 2025. Note this value does not include TerraUSD (UST), the algorithmic stablecoin tied to the LUNA crypto which declined severely in May 2022. Up to then, estimates reveal that the market cap had more than tripled within five months - likely in the wake of growing interest worldwide in cryptocurrencies, after sudden price spikes in a coin like Dogecoin (DOGE). Stability above all, or what does a stablecoin do? Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies - like the commonly known Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) - but their value is determined in a different way. Whilst the price of Bitcoin mainly follows supply - how many coins are being mined or are available to purchase - and demand - how many investors want buy the coin - stablecoins are synthetically connected to the price of an altogether different asset. Tether's USDT, for instance, is connected to the price development of the U.S. dollar (USD): if the U.S. dollar falls in the FX market, so does the USDT. Compare this to the "regular" price history of a cryptocurrency like Ripple (XRP) and stablecoins reveal themselves to be a relatively less volatile digital currency to either use or invest in that their counterparts in the free market. A test ground for digital payments This stability of these particular cryptocurrencies is important for two areas in digital payments that do not prefer volality. For instance, these coins are a popular choice within the world of Decentralized Finance or DeFi - an online financial market without the supervision of central bank that relies on cryptocurrencies for payments and loans. Because of that reliance, it is a market that can rapidly change in size due to price fluctuations or changing transaction fees of certain cryptocurrencies - something that is less likely to occur when using stablecoins. Additionally, stablecoins are seen as the inspiration for so-called CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currencies - such as China's e-CNY currency or the "digital euro" that is being researched in the EU-27. In terms of how advanced countries worldwide are into researching their own cryptocurrency, China ranked third in 2020, behind Cambodia, and The Bahamas.

The share of stablecoins within the overall crypto market was below that of Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). This would mark a significant rise of the digital asset, as earlier calculations from December 2021 indicated a stablecoin market share of seven percent. What may play a part in these figures is that "regular" cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum saw a significant decline in price between May and June 2022 - leading to their market cap to decline as well. Fiat-backed stablecoins like Tether, USD Coin and Binance USD, on the other hand, were not as impacted. That said, the crash of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD and its token Terra (LUNA) led to much uncertainty on whether non-fiat backed stablecoins could work.

USDS - the replacement to Ethereum stablecoin DAI - spearheaded the market size of so-called algorithmic stablecoins since its launch in December 2024. The proof of concept behind this relatively new group of stablecoins, algorithmic stablecoins, is important for blockchains in Decentralized Finance or DeFi, as it would nearly guarantee a stable digital coin - as the algorithm would try to keep the price at close to $1 as much as possible - and that is not affected by market sentiment. Algorithmic stablecoins were much smaller in size compared to the top cryptocurrencies in the world.

3MEth Dataset OverviewSection 1: Token TransactionsThis section provides 303 million transaction records from 3,880 tokens and 35 million users on the Ethereum blockchain. The data is stored in 3,880 CSV files, each representing a specific token. Each transaction includes the following information:Sender and receiver wallet addresses: Enables network analysis and user behavior studies.Token address: Links transactions to specific tokens for token-specific analysis.Transaction value: Reflects the number of tokens transferred, essential for liquidity studies.Blockchain timestamp: Captures transaction timing for temporal analysis.Apart from the large dataset, we also provide a smaller CSV file containing 267,242 transaction records from 29,164 wallet addresses. This smaller dataset involves a total of 1,194 tokens, covering the time period September 2016 to November 2023. This detailed transaction data is critical for studying user behavior, liquidity patterns, and tasks such as link prediction and fraud detection.Section 2: Token InformationThis section offers metadata for 3,880 tokens, stored in corresponding CSV files. Each file contains:Timestamp: Marks the time of data update.Token price: Useful for price prediction and volatility studies.Market capitalization: Reflects the token's market size and dominance.24-hour trading volume: Indicates liquidity and trading activity.Section 3: Global Market IndicesThis section provides macro-level data to contextualize token transactions, stored in separate CSV files. Key indicators include:Bitcoin dominance: Tracks Bitcoin's share of the cryptocurrency market.Total market capitalization: Measures the overall market's value, with breakdowns by token type.Stablecoin market capitalization: Highlights stablecoin liquidity and stability.24-hour trading volume: A key measure of market activity.These indices are essential for integrating global market trends into predictive models for volatility and risk-adjusted returns.Section 4: Textual IndicesThis section contains sentiment data from Reddit's Ethereum community, covering 7,800 top posts from 2014 to 2024. Each post includes:Post score (net upvotes): Reflects engagement and sentiment strength.Timestamp: Aligns sentiment with price movements.Number of comments: Gauges sentiment intensity.Sentiment indices: Sentiment scores computed using methods detailed in the data preprocessing section.The full Reddit textual dataset is available upon request; please contact us for access. Alternatively our open-source repository includes a tool to guide users in collecting Reddit data. Researchers are encouraged to apply for a Reddit API Key and adhere to Reddit's policies. This data is valuable for understanding social dynamics in the market and enhancing sentiment analysis models that can explain market movements and improve behavioral predictions.

The market capitalization of stablecoin Tether in November 2021 was roughly three billion U.S. dollars higher than it was one month before. In 2021, Tether ranks as one of the biggest cryptocurrencies in the world and is regarded as the most well-known "stablecoin", or cryptocurrency that is connected to the price development of another, real-world asset. This particular segment made up roughly half of the overall value locked in Decentralized Finance or DeFi.

Crypto trader Binance ranked among the largest cryptocurrency exchangers in the world in 2024, with trading volume that was several times as high as Bybit or OKX. It should be noted that these figures are separate from platforms Binance.US, Binance TR or Binance.KR. The platform from the Cayman Islands faced investigations from the U.S. SEC, which came to a head in November 2023. Binance did not rank as the most used cryptocurrency exchanges used by consumers in the United States. Binance's settlement with the U.S. In November 2023, Binance agreed to pay a four billion U.S. dollar settlement with United States agencies — one of the biggest corporate fines in U.S. history. The U.S. Department of Justice investigated the platform for years for failure to prevent money laundering and growing crypto theft. The company's founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to the charges, agreeing to step down. Zhao would remain as the company's majority shareholder. The U.S. Treasury announced Binance will be subject to five years of monitoring and “significant compliance undertakings, including to ensure Binance’s complete exit from the United States.” Mixed signals from crypto companies The Binance settlement occurred in a month when overall crypto trading volume recorded its highest numbers for all of 2023. One of the main causes is the sudden popularity of FTT, a token released by FTX — the company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. The developments surrounding Binance caused investors to move away from Binance's stablecoin BNB to the stablecoin from FTX. Earlier in November 2023, however, Coinbase saw its shares fall after announcing its quarterly performance figures.

Based on 24 hour trading volume, stablecoin Bitcoin outpaced Ethereum and, more importantly, Tether in December 2024, accounting for most crypto trades. This is unusual as stablecoin Tether often tends to be most traded - due to its use in purchasing other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin's leading role is underlined in a market cap league table of more than 100 cryptocurrencies — including ones for DeFi, NFT and stablecoins. Bitcoin and Ethereum were the only ones to reach over 100 billion U.S. dollars, with Ethereum following by around one half this amount. Does this mean that Bitcoin gets traded more than Ethereum? Not necessarily, as the daily transactions of Ethereum tend to be significantly higher than that of Bitcoin.

The value of transactions processed via central bank digital currency or CBDC is forecast to grow by 260,000 percent between 2023 and 2030. This is according to a market estimate made in early 2023, based on various conditions and sources available at that time. CBDC is a topic that has little information, as many countries by 2023 were still actively developing such digital currencies. From the 105 countries that were involved with such digital currencies, only Nigeria, the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) had a "live" CBDC as of 2023. Often compared to cryptocurrencies or stablecoin, an important difference between crypto and CBDC is that the first is decentralized. Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are issued by private hands or companies, sometimes as a protest against monetary authorities. CBDC, on the other hand, come from monetary authorities and are meant to be a digital variant of already existing FX.

In May 2022, over 6,000 billion Terra Classic – the 1.0 version of LUNA - tokens were issued and went into active circulation in a few days. The cryptocurrency’s built-in algorithm triggered this correction following the coin’s significant price drop that month. Terra’s algorithm would "burn" (permanently destroying) LUNA so that it created something else instead: TerraUSD (UST), a stablecoin within the same blockchain. This automated system was meant to keep the price of UST level, potentially avoiding economic sentiment. Because of this initial promise of stability, Terra and its two coins initially played a significant role in crypto lending.

The poster child of algorithmic stablecoins

Up until May 2022, TerraUSD (UST) was the biggest stablecoin that functioned with an algorithm. At the end of April 2022, the market cap of TerraUSD – now TerraClassicUSD – was 800 times larger than what it was one month later, comparable in size to Binance USD. Algorithmic stablecoins are relatively new and, as most stablecoins, have an external asset as collateral. Several of the biggest stablecoins in the world, for example, are backed by real-world U.S. dollar assets, such as cash or securities. Others – such as DAI – rely on the backing of other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum (ETH). TerraUSD had little to no backing, relying on a closed ecosystem.

Reset or revival: The LUNA (2.0) aftermath Terra got reset on May 28, 2022: A new 2.0 coin released – taking over the Terra (LUNA) name - whilst the "original" crypto was abandoned and became Terra Classic (LUNC). TerraUSD (UST) remained but became TerraClassicUSD (USTC). Several of the 1.0 LUNA holders, however, hoped for a different solution, rather seeing the (1.0) coin’s supply be bought back by the company who issued them. The company would then burn them, hopefully restoring the price of the original LUNA. Do Kown, the CEO of the Terra system, stated his company did not have the funds for such a big undertaking. He instead shared a blockchain address on Twitter where individuals could burn their tokens themselves. By June 2022, roughly 1.12 LUNA tokens were destroyed that way – a burn rate of roughly 0.017 percent compared to the overall circulating supply.

Bitcoin dominance steadily declined in April 2024 to below 50 percent, amid rumors of central banks halting or potentially lowering interest rates in the future. Within the crypto world, this so-called "dominance" ratio is one of the oldest and most investigated metrics available. It measures the coin's market cap relative to the overall crypto market — effectively showing how strong Bitcoin compared to all the other cryptocurrencies that are not BTC, called "altcoins". Why dominance matters is because market caps of any crypto can change relatively quickly, either due to sudden price changes or a change of recorded trading volume. Essentially, the figure somewhat resembles a trading sentiment, revealing whether Bitcoin investors are responding to certain events or whether Bitcoin is losing out on functions offered by, for example, stablecoins or NFT tokens. "Dominance" criticism: Ethereum and stablecoin The interpretation of the Bitcoin metric is not without its criticism. When first conceived, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be created and had a substantial market share within all cryptocurrencies? The overall share of stablecoins, such as Tether, as well as Ethereum increasingly start to resemble that of Bitcoin, however. Some analysts argue against this comparison. For one, they point towards the large influence of trading activity between Bitcoin and Ethereum in the dominance metric. Second, they argue that stablecoins can be traded in for Bitcoin and Ethereum, essentially showing how much investors are willing to engage with "regular" cryptocurrency. A rally around Bitcoin in late 2023? By December 2023, the Bitcoin price reached roughly 41,000 U.S. dollars — the first time in 20 months such a value was reached. A weaker U.S. dollar, speculation on decreasing interest rates, and a potential Bitcoin ETF approval are believed to be at the heart of this price increase. Whether this will hold in 2024 is unclear: The monthly interest rate from the U.S. Fed is speculated to decrease in 2024, despite a vow of "higher for longer". In December 2023, the thought of decreasing interest rates and the potential of a Bitcoin ETF fuelled market sentiment towards riskier assets.

Bitcoin ranked as one of the most expensive cryptocurrencies existing by April 2024 - although values changed noticeably. Bitcoin had the most expensive cryptocurrency for a while, but Ethereum was significantly cheaper, with a price that was roughly 30 times less than that of the most well-known digital currency. However, Bitcoin is in a unique position. Ethereum is one of several cryptocurrencies, for instance, that come from blockchains that focus on making financial applications possible. Bitcoin, or a digital equivalent of gold When one categorizes the different types of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin stands out as it is one of the few that are essentially meant to store digital value. Some describe Bitcoin as a digital version of gold, purely designed to hold or possibly purchasing power over time. It has no other applications built around it, and is considered too slow to perform financial transactions. Stablecoins, the less volatile cryptocurrency Many coins in this ranking stand out as their price seemingly has not changed as much as others. This is because these are stablecoins - cryptocurrencies pegged to the price development of an external asset. This group of digital assets comprise an increasing share within the overall crypto market. Some see these coins as the future of retail payments, whereas others view these coins as a "safe" addition to their crypto investments.