Stablecoin Fragmentation: Why New Coins Can't Compete

The stablecoin market is vast, with over $308 billion in total capitalization and USDT dominating at around 59.64%.

This concentration of order flow leads to fragmentation when new coins are created, as they struggle to achieve meaningful fills without bribes or bespoke market maker deals.

Cross-chain presence can complicate matters further, with the likes of USDT existing on around 130 networks, resulting in many shallow pools and a zoo of wrapped variants.

Liquidity demand can also detach from circulating supply, as seen with USDC grabbing around 12.5% of total crypto trading volume in Q2 2026 despite its supply falling to roughly $73.5 billion.