Stablecoins Shed $15 Billion Amid New Rules

Stablecoin supply shed $15 billion since May, marking its biggest drop since Terra's collapse in 2022. This decline was largely due to new federal rules that eliminated interest payments on digital dollars, causing investors to seek alternative assets.

The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, prohibited licensed issuers from paying interest or yield tied to holding or using their tokens. This shift led many investors to move into tokenized U.S. Treasury and money-market products, which grew to over $17 billion by late July.

The largest stablecoins, Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, accounted for most of the decline, with USDT falling from around $189 billion in early May to about $183.216 billion by August 2. USDC dropped from a March peak near $80 billion to around $72.069 billion over the same period.

Despite this pullback, record transaction volume on stablecoin networks hit a high of $1.8 trillion in June, up roughly 63% from the previous month. Adjusted transaction volume reached about $1.3 trillion across 214.1 million transactions, highlighting their growing role in digital payments.