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What next for crypto market as stablecoin MC hits $315B ATH?

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What next for crypto market as stablecoin MC hits $315B ATH?

The crypto market has yet to react even as stablecoin supply reaches a new milestone.

Summary

  • Stablecoin market cap surpassed $315 billion, reaching a new all-time high.
  • Crypto market remains range-bound as stablecoin flows to exchanges stay weak.
  • Analysts say growing stablecoin liquidity could fuel a future rally if inflows return.

Data from DeFiLlama shows the total market capitalization of stablecoins has surpassed $315 billion, setting a new all-time high. The figure increased by about $2.48 billion, or 0.79%, over the past seven days, highlighting steady growth in on-chain liquidity.

Among the largest issuers, Tether (USDT) leads with a market cap of $183.93 billion, representing about 58% of the sector. USD Coin (USDC) follows with roughly $78.8 billion, while USDS holds close to $8 billion.

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Historically, such expansion has often preceded rallies across the crypto market. Stablecoins usually function as liquidity waiting to be deployed, giving traders a way to move capital quickly into assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or decentralized finance protocols.

During the 2020–2021 bull cycle, stablecoin supply grew from around $20 billion to more than $120 billion. That growth came shortly before Bitcoin surged from roughly $10,000 to nearly $69,000.

A similar trend appeared during the 2024–2025 recovery, when rising stablecoin issuance led to renewed demand across digital assets.

Stablecoin supply rises, but trading demand stays muted

Despite the record supply, the broader crypto market has remained relatively quiet.

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Exchange flow data shows that stablecoins have not been moving into trading platforms in large numbers. On the contrary, some exchanges have recorded consistent outflows this year.

For example, Binance has reportedly seen around $2 billion in monthly stablecoin outflows, while Bitfinex has recorded roughly $336 million leaving the platform.

This pattern suggests that new stablecoin liquidity is not immediately being used for speculative trading. As a result, prices across major cryptocurrencies have remained range-bound, with Bitcoin hovering near the $70,000 level in recent weeks.

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Why stablecoins may be bypassing the crypto market

One explanation is that stablecoins are no longer used only as trading tools. Their role in the digital economy has expanded significantly.

Today, stablecoins are widely used for cross-border payments, remittances, and online settlements. For many users in emerging markets, they also serve as a practical alternative to volatile local currencies.

Major payment and crypto firms are also building infrastructure around these assets. Companies such as Circle and Stripe have explored systems that allow stablecoins to support new financial services, including automated payments and tokenized assets.

Because of this shift, a growing share of stablecoin activity now occurs outside traditional crypto trading. Liquidity may still be entering the ecosystem, but it is not immediately flowing into exchanges or spot markets.

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For the crypto market, that leaves a mixed outlook. In the short term, prices could continue to move sideways as traders wait for stronger inflows.

Over a longer horizon, however, the expanding stablecoin supply may still provide the foundation for the next major rally, if that liquidity eventually returns to crypto markets.

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Crypto World

Altura Launches Onchain Gold Arbitrage Vault for Retail Users

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Altura Launches Onchain Gold Arbitrage Vault for Retail Users

Altura, a decentralized finance protocol founded by former Fidelity and PwC staff is launching an onchain gold arbitrage strategy aimed at retail investors, targeting 20% annualized returns, according to a Thursday release shared with Cointelegraph.

According to Altura, the product pools user deposits into a vault that recycles capital through short-duration physical gold trades. Unlike platforms like Robinhood or Revolut that offer passive gold price exposure, Altura claims to be tokenizing the underlying arbitrage process itself.

The company says it has raised $4 million in funding and has already facilitated the movement of about 185 kilograms of gold, representing roughly $28.5 million in cumulative transaction volume, per the release. 

Matthew Pinnock, co-founder and chief operating officer of Altura, told Cointelegraph the goal is to “bring an institutional-style gold strategy onchain in a way that retail investors can actually access.”

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The launch comes as spot gold trades near record levels after surging to an all-time high above $5,300 an ounce in January, though it has since pulled back sharply. Altura’s launch points to a new phase in tokenized real-world assets, where projects are no longer just offering passive exposure to commodities but are trying to package institutional trading strategies as onchain DeFi yield products for retail users.

A strategy typically reserved for institutional traders

Pinnock said Altura’s “revenue-generating trading strategy” was historically used by institutional commodities desks, and that high capital requirements, legal complexity and counterparty risk in traditional bullion arbitrage have effectively kept smaller investors out of this type of trade.

Gold price over the last 12 months. Source: Trading Economics

Gold purchased on behalf of Altura by its trading partner Inessa is tokenized at acquisition, Pinnock said, with those tokens escrowed through each trade and custody transitions recorded via dual cryptographic signatures. Depositors do not hold direct title to bullion but gain exposure to returns generated by the trade flow, he added.

Altura’s setup depends on a network of offchain actors. The company says it is working with Aurellion Labs and Inessa, which in turn partners with air-cargo specialist Zeal Global, to execute and verify trades.

Related: Gold hits record high over $5K, further diverging from Bitcoin

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On the targeted 20% yields, Pinnock said the strategy is structured to be “close to delta-neutral,” with trade terms agreed before logistics execution begins so that returns come from price discrepancies between counterparties rather than directional bets on the gold price.

Each arbitrage cycle typically completes within one to two days, allowing capital to be recycled multiple times and limiting exposure to spot moves, he said, while acknowledging that yields would compress if pricing inefficiencies narrow.

Related: Tokenized gold drives weekend price signals while CME futures are closed

Rising interest in real-world yields

The launch comes amid rising interest in “real-world” DeFi yields, as tokenized asset and RWA protocols grew to roughly $17 billion in total value locked in December 2025, according to DefiLlama data.

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However, a joint report by RWA.io and Veritas Protocol in that same month found that losses from onchain operational failures in tokenized RWA markets rose to $14.6 million in the first half of 2025, a 143% increase from the previous year, highlighting how complex offchain structures can still translate into user losses.

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