JPMorgan Chase: USDC's on-chain growth surpasses USDT; institutional adoption and regulatory compliance are key.

JPMorgan analysts say Circle's USDC stablecoin has surpassed Tether's USDT in terms of on-chain activity and market capitalization growth. Since January of this year, USDC's market capitalization has increased from approximately $43 billion to approximately $74 billion, a 72% increase, significantly higher than USDT's 32% growth during the same period. Analysts point out that USDC's growth is attributed to a clearer regulatory framework, transparent reserve management, regular audits, and compliance advantages under the European MiCA regulations, along with increasing institutional adoption. In contrast, USDT, which is not MiCA authorized, has faced delisting from exchanges in Europe, while USDC has driven on-chain settlements and merchant payments through integration with payment networks such as Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. Furthermore, increased decentralized finance activity on blockchains such as Solana and Base, and Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) supporting secure cross-chain transfers, have also contributed to its growth.