# Stablecoin

Also written stable coin, payment stablecoin.

*https://cryptomarkets.tools/glossary/stablecoin · next to On-chain Analytics Platforms*

**Definition:** A token designed to hold a fixed value against a currency, usually one US dollar. In data it plays three parts: an asset whose supply and transfers are measured chain by chain, the quote currency most crypto prices are actually set in, and the collateral most perpetuals settle in. Which tokens count as one is a list each vendor draws for itself.

Eighteen cards in this catalogue carry `stablecoins` in their asset classes, fourteen of them in
on-chain analytics. The flag says the vendor covers stablecoin data. It does not say which tokens
the vendor calls stablecoins, or which of the three quantities below it measures.

## How it works

**The legal term is narrower than the data term.** The US GENIUS Act, signed on 18 July 2025,
defines a "payment stablecoin" as a digital asset used or designed to be used "as a means of
payment or settlement", whose issuer "is obligated to convert, redeem, or repurchase for a fixed
amount of monetary value" and represents that it will keep a stable value against that amount. It
excludes national currencies, bank deposits and securities, and it bars permitted issuers from
paying holders "any form of interest or yield" for simply holding the token. A dollar-tracking
token with no issuer obliged to redeem it does not meet that definition. Data
vendors do not use the statutory test. Their lists are editorial, and they differ at the edges.

**Supply is counted per chain, and chains overlap.** DefiLlama defines stablecoin market cap as
circulating supply, "excluding burned and non-issued tokens", times price, tracked per chain, and a
chain's total as the sum of every stablecoin issued or bridged onto it. A token minted on one
chain and bridged to four others appears on five chain rows, so a grand total built by adding
chain rows includes each bridged copy as well as the tokens locked behind it. [Reconciling supply and market
cap](https://cryptomarkets.tools/how-to/reconcile-supply-and-market-cap) works through the arithmetic.

**Transfer volume is a definition, not a reading.** Gross transfers, transfers net of mints and
burns, and transfers with exchange-internal movements and MEV removed are three numbers
for one token on one day. As our [Artemis](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/artemis) card records, that vendor moved its stablecoin transfer volume
from the third kind to the second in July 2026 and kept the API field names, so a chart crossing
that month joins two measurements.

## Why it matters here

**A "USD" price is often a USDT price, converted.** Crypto spot markets are quoted in stablecoins
as well as in dollars, so an aggregated dollar price has to decide what to do with the stablecoin
markets. CoinGecko's BTC-USD reference is "the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of
selected BTC/USD, BTC/USDT, BTC/USDC, or BTC/EUR tickers", with the USDT and USDC tickers "first
converted to USD using a USD_ONRAMP_INDEX". The result is labelled USD and is partly built from
markets where no dollar changed hands. A vendor that treats one USDT as one dollar and a vendor
that converts at the stablecoin's own market price give the same answer — until the stablecoin
trades away from its peg, which is exactly when the difference matters. [Where the bitcoin price
comes from](https://cryptomarkets.tools/guides/where-the-bitcoin-price-comes-from) compares two published approaches.

**Stablecoin-margined and coin-margined are different contracts.** A perpetual margined and settled
in a stablecoin pays profit and loss in that token; a coin-margined one pays in the underlying
coin. Open interest and funding on the two do not add without a conversion, and
[CoinGlass](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinglass) and [Coinalyze](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinalyze) report them separately for that
reason. See [open interest](https://cryptomarkets.tools/glossary/open-interest).

**A stablecoin dashboard measures supply, not demand.** [DefiLlama](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/defillama),
[Artemis](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/artemis), [Token Terminal](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/token-terminal),
[growthepie](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/growthepie) and [Messari](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/messari) all chart stablecoin supply, and
supply rises when an issuer mints and falls when it redeems. Where the tokens then sit — an
exchange wallet, a lending pool, a bridge contract — is a separate query, and on-chain it is answered
from transfer tables on a platform such as [Dune](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dune) or [Allium](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/allium). Naming whose
wallet is whose needs a label set, which Allium sells and Dune's card says it does not supply.

**Check the list before comparing totals.** Two vendors' "total stablecoin supply" can differ by
whichever tokens one includes and the other does not — yield-bearing dollar tokens, synthetic
dollars backed by hedged positions, euro and gold tokens, and small tokens below a listing
threshold. Messari's card states coverage of thirty-plus stablecoins. Ask for the list, and
whether it is fixed or grows as tokens are added, before reading a trend across two sources.

**The peg is a claim, and the chart shows the market's view of it.** A stablecoin's own price
series is a price like any other, quoted on the same venues. A data vendor that hardcodes it at
1.00 has removed the one signal that tells you whether the conversions above still hold.

## Where you will meet this

- [DefiLlama](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/defillama.md)
- [Artemis](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/artemis.md)
- [Token Terminal](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/token-terminal.md)
- [Allium](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/allium.md)
- [Dune](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/dune.md)
- [Messari](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/messari.md)
- [CoinGecko API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coingecko-api.md)
- [CoinGlass API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinglass.md)
- [Amberdata Market Data API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/amberdata.md)
- [Arkham](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/arkham.md)
- [Bitquery](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/bitquery.md)
- [Coin Metrics](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coin-metrics.md)

## Sources

1. [Public Law 119-27, the GENIUS Act — section 2(22), definition of payment stablecoin](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ27/html/PLAW-119publ27.htm) — US Government Publishing Office, 2025-07-18
2. [Data Definitions — stablecoin market cap](https://docs.llama.fi/analysts/data-definitions) — DefiLlama, read 2026-09-27
3. [Methodology — price and BTC-USD reference](https://www.coingecko.com/en/methodology) — CoinGecko, read 2026-09-27

*Last updated 2026-09-27. A reference page, corrected in place — not a dated post.*