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Ease after the plungeThe cryptocurrency market has been tested following a barrage of negative headlines over the past few weeks. The plunge in the price of cryptocurrencies is also a big test for stablecoins,
Stablecoins are increasingly becoming an important part of the ecosystem.
On May 19, a liquidation-induced flash crash sent the price of Bitcoin down to nearly $30,000 in a matter of hours. As prices drop, investors often rush to trade their crypto assets into Tether (USDT), USDC, DAI, and other stablecoins. At the same time, a liquidation event triggered by a price drop can lead to the sale of stablecoins used as collateral. This sudden shift in supply and demand has the potential to disrupt the stablecoin’s price from its $1 peg and threaten its stability.Overall, stablecoins have weathered the storm relatively well.Stablecoin Prices Soar Temporarily After Flash Crash
USDT is often used to trade against BTC, ETH, and other crypto assets, which probably accounts for the bulk of the volume. Unsurprisingly, the number of stablecoin transactions also peaked on May 19 at over 1.5 million. Most of these transactions are due to Tron's version of Tether (USDT_TRX). Compared to Ethereum and Bitcoin, Tron has the lowest transaction fees, making it an option for use cases such as sending relatively small transactions, or moving funds between exchanges. However, despite USDT_TRX leading the way in terms of transaction volume and supply, Ethereum’s version of Tether (USDT_ETH) still has more transferred value over the past few weeks, suggesting that Ethereum and Tron’s version of Tether have different usage cases. Overall,Overall,Tether remains the leader in terms of total stablecoin supply. But others are also growing fast. Since May 12, the supply of USDC has increased by more than 6 billion to a total of more than 20 billion.But if the current trend holds, USDC may soon catch up. network data network data summary indicatorsthis past week,The prices of both BTC and ETH have dropped significantly, by 35.2% and 68.3% respectively. Amid market volatility, USDC continued to rise, with total supply increasing by 17.8% week-on-week, totaling more than 21 billion. network highlights network highlights On May 19, the value of Wrapped BTC (WBTC) on-chain transfers soared to $2.9 billion and has since averaged more than $1 billion per day. The chart below shows WBTC transfer value smoothed using a 7-day rolling average.The supply of WBTC has grown to over 181,000 after dropping to around 108,000 at the start of the year. Widely used in DeFi, This may indicate that WBTC is becoming an increasingly important part of the DeFi ecosystem.In contrast, the stablecoin’s price surged above $1.05 during the crash in March 2020, and the price remained at the high in the days since. While DAI rallied well above its $1 price target during March 2020, it has held closer to its anchor this time around thanks to some improvements in MakerDAO.May 19 was also a record day for stablecoin trading volumes. Tether (USDT) alone has more than $70 billion in trading volume, more than both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).