The fiat-backed stablecoin market saw explosive growth from 2024 to 2025, surging over 76% and adding more than $97 billion in value to reach a record $224.9 billion. Yet, not all stablecoins benefited equally from the boom.
Market Leaders Dominate the Surge
The overwhelming majority of this growth was fueled by USDT (Tether) and USDC (Circle), which together now control 93.5% of the circulating fiat-backed stablecoin supply. Emerging entrants like USDtb by Ethena and USD0 by Usual are also gaining early momentum in the crypto-native ecosystem.
PayPal’s PYUSD and SocGen’s EURCV Struggle for Relevance
Despite their traditional finance (TradFi) backing and regulatory alignment, PayPal’s PYUSD and Societe Generale’s EURCV have failed to capture meaningful market share. According to a recent CoinGecko report, these stablecoins continue to lag in adoption and utility, highlighting the challenges faced by TradFi institutions entering a space dominated by decentralized-first players.
Their performance—or lack thereof—underscores the reality that brand recognition and regulatory compliance alone are not enough to compete with the entrenched dominance of crypto-native incumbents. Still, with the U.S. inching closer to comprehensive stablecoin regulation, the door remains open for future TradFi innovations.
Commodity-Backed Tokens: Growth, But Still Niche
While fiat-backed stablecoins boomed, commodity-backed tokens also saw notable gains, rising 67.8% in market cap to reach $1.9 billion. Much of this growth mirrored the rally in gold prices, as investors sought hedges against macroeconomic and geopolitical instability.
Leaders like Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG) make up 84% of the category’s total market cap. However, the surge was driven more by asset appreciation than increased demand, with token issuance staying flat—indicating muted user growth despite bullish conditions.
Tokenized Treasuries Steal the Spotlight
The real breakout in the real-world asset (RWA) space came from tokenized treasuries. By April 2025, the market hit an all-time high of $5.6 billion, marking a staggering 544.8% year-over-year increase.
The rally intensified after the U.S. introduced sweeping trade tariffs in March 2025, prompting a flight to safer digital assets. Within one month, tokenized treasuries grew by $2.3 billion (67.1%).
Leading the charge is BlackRock’s BUIDL token, which now represents 44% of the entire tokenized treasury market, soaring to $2.5 billion in value by April. Though adoption is still concentrated—with just over 11,000 active wallet addresses—Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain for issuance, followed by Stellar.
