The total capitalization of stablecoins has exceeded $240 billion for the first time in the history of the crypto market. Tokens, whose exchange rate is pegged to the US dollar, continue to dominate in this niche, but market participants see the possibility of increased competition from assets other than the US currency.

More than $210 billion of capitalization, or almost 90% of the market, is accounted for by two stablecoins — Tether's USDT (almost $149 billion) and Circle's USDC (more than $62 billion). But even the former head of Tether, Reeve Collins, points out that the dominance of dollar-denominated stablecoins can be disrupted in certain circumstances.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrency tokens whose exchange rate is linked to an asset, such as a dollar, euro, or an ounce of gold. Companies use securities, national currencies, or other traditional or crypto assets to ensure that the exchange rate is linked to the underlying asset.

The largest capitalization among non-dollar tokens is the gold-backed XAUT from Tether or EURC from Circle, pegged to the euro exchange rate. Collins admits that with the further development of tokenization, new "stable" tokens with exchange rates linked to other assets or currencies may partially shake the position of dollar ones.

Separately, Collins highlighted the role of the initiative to launch the USD1 dollar stablecoin by World Liberty Financial, supported by the sons of US President Donald Trump. In March, the WLF team announced the launch and plans for the initial release of a token on the Ethereum and BNB Chain blockchains from the Binance exchange with plans for expansion in the future.

In the documents on the website of the World Liberty Financial project, Donald Trump is listed as the "main defender of cryptocurrencies." His sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are "web3 ambassadors," and Barron holds the title of "DeFi visionary." It also states that none of the members of the Trump family, other affiliated persons and employees of organizations is an official, director, founder, employee or operator of World Liberty Financial.

Finally, European regulators openly talk about the danger of the spread of dollar-denominated stablecoins and their introduction into the US legal field as a global threat. For example, Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said that the new US policy on stablecoins poses a greater threat to Europe than trade duties, and the ECB called it a threat to weaken European control over financial flows.

Exporting the dollar

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an interview with CNBC that the company sees its role as a way to maintain the global presence of the dollar in places where the United States is poorly represented institutionally.

According to him, there is almost no US infrastructure in Africa and Latin America, "except maybe McDonald's," while other powers, in particular China, are actively promoting alternative currencies.

"We are just exporting what we consider to be the best product ever created by the United States, the dollar," Ardoino said.

USDT is the flagship product of Tether. The USDT token is linked to the dollar exchange rate by a reserve consisting mainly of cash and equivalent assets, such as US government bonds.

After Trump's victory in the US presidential election at the end of 2024, accusations against Tether ceased, even regarding the lack of reserves to link the USDT exchange rate to the dollar. Although before that, the company had been heavily criticized for many years, including for using USDT for criminal purposes.

If the dollar falls..., the lack of reserves to link the USDT exchange rate to the dollar will trigger a sharp collapse of the USDT! Everything will follow the same scenario as from the collapse of terra LUNA. When the stablecoin's exchange rate got loose and the token went down sharply! If USDT gets loose, it will cause a major collapse in the entire crypto market! This will happen because all cryptocurrencies are traded through this stablecoin!

Ardoino stressed that Tether is in demand in countries with high inflation and weak banking systems. Against this background, in his opinion, the USDT stablecoin can become a tool for strengthening dollar dominance, especially when such blocks as the BRICS are "trying to displace the dollar."

Other currencies

The list of stable tokens based on other national currencies is already expanding. There are assets based on the euro, yuan, Brazilian real, Turkish lira and other currencies. The same Circle (the issuer of the USDC) has received approval from the Abu Dhabi regulatory authority to launch a local version of the stablecoin, targeting the Middle East. The UAE also announced a dirham-linked stablecoin regulated by the Central Bank.

Russia is also no exception in the search for options to launch a stablecoin pegged to the ruble exchange rate. At the recent Blockchain Forum 2025 crypto conference in Moscow as part of the panel session "Cryptocurrency Geopolitics: how Russia and the world are shaping the trend in the field of digital assets," among other things, the possibility of launching a ruble token was discussed.

In the same place, Olga Goncharova, head of the Expert Center on Digital Financial Assets and Digital Currencies of the Association of Banks of Russia, expressed the opinion that it is necessary to look for "ways to import substitution of USDT."

"We really need to look for ways to import [stablecoin] USDT. It's a very good slogan, we need to take note of it. <...> But let's find them in a balanced and realistic way," Goncharova said from the stage.

The Russian Ministry of Finance openly says that it allows the possibility of using stablecoins under the experimental legal regime (EPR), as Osman Kabaloev, deputy director of the Financial Policy Department of the department, said at the same panel session of the Blockchain Forum 2025.

However, launching a particular stablecoin that is needed on the market is not such a trivial task.

The main problem

For many years, dollar-backed stablecoins have been acting as the main source of liquidity on all types of crypto exchanges, as well as on the crypto lending markets. Mikhail Egorov, the founder of Curve Finance, one of the leaders in the decentralized finance market, considers the lack of liquidity to be the main problem for the development of the non-dollar token market.

"This is not just a matter of preference — it is a more fundamental issue that is of an economic nature," he said in a comment, adding that market participants simply do not see an economic incentive to use stable tokens pegged not to the dollar.

Curve Finance is one of the largest decentralized trading platforms on the market for the exchange of stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies, whose price usually differs little from each other. The volume of user deposits on it exceeds $2 billion.

Despite active discussions about the prospects of stablecoins in the field of retail payments, cross-border transfers or international trade, their main use is still related to turnover within the crypto market. The remaining application scenarios remain niche for now, primarily due to limited infrastructure and lack of sustained demand outside the crypto ecosystem.

"Regulation cannot solve the more fundamental problem of liquidity. Without this, no regulatory framework can make a stablecoin viable enough for widespread use," Egorov said. If there are economic incentives, then the adoption of non-dollar stablecoins will follow naturally, he believes.