Tether market cap nears $70B as SEC crypto crackdown hurts stablecoin rivals

cointelegraph.com:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to sue Paxos for issuing and listing stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD) to the benefit of its top-rival stablecoin Tether (USDT), whose market capitalization has risen to multi-month highs. 

The SEC asserts that BUSD, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, is a security, noting that Paxos has violated investor protection laws by white-labeling it.

Related: Paxos ‘categorically disagrees’ with the SEC that BUSD is a security

Since Feb. 13 when the news broke, the BUSD market cap has lost roughly $2 billion, down to around $14 billion as of Feb. 16 — the lowest since January 2022. 

As Cointelegraph reported, Binance has seen its withdrawals and BUSD redemptions surge post-Paxos crackdown.

At the same time, USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, has also witnessed capital outflows in reaction to the SEC crackdown news. Its supply decreased from $41.29 billion on Feb. 12 to as low as $40.99 billion on Feb. 14.

However, this figure rebounded to $41.30 billion on Feb. 15 after Circle clarified that it had not received any lawsuit threat from the SEC.

.@circle has not received a Wells notice. https://t.co/lE74zHVLka

Despite recent inflows, however, USDC's market cap remains in a general downtrend since its June 2022 peak of $56 billion — a 25% decline over the past eight months.

The regulatory crackdown on U.S.-based stablecoin firms has been a boon for top-stablecoin Tether, whose market cap has jumped over $69 billion.

69B

Nearly $890 million of inflows since Feb. 12 has pushed Tether's market dominance to 51.25% as of Feb. 15, data shows.

The jump likely suggests that investors were spooked by the crackdown on BUSD and sought safety in Tether USDT.