Donald Trump’s administration has made its support for stablecoins explicit, and the two largest, USDC issued by Circle and USDT issued by Tether, have seen their market capitalizations increase.
In absolute terms, USDT has seen a larger increase, growing from approximately $138 billion to around $183 billion. This compares favorably to USDC, which has grown from approximately $48 billion to $76 billion.
However, if we instead compare their relative increase, USDC takes a large lead.
Read more: Circle vs. Tether: What’s in the reserves?
Indeed, when we make that comparison, we see that USDC has grown its market capitalization by approximately 59% during this second Trump administration. This is much more than USDT’s 32.5%.
Trump’s administration signed a new stablecoin regulation bill — the GENIUS Act — into law during this term. It’s meant to limit the ability for offshore stablecoin issuers like Tether, which is headquartered in El Salvador, to do business in the United States.
Circle seemed poised to benefit from these limitations since it was based within the United States.
Since then, Tether has announced that it intends to launch a US-based version of its stablecoin, which will be led by Bo Hines.
Hines served as the executive director of Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets before leaving the administration and accepting this new role with Tether.
Additionally, Tether primarily relies on Cantor Fitzgerald as the custodian for its reserves, a firm that was founded by Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.
Tether is also an important donor for the recent destruction of the White House East Wing and the promised construction of Trump’s new ballroom. Coinbase, which owns a substantial stake in Circle, is also a donor to this project.