The stablecoin market runs on two rails: Tether's
USDT at ~$140B and Circle's USDC at ~$74B. Circle just made a move to close that gap.Binance put $100 million into Circle and signed a five-year distribution deal. Since their first partnership in late 2024, USDC spot markets on Binance nearly tripled — 140 to 329 — and monthly volume doubled to a steady $80B+. Kaiko puts daily USDC flow on Binance at $5–10B, 10–20x more than most other venues.
Tether's real moat, though, is inertia: years of deep local liquidity and the simple fact that people are already used to it. As CoinDesk notes, distribution alone won't change that overnight.
The race is on. The finish line is further than it looks.