The dollar-pegged crypto market expanded again over the latest seven-day period, pushing the total stablecoin sector above $317.134 billion as of April 4, 2026. According to data cited in the source report, the segment added roughly $1.242 billion in net inflows during the week, underscoring continued demand for onchain dollar liquidity even as performance varied among the largest issuers.
The latest figures show that stablecoins remain one of the most resilient and systemically important parts of the digital asset economy. They are increasingly used not only as trading pairs and collateral, but also as settlement instruments across exchanges, decentralized finance protocols, and cross-border blockchain transactions. While the sector’s overall growth was moderate, the weekly breakdown reveals a market still dominated by a small number of giants, alongside a handful of tokens posting standout gains.
Tether Keeps Its Lead While USDC Slips
Tether’s USDT continued to hold the top position by a wide margin. Its market capitalization stood at approximately $184.076 billion, giving it a 58.04% share of the total stablecoin market. On a week-over-week basis, USDT posted a slight increase of 0.03%, suggesting relatively stable conditions with only minor net changes in circulating supply.
The report also noted that Tether recently announced plans to undergo a full financial audit. That development could draw additional attention from both market participants and regulators, given Tether’s central role in crypto trading and liquidity provision. Even though the article does not provide further details on timing or scope, the announcement is notable because transparency around reserves has long been one of the most closely watched issues in the stablecoin space.
In second place, Circle’s USDC reached a market capitalization of about $77.42 billion. Unlike USDT, however, USDC recorded a 0.39% decline over the week. According to the source material, that drop translated into more than $304 million in outflows, making USDC the weakest performer by percentage change among the top ten stablecoins during the same period.
Sky’s USDS Emerges as the Week’s Top Performer
The most notable mover among major stablecoins was Sky’s USDS. Ranked third by market capitalization, USDS rose about 9.57% over the past week and reached a total valuation of $8.924 billion. The token added more than $779 million in inflows, making it the strongest weekly gainer among the top ten stablecoins tracked in the report.
That performance stands out in a market where weekly changes are often relatively muted, especially among larger assets. USDS’s sharp increase suggests a meaningful shift in user or protocol demand over the period, even though the underlying reasons for that growth were not detailed in the source article. What is clear from the numbers is that USDS contributed materially to the sector’s overall expansion for the week.
Elsewhere in the rankings, Ethena’s USDe held fourth place with a market capitalization of $5.888 billion, but posted a modest weekly decline of 0.26%. Sky’s DAI rounded out the top five with a market value of $4.691 billion and a weekly gain of 2.99%. Taken together, these figures show that even inside the upper tier of the stablecoin market, momentum is far from uniform.
Top Five Stablecoins Dominate the Sector
Despite variations in weekly inflows and outflows, the market remains highly concentrated. The five largest stablecoins — USDT, USDC, USDS, USDe, and DAI — collectively account for around 87.1% of the entire $317.134 billion sector, according to the source report. That concentration highlights how strongly the stablecoin ecosystem still depends on a small set of issuers and designs.
This concentration can be interpreted in two ways. On one hand, it reflects market preference for established and liquid instruments, particularly those deeply integrated across centralized and decentralized crypto infrastructure. On the other hand, it means shifts in just one or two major stablecoins can have an outsized impact on the broader market’s size, trading activity, and perceived health.
USDT’s continued dominance remains especially significant. With a market share above 58%, Tether still serves as the core liquidity rail for much of the global crypto market. USDC remains a major institutional and exchange-linked alternative, while newer or structurally differentiated products such as USDS and USDe are increasingly competing for share within the remaining segment.
Transfer Activity Shows Stablecoins’ Utility Beyond Market Cap
Market capitalization is only one measure of the stablecoin sector’s importance. The article also cited data from Crystalintelligence showing that stablecoins generated about $1.96 trillion in gross transfer volume over the last week. Of that amount, approximately $508 billion was classified as authentic settlement volume.
That distinction matters because gross transfer volume can include activity such as internal movements, exchange reshuffling, or repetitive onchain transfers that do not necessarily reflect final economic usage. Authentic settlement volume, by contrast, aims to capture the subset of transfers tied more directly to real value movement and transactional demand. Even by that stricter measure, the scale remains substantial.
The $508 billion figure reinforces the idea that stablecoins are functioning as practical settlement infrastructure, not merely passive stores of liquidity. Their use extends across trading venues, treasury management, blockchain-based payments, decentralized finance, and other forms of digital settlement that depend on low-volatility assets.
Steady Expansion, Selective Rotation
Overall, the latest weekly snapshot points to a stablecoin market that is still growing, but in a selective way. Aggregate inflows remain positive, the total market cap has crossed another symbolic threshold, and transaction volumes continue to signal heavy usage. At the same time, capital is not flowing evenly across all major issuers.
USDT is still the anchor of the sector, but it is expanding only marginally. USDC saw modest outflows during the week. USDS, in contrast, captured the strongest growth among leading stablecoins, while DAI also posted a solid gain. USDe experienced a slight contraction, illustrating the mixed nature of capital allocation even as the broader category trends upward.
Based on the reported data, the current picture is one of steady expansion led by dominant incumbents, with occasional bursts of growth from smaller but increasingly relevant challengers. As stablecoins continue to play a larger role in crypto market structure and blockchain-based settlement, weekly shifts in supply and usage among the largest names are likely to remain a key indicator for traders, investors, and policymakers alike.