What were prices doing while stablecoin supply moved?
Consumer price inflation is the variable US monetary policy is set against, and this page plots it beside stablecoin supply on one time axis. The index stands at 334.1 as of Aug 2026, +3.4% year over year, which places it elevated, 3–5% year over year, against stablecoin supply of $303.0B.
CPI is held as the constant macro signal on this page; the stablecoin indicator it is compared against is selectable from six choices. Inflation is the variable the Federal Reserve sets policy against, so it is the backdrop to the rate environment stablecoins are held in — the rates and real-rates pages carry that channel directly. Notable episodes: the June 2022 peak at 9.0%, the highest reading since 1981, which accompanied the fastest hike cycle since the 1980s and the stablecoin supply contraction from $180B to $125B; and the “last mile” disinflation of 2023 to 2024, which proved sticky around 3%. The IMF[1] discusses inflation as one channel that can affect stablecoin demand, particularly through currency substitution in high-inflation jurisdictions; this page measures no such channel.
The four periods below describe how stablecoin supply moved through each phase; supply and its 30-day change are the two comparisons that reach back far enough to show them. Switching to velocity, dominance or issuer concentration narrows the chart to Apr 2025 onward, and these descriptions no longer match what is drawn.
Year-over-year readings begin here: the series starts in 2020 and a rate of change needs twelve months behind it. Inflation was subdued and the Fed held rates near zero. Stablecoin supply grew from about $6B to about $35B over the same period.
Supply shocks, fiscal support and energy prices carried CPI to its highest reading since 1981. The Fed then raised rates 525bp in sixteen months. Stablecoin supply peaked near $180B in this window.
Inflation fell back from its peak as the hikes worked through. The last stretch toward 2% proved sticky. Stablecoin supply contracted to about $125B during 2023 before recovering through 2024.
The Fed began cutting rates in September 2024. Year-over-year CPI has risen since, from +2.4% to +3.4%, which the boundaries below place as elevated, 3–5% year over year. Stablecoin supply stands at $303.0B. Whether the two are related is not something this page establishes.
The series. CPIAUCSL, the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, published monthly by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each monthly reading is carried forward across the days that follow it, so the line steps at each release rather than sloping between them.
Seasonally adjusted, and why the peak reads 9.0%. The figure most often quoted for June 2022 is 9.1%, which is the NON-seasonally-adjusted year-over-year rate. This page draws the seasonally adjusted series, which peaks at 9.0% in Jun 2022. Both describe the same episode on different measures; the page states what it draws. That it was the highest reading since 1981 is true of both.
Why this page is dated earlier than its neighbors. CPI is a monthly release and publishes with a lag, so the most recent reading here is Aug 2026 while the daily series on the other macro pages run to within a few days of today. That is the release schedule rather than a stale feed.
Year-over-year and month-over-month. Year-over-year compares each reading with the one twelve months earlier, so the first twelve months of the series have no value. Month-over-month compares consecutive monthly readings and is the more volatile of the two.
The inflation labels. The reading beside the year-over-year rate is placed by boundaries at 0%, 2%, 3% and 5%. The 2% figure is the Federal Reserve’s stated target; the others are Stablecoin Beat’s own. A label states where the current reading falls in a range we have divided, not whether the level is desirable. These are the only bands on this page: earlier versions classified the same reading three different ways at once.
Comparison series and their spans. Each comparison is computed over its own full history before any window is applied.
Which compilation each figure comes from. Supply and its 30-day change are drawn on the chart from a daily supply series compiled on the same universe definition as the platform’s headline figure, so it can differ from the headline total by a fraction of a percent — two compilations of the same base concept, reconciled daily. Every current-day figure shown as text on this page is the headline figure, not the chart series’ last value.
What this page does not prove. Co-movement between inflation and any comparison series is not causation, and this page measures no channel between them. Inflation is the backdrop to monetary policy; the rates and real-rates pages carry the rate channel directly.
Updated with each monthly CPI release. See the methodology for data sources and coverage.
Inflation is the variable the Federal Reserve sets policy against, so it is the backdrop to the rate environment stablecoins are held in. This page plots the two on one axis; it does not measure a channel between them, and the direction of any relationship is not something the chart establishes.
CPIAUCSL, the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, published monthly by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The index reads 334.1 and its year-over-year change +3.4% as of Aug 2026.
The seasonally adjusted series peaks at 9.0% in Jun 2022. The widely quoted 9.1% figure for that month is the NON-seasonally-adjusted rate, which is a different measure of the same episode. This page states what it draws.
CPI is a monthly release and publishes with a lag, so the most recent reading here is Aug 2026 while the daily series on the other macro pages run to within a few days of today. That is the release schedule, not a stale feed.
Each monthly reading is carried forward across the days that follow it, so the line is flat within a month and steps at each release.
Supply and its 30-day change are compiled from a daily series beginning Nov 2017, so they cover every period this page describes. Velocity, USDT and USDC dominance and the Issuer Theil Index begin Apr 2025, because each needs per-coin volume, per-coin share or an issuer mapping that the deep supply compilation does not carry.
Selecting one of those four narrows the chart to the current period.
A year-over-year rate needs twelve months behind it before it has a first value, and the index series begins in 2020. The growth panel therefore starts a year after the level panel, and no year-over-year figure is quoted for early 2020.
They are Stablecoin Beat’s own boundaries, at 0%, 2%, 3% and 5% year-over-year. The 2% figure is the Federal Reserve’s stated target; the others are ours. A label states where the current reading falls in a range we have divided; it does not say whether the level is desirable.