July 2026 Stablecoin Market Report

News & Developments

July’s stablecoin news was led by policy and licensing, as Taiwan passed crypto and stablecoin regulations, EU officials were reported to be preparing MiCA revisions for non-EU stablecoin issuers, and Circle won final approval for a US national trust bank charter. Large institutions also moved further into issuance and payments, with Crédit Agricole launching a euro stablecoin, Sony Bank receiving US regulatory approval to issue stablecoins, and Visa launching a stablecoin platform.

Regulation & Policy

Regulatory attention centred on formal rulemaking and bank oversight. Taiwan’s legislature passed crypto and stablecoin regulations, officials were reported to be revising MiCA to cover non-EU stablecoin issuers, and South Korea planned stablecoin rules while its opposition pushed for crypto tax repeal. In the US, Circle won final approval for a national trust bank charter, while the American Bankers Association and state banking groups pushed back on CLARITY Act stablecoin yield provisions. Enforcement and financial-crime measures also featured, as OFAC sanctioned 134 ISIS-K crypto wallet addresses while Tether froze funds, the US Treasury froze Iran-linked crypto wallets, and FATF urged faster crypto AML enforcement as stablecoin crime increased.

Issuance & Launches

Issuers and financial institutions expanded issuance activity. French banking group Crédit Agricole launched the EURXT euro stablecoin, Sony Bank received US regulatory approval to issue stablecoins, and Visa launched a stablecoin platform. Tether reported $1.5 billion in Q2 profit, alongside growth in USDT supply and higher gold holdings.

Adoption & Partnerships

Payments and enterprise use cases dominated adoption news. Cloudflare unveiled a stablecoin solution for AI agent payments, while Coinbase enabled businesses to accept USDC payments from AI agents and PayPal expanded its stablecoin push as crypto assets factored into its Q2 results. In institutional and cross-border activity, Hyundai completed a USDT treasury settlement pilot between the US and Mexico, Japanese payments company JCB signed an MOU with Circle to test stablecoin payments in Japan, and Philippine bank BPI planned a stablecoin payments pilot. Circle also agreed to acquire nearly 1,000 IBM blockchain patents, while Tether invested in Mercado Bitcoin, a Latin American crypto platform.

Other developments

Official-sector commentary focused on financial-stability and capital-flow risks. An IMF paper said dollar stablecoins could improve FX access but amplify currency runs, the ECB warned that stablecoins may drain bank deposits, and the BIS warned that stablecoins could weaken capital controls in emerging markets. The IMF also warned that Brazil’s stablecoin activity had outpaced traditional capital flows.

Analysis & Commentary

Beyond the data, the desk published the following analysis during July 2026.

Open USD, Qivalis, and the Race to Own Stablecoin Settlement · 7 July 2026

Open USD, a dollar stablecoin backed by a 140-plus company consortium including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard and Coinbase, and Qivalis, a 37-bank euro stablecoin project, are best read not as new tokens but as competing bids to own the architecture of digital settlement. Both share reserve economics and governance more widely than the single-issuer model, and both are control projects dressed in the language of openness. Against a concentrated $302bn market (USDT 61 per cent, USDC 24.2 per cent, HHI 4,324), the next contest will be decided by governance, reserves, redemption, liquidity and access, not market cap. The better outcome is disciplined competition, not a new consortium gate or a state-controlled CBDC. Full analysis: stablecoinbeat.com/insights/open-usd-qivalis-stablecoin-settlement/

Do Stablecoins Cause Currency Crises? · 15 July 2026

A July 2026 IMF Working Paper by Brandon Joel Tan models stablecoins in fixed exchange-rate regimes as both an access technology and an information technology: they cut the cost of dollar hedging and turn many fragmented parallel prices into one public signal. In calm conditions that improves welfare; once a peg is badly misaligned, the same signal can help households coordinate an exit. Drawing on the paper, BIS spillover evidence and Bolivia's experience, the article argues stablecoins can intensify a currency crisis but rarely originate one, and that suppressing the price does not restore lost credibility. The better response is proportionate regulation of issuers, lawful low-value access, narrow and time-limited emergency tools, privacy-conscious data, and macroeconomic repair. Full analysis: stablecoinbeat.com/insights/do-stablecoins-cause-currency-crises/

Issuance & Lifecycle Events

The stablecoin population itself changed during July 2026. The table below records the month's notable lifecycle events: launches, wind-downs, migrations and post-incident developments, compiled from issuer announcements and public records. The list covers significant events, without any claim to completeness.

Market Structure & Supply

Stablecoin supply stood at $302.52B at the start of July and $298.76B at month-end, a 1.24% decline and a third consecutive monthly fall. Market share concentration edged toward USDT, whose dominance rose from 60.7% to 61.2%, up 0.4pp, while USDC’s share slipped from 24.1% to 23.9%, down 0.2pp.

Among tracked coins with market capitalisation above $1B, USDGO, a dollar stablecoin, recorded the largest monthly expansion, rising 29.0% to $1.11B. USDD rose 14.0% to $1.57B, while USDG gained 12.7% to $3.36B and RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar token, also gained 12.7% to $1.59B. The largest contractions were in USD1, down 13.8% to $4.00B, and USDE, Ethena’s dollar token, down 12.8% to $3.88B; USDS, the Sky Protocol dollar, declined 3.0% to $9.71B, and USDC ended at $71.81B after a 2.0% monthly fall.

USDGO’s expansion was also the main intra-month structure event. Its market cap averaged 26.7σ above baseline, roughly 26.7 times the series’ typical monthly swing, and realised volatility ran at 4.5x its baseline. Around 10 July, the series recorded day-over-day gains of 7.21%, 4.78%, 2.33% and 1.52%, corresponding to 14.6σ, 9.7σ, 4.7σ and 3.1σ moves, respectively, each expressed relative to the series’ typical monthly swing; the same cluster included a mid-month level shift of 3.5σ, about 3.5 times the typical monthly swing. A later increase of 8.66% on 23 July measured 17.6σ, around 17.6 times the typical monthly swing.

Elsewhere, RLUSD’s market cap rose 11.78% on 2 July, a 5.7σ move, roughly 5.7 times its typical monthly swing. USDS recorded a related anomaly cluster on 7 July that included an 8.75% day-over-day increase, a 5.6σ move, roughly 5.6 times its typical monthly swing.

Concentration & Competition

Market concentration rose in July. The market HHI increased from 4,326 to 4,375, a 1.11% rise, marking a second consecutive monthly increase. The issuer HHI moved similarly, from 4,344 to 4,392, up 1.10% for a second consecutive month. The issuer Theil index was steadier, edging from 3.86 to 3.86, up 0.20%, also for a second consecutive monthly increase.

The tracked stablecoin universe expanded from 280 to 286 during the month, which affected the Theil reading because additional small coins mechanically lift that index. The concentration read therefore rested primarily on the market HHI and issuer HHI, both of which moved higher; the small Theil increase was read more cautiously.

Within the month, issuer-level dispersion was elevated. The issuer Theil index’s month mean stood at a 2.5σ reading, 2.5 times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window. The sharpest movement came around 2026-07-10, when the issuer Theil index rose 1.92% day over day, a 5.6σ move, 5.6 times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window, and then fell 1.68% day over day, a -4.9σ move, 4.9 times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window in the opposite direction.

Regulatory Compliance (GENIUS & MiCA)

GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin supply stood at $74.71B at month-end, equal to 25% of total supply, while MiCA-compliant supply stood at $72.52B, or 24% of total supply. Each compliant pool was only about a quarter of the market and was overwhelmingly USDC, so the figures should be read separately. USDT, the largest stablecoin, sat outside both regimes, leaving most of the market outside both frameworks.

The accompanying compliance tables centred on a narrow issuer base, with USDC the common standout across both GENIUS and MiCA eligibility. USDT’s absence from both lists separated the largest supply pool from the two compliance frameworks.

Regulatory activity was broad across jurisdictions. Taiwan’s legislature passed crypto and stablecoin regulations, India’s central bank revived a push to isolate banks from crypto, and the Bank of Korea stood firm on a bank-led stablecoin push as deposit token pilots advanced. In Europe, MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins were reported to have grown 128% before the MiCA transition ended, and officials were reported to be set to revise MiCA to cover non-EU stablecoin issuers.

In the United States, USDC issuer Circle won final approval for a US national trust bank charter. Separately, OFAC sanctioned 134 ISIS-K crypto wallet addresses as Tether froze funds. A further industry item described how stablecoins had found their niche.

Peg Currency & Dollarisation

Stablecoin supply remained overwhelmingly dollar-denominated at the end of July 2026. USD-pegged tokens accounted for 98.5% of all supply, leaving the non-USD segment as a small long tail. Within that segment, euro-pegged supply stood at $723M, the largest non-USD peg.

The euro segment led the non-dollar market, driven by MiCA-compliant euro coins. Other currency pegs, including GBP, CHF and JPY, remained nascent. The non-USD series were thin and partly forward-only, so the market structure was best read as broad dollarisation with a small euro-led periphery.

Backing & Collateral Types

At end-July 2026, fiat-backed stablecoins remained the centre of the market, with $286.52B outstanding and a 94.9% share of supply. Crypto-backed stablecoins stood at $9.04B, or 3.0% of supply, while algorithmic stablecoins accounted for $1.62B, or 0.5%. US Treasury-backed stablecoins totalled $2.15B, equivalent to 0.7% of supply.

The composition therefore remained highly concentrated in fiat-backed instruments. The smaller tail was split mainly between crypto-backed and algorithmic designs, with US Treasury-backed stablecoins representing 0.7% of supply. These categories reflected classification by reserve model; reserve quality varied by issuer and is not asserted here.

Peg Stability & Risk

In July, the average peg score, a 0-100 stability score for dollar-pegged coins in which 100 meant holding $1.00 all month and lower readings captured drift and off-peg days, stood at 86.4 at both the start and the end of the month, a +0.01% change. The measure is reported as a score and covered only dollar-pegged coins; euro- and other-currency stablecoins sat outside it because they required an FX reference. Coins off-peg rose from 2 to 4, reversing the prior month’s decline, while the worst deviation fell from 1.13% to 1.00%, an -11.89% move and a second consecutive monthly decline. Thirty-day depeg events declined from 74 to 67, reversing June’s rise.

The main deterioration in the month occurred around mid-July. The average peg-stability score fell by 1.73% day over day on 10 July, a -3.0σ move. The maximum depeg deviation exceeded 0.50% on 11 July, reaching a peak of 53.00%, and 30-day depeg events peaked at 77 on 16 July before ending the month lower.

Price-level anomalies were concentrated in dollar tokens. USDGO, a dollar stablecoin, recorded its highest price in the data since 26 June 2026 on 1 July. USDG, a dollar stablecoin, reached its highest price in the data since 9 April 2025 on 17 July, when its price stood at 1.0070, or 0.70% off peg. By 31 July, the number of coins off-peg had peaked at 4, matching the month-end count.

Trading Activity & Turnover

Aggregate stablecoin velocity, measured as 24-hour trading volume relative to market value, stood at 0.1886 at end-July. The reading sat above roughly 0.15, consistent with trading activity and turnover across the stablecoin complex.

Network Distribution

At end-July, stablecoin supply sat in a concentrated cross-chain configuration. The three largest blockchains accounted for 84.6% of circulating supply, while the largest single chain held 49.0%; cross-chain entropy stood at 2.25 bits, leaving supply heavily clustered across a small set of chains.

Yield-Bearing & Tokenized-Dollar Instruments

The yield-bearing and tokenized-dollar segment ended July at $13.63B across 86 tracked instruments, down $978M, or 6.7%, month on month. It remained separate from headline stablecoin supply: yield-bearing wrappers such as sUSDe and sUSDS were staked forms of underlying stablecoins already counted in that total, so their value was a subset of existing supply and treated separately from additive stablecoin calculations. Standalone tokenized-treasury instruments such as USDY, Ondo US Dollar Yield, sat outside the stablecoin universe and represented adjacent capital reaching for yield. Tokenized commodities, represented by 1 tracked instrument, stood at $50M and were roughly unchanged month on month.

sUSDS, the staked USDS wrapper, remained the largest tracked instrument in the segment at $4.62B, after a $909M decline from the previous month-end. USDY, Ondo US Dollar Yield, stood at $2.15B, down $9M, while sUSDe, Ethena Staked USDe, ended at $1.55B after a $121M decline. BFUSD held at $1.32B, with a $0M month-end change.

The next tier also contracted, led by syrupUSDC at $1.05B, down $234M, and syrupUSDT at $424M, down $68M. Smaller increases came from ONYC, OnRe Tokenized Reinsurance, which rose $41M to $247M, and Savings USDD, which rose $5M to $241M.

Cross-Currents

July’s net par-pegged supply change was -3.61B USD, with the move concentrated in a few products. USDC accounted for -1.50B USD, USDT for -0.86B USD, and USD1, the World Liberty dollar, for -0.64B USD; together, the three largest same-direction contributors represented 83% of the net move.

Coverage broadened, and concentration still rose. Tracked par-pegged coins increased from 280 to 286, a 2% rise, while the market HHI moved up 1.11%, indicating that the additional coins were collectively too small to dilute incumbent shares.

GENIUS-compliant supply underperformed the broader par-pegged market. The cohort declined 2.0% over the month, compared with a 1.2% decline in total par-pegged supply, leaving the compliant segment weaker than the aggregate on this measure.

MiCA-compliant supply showed the same relative pattern. It fell 1.9% over the month, against a 1.2% decline for total par-pegged supply, so the MiCA-compliant cohort also underperformed the broader par-pegged market.

Peg instability measures moved in different directions. 30-day depeg events declined 9.5%, while the average peg score rose 0.01% and the worst single deviation moved -11.9%; frequency and severity moved in different directions.

Macro & Crypto Backdrop

July ended with the US 10-year yield at 4.68%, up from 4.48% at the start of the month, a 4.46% rise that reversed June’s decline. The 10-year real rate rose from 2.25% to 2.40%, up 6.67% and higher for a third consecutive month. The broad dollar index was 121 at both the start and end of the month, despite a 0.36% decline that reversed June’s rise, while the VIX increased from 16.59 to 17.09, a 3.01% rise and its second consecutive monthly increase. Bitcoin rose from $59,790 to $62,476, up 4.49% and reversing June’s decline; BTC dominance increased from 55.50% to 56.11%, up 1.10%, while Fear & Greed moved from 11.00 to 25.00, a 127.27% rise that also reversed June’s decline.

Rates supplied the main measured moves. On 29 July, the 2s10s yield curve rose 28.57% day over day, a 6.2σ move, 6.2 times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window, with the US 10-year yield accounting for 60% of the move and the US 2-year yield for 40%. Over the full month, the 2s10s curve rose 45.2%, a 3.1σ move versus a typical 30-day move, 3.1 times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window, with the US 10-year yield accounting for 143% and the US 2-year yield for 43%. The US 10-year yield averaged 2.2σ above baseline, 2.2 times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window, while the 10-year real rate averaged 3.3σ above baseline, 3.3 times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window; the latter move was driven by the US 10-year yield, which accounted for 133%, and 10-year breakeven inflation, which accounted for 33%. In Europe, the euro short-term rate and the ECB deposit facility rate each averaged 5.0σ above baseline, five times the series’ typical variation over the baseline window.

The macro headlines condensed into two threads. The Federal Reserve held US interest rates on 29 July as high prices remained in the headlines, and on 30 July US borrowing costs hit a 19-year high as the Fed held interest rates; those headlines coincided with elevated nominal and real yield readings. Geopolitical news centred on the renewed US-Iran conflict from 8 July through 31 July, including repeated strikes, Hormuz-related headlines and tanker attacks under US escort, while measured markets showed a modest rise in volatility and a firmer Bitcoin tape over the same period.