Stablecoin Wars: Coinbase Token Attracts Capital But PAX Dominates Trading

It’s now been nearly two months since Winklevoss-led cryptocurrency exchange Gemini fired the first shot in the stablecoin wars through the launch of its USD-pegged crypto token, the eponymous Gemini Dollar. That same day, Paxos — like Gemini an NYDFS-regulated firm — made a similar announcement, and before long, crypto unicorns Circle and Coinbase revealed that they had partnered to co-issue a consortium-led, fiat-backed token, USD Coin.

These three tokens, along with fellow “regulated” stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD), which launched earlier in the year, have collectively attracted more than $400 million in fiat inflows while tether (USDT) — long the dominant stablecoin with a market cap as high as $2.9 billion — shed more than $1 billion during October alone as it struggled to maintain dollar parity.

Having launched in March, TUSD had a head start in the race to replace tether. When Gemini Dollar (GUSD) and Paxos Standard (PAX) began circulating on Sept. 10, TUSD had already issued $79 million worth of tokens. According to Stablecoins War, TUSD remains the largest stablecoin upstart, with its market cap having more than doubled to $174 million over the past two months. However, its rate of fiat inflows has not kept pace with the rapidly-growing USD Coin (USDC), issued on Sept. 26, or PAX, both of whom already have market caps in excess of $100 million, ranking them among the 100 largest cryptocurrency tokens.

Bolstered by its listing directly on the Coinbase platform, USD Coin’s market cap has ballooned to $127 million, a mark that USDT did not achieve until June 2017, years after its first tokens were issued.

PAX, meanwhile, has gone blow-for-blow with USDC, accruing $107 million in circulating tokens as of Thursday morning. Significantly, PAX has managed to achieve listings on a number of major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKEx, ZB.com, and Coinbene. This has enabled it to become the most liquid of the upstart stablecoins, boasting just under $40 million in daily trading volume. That’s far greater than either TUSD ($27 million) and USDC ($1.1 million), despite their larger market caps.

Perhaps the biggest surprise has been GUSD, whose high profile launch has not translated into rapid adoption. Despite dominating press coverage, GUSD has been slow out of the gate, accruing just $11 million in market cap and $7.5 million in daily trading volume.