Tether USDT challenges Circle's lead on BitPay payments in 2025
After dominating stablecoin transactions on BitPay in 2024, Circle's USDC saw its transaction share plummet against Tether's USDt, according to BitPay data shared with Cointelegraph.
In January 2024, USDC's transaction share on BitPay accounted for 85%, compared with USDT's 13%. By May 2025, USDC's share had dropped to 56%, while USDT's had increased to 43%.
The change in dynamics came despite the optimism around Circle's public launch in early June as well as certain regulatory advantages over Tether's USDT, particularly in the European Union under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Tether's USDT top stablecoin by volume on BitPay
In addition to narrowing the gap with its main competitor by transaction count, Tether's USDT stablecoin has also led the way in payment volume.
'In 2024, USDC was the token most commonly used. However, starting in March of 2025, USDT gained a sizable share of transaction volume, exceeding 70% of stablecoin volume processed by BitPay,' the crypto payment firm said.
According to BitPay, the shift to UDST can be attributed to 'both a growth in overall stablecoin transactions' as well as a 'swing in existing merchants and customers preferring USDT over USDC.'
BitPay's chief revenue officer, Bill Zielke, said the platform has a 'sizable base of users and merchants in Europe,' but remains focused on growing in the United States.
'In 2024, USDC transaction count was almost double that of USDT,' Zielke noted, adding that USDC is still the most popular stablecoin on BitPay by transaction count, though it has tumbled in 2025. Tether rejects both MiCA and a public launch
Tether's leading position in payment volumes and rising dominance in transaction count on BitPay against USDC offer an interesting insight, given the many differences between Tether and Circle, including their approaches to regulation.
While Circle became the first global stablecoin issuer to receive regulatory approval under Europe's MiCA in July 2024, Tether has repeatedly criticized some MiCA regulation aspects, explicitly refusing to comply with the framework in Europe.
In June, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino also confirmed that Tether has no intention to run an initial public offering despite Circle debuting public trading on June 5 after raising $1.05 billion in an upsized offering.
Despite USDC losing steam against USDT on BitPay in 2025, USDC has continued to see notable growth in market capitalization in the past year.
According to data from CoinGecko, USDC saw its market cap surge as much as 88% in the past year from around $33 billion to its current $61.7 billion. In the meantime, USDT increased its market value by 40% over the same period, from $112.5 billion to $158.3 billion.
Additionally, USDC market cap has surged 41% year-to-date, while USDT market value has edged up just 15.5%.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/circle-usdc-loses-steam-against-tether-usdt-bitpay-2025
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