Inside the Stablecoins sector, 04 November 2026

Sector Snapshot: Stablecoins — 04 November 2026

As of 04 November 2026, the stablecoin sector covered here tracked 85 constituents with an aggregate market capitalisation of $291.1 billion. Concentration within that total is pronounced: the two largest members alone — Tether at $178.2 billion and USDC at $70.6 billion — account for the substantial majority of the sector total, leaving the remaining 83 constituents to share a comparatively small residual. Among the 15 largest members listed, market caps range from Tether's $178.2 billion down to Open USD's $902.3 million, a ratio of roughly 200-to-1 between the top and the fifteenth position.

Fee Transparency

Of the 15 largest members reported, only one — Ethena USDe — carries a measurable annualised fee figure, recorded as $0.122 (annualized from the trailing 30 days to 04 November 2026). The remaining 14 members show null fee values. This does not necessarily mean those protocols generate no revenue; it reflects the limits of what is captured in this dataset. Readers should treat the absence of a fee figure as a data gap rather than a confirmed zero.

Distance from All-Time Highs

The percent below all-time high figures across the 15 largest members span a wide range. United Stables sits closest to its recorded peak at –0.90%, and USDGO at –0.25%. At the other end, Global Dollar stands –39.6% below its all-time high, and Tether is recorded at –24.5% below its peak. For assets designed to maintain a fixed peg, deviations of this magnitude in the all-time-high metric warrant methodological scrutiny: the figure may reflect historical episodes of de-pegging, changes in circulating supply that affect market-cap-derived calculations, or data-normalisation choices rather than sustained price drift. USDD at –19.7% and Dai at –18.0% also sit notably below their respective recorded highs over the trailing 7 days to 04 November 2026.

What the Sector Label Does and Does Not Convey

The label stablecoins groups assets that differ substantially in their underlying architecture. Fiat-backed models, crypto-collateralised models, algorithmic designs, and hybrid yield-bearing structures all appear within this single classification. These differences affect the sources and magnitude of risk, the mechanics of peg maintenance, and the nature of any fee streams — yet the sector label does not distinguish among them. A 7-day return of –22.6% for Falcon USD alongside a 7-day return of +0.04% for Tether, both classified under the same sector heading, illustrates that aggregate sector statistics can obscure material heterogeneity at the constituent level. The sector-level market cap and return figures are therefore best read as a rough aggregate of a structurally diverse universe rather than as a description of a homogeneous asset class.