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Data shows the ERC-20 stablecoin market cap has just seen a notable drop for the first time in years, something that could have a knock-on effect on Bitcoin.
ERC-20 Stablecoin Market Cap Has Gone Down During The Past Week
As highlighted by CryptoQuant author Darkfrost in an X post, stablecoins have witnessed outflows over the past week. A “stablecoin” is a cryptocurrency that has its price pegged to a fiat currency, with tokens based on the US Dollar being the most popular.
Generally, investors store their capital in the form of these assets when they want to avoid the volatility associated with Bitcoin and other coins. Traders who keep stablecoins usually plan to venture back into the volatile side of the market, however, which is why the supply of these coins is often considered as a sort of “dry powder” reserve for BTC and company.
Stablecoins are available on several blockchains, but the ones of relevance here are specifically the ERC-20 tokens running on the Ethereum network. Below is the chart shared by Darkfrost that shows the trend in the combined market cap of the assets of this type over the last few years.
As displayed in the graph, the supply of the ERC-20 stablecoins saw a phase of growth during the second phase of 2025, indicating that capital was flowing into these assets.
At the same time as this growth, Bitcoin and other assets rallied, suggesting that the sector as a whole was witnessing net capital inflows. When the volatile coins saw a bearish shift, however, the stables also observed a change in trajectory.
From the chart, it’s apparent that these tokens hit a plateau alongside the market mood swing. This means that while capital wasn’t flowing out of the stables, it wasn’t flowing in, either.
In the past week, though, this sideways movement has broken, with the market cap of the ERC-20 stablecoins registering a drop. More specifically, $7 billion in capital has flowed out of these assets, taking the market cap from $162 billion to $155 billion.
Whenever the stablecoin supply declines, one possibility is always that investors are simply rotating into Bitcoin. The original cryptocurrency’s price has also gone down in this window, however, a potential sign that the drop represents outflows to fiat.
As the analyst explained:
This is a very negative signal, explained by the fact that some investors are choosing to fully exit the crypto market, which continues to correct, while precious metals keep surging and equity markets maintain a strong underlying uptrend.
This is the first time this cycle that such a rapid decline in the stablecoin market cap has occurred. It now remains to be seen whether this is a temporary deviation or the start of a new trend.
BTC Price
Bitcoin has bounced up a bit since its Sunday low as its price is now back at $88,300.
