Non-empty wallets for stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT have been on the rise for a while now as crypto prices have recovered since the start of the year. This has come to a head as the non-empty wallets have grown double-digits in a very short time. While this could point to recent selling, it is also quite bullish for crypto going by historical performances.
Non-Empty USDT And USDC Wallets Jump 13.9%
According to the on-chain data tracking platform Santiment, there has been a significant shift in the number of crypto wallets that are holding stablecoins on their balances. This growth is mostly seen in stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
As Santiment’s data shows, the total number of non-empty wallets holding USDC has risen 13.9% so far in 2024. Likewise, USDT wallets have also been on the rise, with a marked 15.7% increase in non-empty wallets in the same time period.
The chart shows a steady increase in the number of these non-zero wallets as the price of Bitcoin had recovered, taking the whole crypto market along with it. The total among of USDT holders moved from around 4.5 million at the start of the year to 5.7 million at the time of the report. For USDC, this figure went from around 1.9 million to more than 2.15 million. In total, there are more than 7.85 million stablcoin wallets between the both of them.
💸 Concerned about another #crypto market retrace? You may be comforted by the fact that the amount of non-empty #stablecoin wallets are rising. In 2024, the amount of #USDCoin non-empty wallets has grown by +13.9%, and #Tether wallets have grown +15.7%. https://t.co/9K2y8UgOv9 pic.twitter.com/mxdkrgn36M
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) May 23, 2024
Now, given the recent uptick in the number of non-zero stablecoin wallets, it could suggest there has been some selling. However, stablecoins have seen their market caps increase drastically as more coins have been minted, suggesting that investors are looking to buy rather than sell.
Rising Stablecoin Wallets Is Good For Crypto
The rise in the non-zero stablecoin wallets are good for crypto, especially in the event of a retrace, as the on-chain tracker points out. This is because investors usually keep their funds in stablecoins waiting for good opportunities to buy, and during market retrace, they tend to deploy stablecoins such as USDT and USDC to buy other assets for low prices.
A correlation can be seen between the rising Bitcoin and crypto prices this year and the rising stablecoin market cap. For example, the USDT market cap went from $93 billion to over $111 billion since January, signifying a 20% increase. In the same vein, the USDC market cap went from $25 billion in January to over $33 billion in May, representing a 32% increase for the stablecoin.
In the last 24 hours alone, over $160 million was moved from the USDC treasury in two transactions into unknown wallets, suggesting that crypto investors are getting ready to get into the market.
