On July 22, CertiK, the world's largest Web3 security company, released the "Skynet 2025 First Half Stablecoin Panorama Report", which systematically sorted out and deeply analyzed the market performance, risk structure, regulatory progress and development trends of the stablecoin industry. According to the report rankings, USDT, USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD performed outstandingly in terms of security, market dynamics and compliance adaptation, ranking at the top of the score list.
The report points out that stablecoins are accelerating their integration into the mainstream financial system. In the first half of 2025, the total supply of global stablecoins has exceeded US$250 billion, and the monthly settlement volume has increased by 43% to US$1.4 trillion. At the same time, as traditional financial institutions and large enterprises increase their adoption, the strategic position of stablecoins continues to rise. With the gradual implementation of regulatory policies, compliance and security risks have received increasing attention, and the market structure has also shown a trend of accelerated differentiation.
The market is growing strongly, with USDT, USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD leading the rankings
The report shows that the stablecoin market continued to expand in the first half of 2025, with a total supply of US$252 billion and a monthly settlement volume increase of 43%. User activity has increased significantly, with the total number of holding addresses exceeding 120 million (as of the third quarter of 2024). USDT is still the most widely held stablecoin, with more than 5.8 million addresses, about 2.6 times that of USDC.
Based on the CertiK Skynet stablecoin scoring framework, the report systematically evaluates a variety of mainstream stablecoins from six dimensions, including "operational resilience", "governance capabilities" and "code security". USDT, USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD have outstanding performance in security, market dynamics and compliance adaptation, ranking at the top of the scoring list. Among them, USDC has jumped to US$61 billion in market value with the MiCA license and successful listing, becoming the fastest growing mainstream stablecoin; while PYUSD issued by PayPal has doubled its market value in a short period of time by integrating the Solana network and launching a coin holding reward program; RLUSD has maintained zero security incidents since its launch due to its security and reliability in institutional-level application scenarios, and has successfully established its own market positioning.
Operational errors are common, and RWA-backed and yield-based stablecoins introduce new risks
In the first half of 2025, the risk profile of the stablecoin industry is undergoing a significant change. A total of 344 security incidents occurred in the overall crypto market, with cumulative losses reaching $2.47 billion, a record high. Among them, operational errors represented by the leakage of Bybit private keys became the main source of losses, with losses of up to $1.5 billion in a single incident. Compared with traditional smart contract vulnerabilities, attackers are gradually turning their targets to the operational infrastructure of centralized platforms.
The report also warns that stablecoins are becoming the main tool for some hackers to launder money. Networks such as TRON have become the first choice due to their low fees and high liquidity. Although the proportion of such transactions in the overall transaction volume has decreased, the absolute amount still reaches tens of billions of dollars, bringing great compliance risks. In March 2025, the Garantex exchange was banned, which was a landmark event for regulators to strengthen such compliance reviews.
Regulatory implementation reshapes the market landscape, and stablecoins are accelerating their integration into the mainstream financial system
With the progress of the STABLE Act and the GENIUS Act in the US Congress and the full implementation of the EU MiCA regulations, supervision has become a key force in reshaping the stablecoin landscape. Compliance pressure has led to an intensified market differentiation: institutional projects with licenses and transparent reserves are gaining higher market trust, while issuers that have not yet completed compliance are gradually being marginalized by mainstream trading platforms.
In addition, traditional financial institutions and large enterprises have also actively piloted stablecoin business in the first half of the year. Societe Generale launched the US dollar stablecoin "CoinVertible USD" based on Ethereum and Solana, becoming the first large bank to launch a compliant US dollar stablecoin; Bank of America, Santander Bank and other institutions are also promoting the development of related projects, some of which have entered the regulatory approval stage.
Outlook: A new wave of innovation in stablecoins
Looking ahead to the second half of the year, the report predicts that RWA-supported and yield-based stablecoins will become the main line of innovation, and are expected to occupy 8% to 10% of the market of more than US$300 billion by the end of the year. RWA-supported stablecoins, by anchoring off-chain assets such as government bonds, are highly consistent with the current regulatory trend of major global economies to promote the compliance of stablecoins; while yield-based stablecoins, with their attributes as "on-chain money funds", are attracting investors seeking stable returns, especially institutional investors and high-net-worth users.
However, while such models bring new application value, they also introduce more complex counterparty risks and strategic risks. In this regard, the report emphasizes that rigorous risk management, transparent operating mechanisms, and proactive compliance will become the key to the long-term sustainable development of stablecoin projects.
The Skynet Stablecoin Scoring Framework is based on the Skynet Scoring Methodology and is specifically designed to assess the security risk status of stablecoins. It provides insights into the stability and credibility of stablecoins and ultimately generates a quantifiable security score that fully reflects their overall security posture. The report is now available for download on the CertiK WeChat official account. For more stablecoin security scores and on-chain dynamics, visit the Skynet platform for detailed information.
Full report: https://indd.adobe.com/view/bf1d9a93-151d-42e9-95b4-f037410eb736
