Analysis: Binance Expands Circle Partnership, USDC May Further Challenge USDT

Odaily reports that Binance has signed a new five-year commercial agreement with Circle and invested $100 million to purchase Circle shares, which will further expand USDC's coverage in emerging markets and global transactions, and exert more pressure on USDT, which has long been dominated by Tether.

Data shows that when the two parties first partnered in December 2024, Binance offered 140 USDC-denominated spot trading markets, which has now increased to 329; Binance's monthly USDC trading volume also grew from approximately $20 billion to $40 billion before the partnership to consistently exceeding $80 billion.

Anastasia Melachrinos, Head of Research at Kaiko, stated that since 2026, Binance has consistently held the largest share of USDC spot trading activity, with daily trading volumes reaching $5 billion to $10 billion, approximately 10 to 20 times that of most other trading platforms. Analysts also noted that USDT currently has a market capitalization of approximately $140 billion, still significantly higher than USDC's approximately $74 billion, and its trading pairs, local liquidity, and user habits accumulated over years in the global trading and payment markets remain difficult to change in the short term. (CoinDesk)