Need verifiable oracle data for your project?
DIA provides transparent, customizable price feeds across 50+ chains with fully auditable methodology.
Nearly half of USDT supply sits on exchanges and it lives on 7 chains; under 8% of USDC does and it spans 16 chains. Same dollar, different jobs.
Source: DIA on-chain data
USDT and USDC both peg to the dollar, but the custody data reads like two different instruments. Nearly half of USDT supply sits in exchange wallets and the token lives on seven chains. Under eight percent of USDC does, and USDC spans sixteen chains. The dollar is the same; the product is not.
Live DB read (2026-08-13), custody attribution as % of issuer-token supply:
USDT is the larger: $183B vs USDC's $72B. It also holds more than twice as many holders (17.3M vs 8.8M). USDC runs on more than twice as many chains (16 vs 7).
Holdings distribution is a proxy for use. USDT keeps a near-majority of supply in exchange custody, the pattern of a settlement and trading rail where tokens wait to move. USDC keeps barely any on exchanges relative to its protocol and on-chain footprint, the pattern of a payments and rails token that circulates through DeFi and application chains rather than sitting in the order book. The business consequence is visible in the market structure. USDT's 45% exchange share and 7-chain footprint match a liquidity-first product used as a quote pair and cross-border value store. USDC's 16-chain footprint and low exchange share match an issuer pushing distribution into every settlement rail, from Base to Hyperliquid to Celo. Neither is wrong; they are doing different jobs with the same peg.
- USDT: $183B, 17.3M holders, top10 50.1%. - USDC: $72B, 8.8M holders, top10 26.4%. - USDC legs include Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Hyperliquid, Avalanche, Sonic, Celo, Ink, Unichain, World Chain, Sei, zkSync, Cronos. - USDT legs: Ethereum, Tron, Solana, BNB, Avalanche, Celo, Kava.