TLDR Tech / Crypto
Tether-Circle Duopoly Hampers Stablecoin Product-Market Fit
Ben O'Neill, head of money movement at Bridge, argued at Consensus Miami that Tether and Circle's combined control of roughly $260 billion of the $306 billion stablecoin market suppresses product diversity needed to serve distinct payment use cases. There are structural fee problems with both issuers: Tether charges steep burn fees, while Circle's AUM-dependent revenue model causes its burn fees to rise over time, making neither issuer optimal across all payments contexts. There should be a wave of use-case-specific stablecoin issuers emerging over the next few years, as specialized alternatives would generate better product-market fit than the current duopoly.
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