Tether and Circle have strengthened their control of the stablecoin market, with combined market capitalization accounting for roughly 85% of the sector. Lorenzo Valente, Director of Digital Asset Research at ARK Invest, said network effects make scale a competitive advantage, after the number of tokens above $10 billion narrowed from four around 2022 to two. DeFiLlama data put Tether’s market capitalization at approximately $183.4 billion and Circle-issued USDC at about $74.5 billion as of September 2026. Valente indicated the next $100 billion threshold is likely to remain a competition between the two issuers, while Tether could retain sole dominance above $500 billion for more than two years. South Korean stablecoin trading reached about ₩6 trillion in June 2026, while a National Assembly Budget Office report estimated potential annual merchant-fee savings of ₩370 billion to ₩5.15 trillion if won-denominated stablecoins partly replaced credit cards. The report also warned that dollar stablecoins could increase financial-market volatility and deepen dependence on a small number of issuers.