The combined market capitalization of the top 12 stablecoins fell by approximately $2.24 billion over the past 10 days as investors shifted capital toward traditional safe-haven assets such as gold and silver.
What Happened: Stablecoin Outflows
On-chain analytics firm Santiment tracked a net decline in stablecoin market capitalization through its on-chain and market data analysis, framing the movement as capital exiting the cryptocurrency ecosystem rather than rotating between digital assets. Stablecoin supply decreases when users redeem holdings back to fiat currency.
The outflows coincided with new highs in precious metals markets.
Gold reached a record high above $5,000 on Monday as escalating trade tensions and fears of a potential U.S. government shutdown drove investors toward the precious metal, while Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a five-week low near $86,000, deepening the divergence between two assets often compared as stores of value.
For context, the global stablecoin market recently reached a record above $311 billion and remains around $309 billion, according to DeFiLlama data cited by Decrypt.
It means, current decline noted by Santiment is modest, but the direction matters.
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Why It Matters: Risk-Off Signal
Stablecoins serve as the primary base currency for trading and decentralized finance, making aggregate supply a gauge of capital positioned inside the crypto system. Santiment noted that strong recoveries in past cycles began only after stablecoin market caps stopped falling and started rising again.
The firm also highlighted that contracting stablecoin supply tends to hurt altcoins more than Bitcoin because smaller tokens rely more heavily on speculative flows and thinner liquidity. CoinShares fund data showed approximately $1.73 billion in net outflows from crypto investment products in a single week, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) ETFs.
Tether has also been accumulating physical gold, adding around 27 metric tons in Q4 2025. The move reinforces the broader theme of crypto-linked capital seeking hard-asset safety rather than redeploying into risk assets.
A falling stablecoin float combined with fund outflows represents a classic risk-off pattern that typically favors defensive positioning over aggressive speculation.
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