The stablecoin market capped April at an all-time high of $321B, a 1.63% monthly gain and the third consecutive end-of-month record. The expansion came despite a turbulent backdrop - escalating Middle East geopolitical tensions and two major DeFi incidents involving Drift and KelpDAO. Notably, stablecoin dominance dropped to 12.1% (from 13.0% in February) as digital asset prices recovered.
Tether's USDT surged to $190B, its largest absolute dollar gain ($5.7B) since October 2025. After four months of slipping share, USDT's dominance climbed back to 59.2% of stablecoin market cap and 73.6% of CEX trading volume.
Ethena's USDe shed 36.1% to $3.76B, marking seven consecutive monthly declines and dropping out of the top 5 stablecoins. The trigger was the KelpDAO exploit, which cascaded through Aave's "looping trade" - users who had borrowed against USDe collateral faced forced unwinding and redemptions.
Real-world assets on-chain hit a new all-time high of $26.7B in April, up 2.47% MoM and the ninth straight monthly record.
Tokenized Treasuries led the way, expanding 14.8% to $16.2B and now 60.4% of the category. In a notable shift at the top, Circle's USYC overtook BlackRock's BUIDL as the largest tokenized fund at $2.91B versus BUIDL's $2.82B - though BUIDL secured its own milestone, going live on OKX as yield-bearing collateral via Standard Chartered. Ondo's US Dollar Yield rose 21.7% to $2.11B.
Tokenized Commodities slipped 1.97% to $5.73B, a second consecutive decline. Gold dominates at 98% of the sector, with XAUT ($3.22B) and PAX Gold ($2.17B) leading. XAU also ranked #7 across CEX futures with $34.5B in monthly volume.
Tokenized Stocks and Equities was the standout, surging 22% to a record $1.59B - the ninth straight monthly gain. Ondo leads at $751M (+18%), followed by xStocks at $372M.
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