Methodology — How Stablecoin Dominance Is Measured

DDD expresses a single percentage: the total market capitalisation of pegged assets tracked by DeFi Llama, divided by the US M2 money supply. The vast majority of these pegged assets are USD stablecoins, but the data set also includes a small number of non-USD-pegged assets (see "What is included in the numerator" below).

The metric is designed to answer one question: how large have stablecoins and other pegged assets become relative to the conventional dollar system?

DDD measures stock, not flow. Market capitalisation represents the total value of pegged assets in circulation at any given moment. It is the cleanest available public measure of stablecoin monetary presence.

Transaction volume answers a different question — how actively these assets are being used. Volume is useful, but it is noisy, double-counted across venues, and harder to verify. Market cap provides a more stable and comparable signal of how much value exists in pegged-asset form.

M2 is a widely used public measure of broad US money. It includes cash, checking deposits, savings deposits, and short-term time deposits. The Federal Reserve publishes it monthly.

No denominator is perfect. M2 does not capture all forms of dollar-denominated value, and it excludes institutional money market funds, eurodollars, and other near-money instruments. But M2 is practical, widely recognised, and useful for the question DDD is asking: how large have pegged assets become relative to the conventional dollar system?

DDD uses the total market capitalisation of all pegged assets as reported by DeFi Llama, which aggregates on-chain supply data across all tracked pegged assets and chains. This is a broader category than "USD stablecoins" alone.

The data set is predominantly USD-pegged stablecoins (approximately 98% of the total), but also includes non-USD-pegged assets such as EUR- and BRL-denominated tokens. The inclusion of non-USD assets slightly inflates the numerator relative to a pure USD-stablecoin measure.

DDD uses US M2 money supply (seasonally adjusted) as published by the Federal Reserve, accessed via the FRED API (series M2SL).

Pegged-asset market cap updates in near real-time via DeFi Llama's on-chain aggregation. US M2 updates monthly, published by the Federal Reserve with approximately a two-week lag after month-end.

DDD refreshes using the latest available values from both sources. Between M2 releases, the denominator remains fixed at the most recent published figure.

• Third-party data may contain delays, omissions, or classification differences.
• US M2 updates monthly, so the denominator moves less frequently than the numerator. DDD can temporarily overstate or understate the true ratio during periods of rapid M2 change.
• The numerator includes all DeFi Llama pegged assets, not only USD stablecoins. Non-USD pegged assets (~2%) slightly inflate the ratio.
• If a pegged asset loses its peg, its reported supply may still be counted until the data provider removes it. Historical DDD reflects this.
• The Federal Reserve occasionally revises prior M2 figures. DDD always uses the latest published value.
• Changes in the ratio can reflect growth in pegged assets, changes in M2, or both.

• Transaction volume, active users, country-level adoption, or payment usage.
• The quality, risk profile, or backing of any individual stablecoin.
• DDD does not endorse any issuer, chain, token, or commercial product.
• DDD is a benchmark, not financial advice.