Ether bound to lose second place on CoinMarketCap to Tether

Just as Bitcoin and most altcoins are going through a bear market, the economic growth of stablecoins is becoming unstoppable. Earlier this week, Tether, the largest of all stablecoins, briefly overtook Ether for second place on CoinMarketCap.

Second place

Ether had long been touted as the ultimate successor to Bitcoin, but last year, like most other altcoins, it was dragged down in Bitcoin’s fall. The largest digital currency dropped about 50% from its peak in October 2025 but for Ether the decline was even more pronounced, at around 70%. This briefly caused Ether’s market value to drop to 182 billion dollars last week.

At that same moment, Tether’s market value had already risen to 187 billion dollars, allowing the stablecoin to briefly overtake Ether for second place on CoinMarketCap.

Volatility

Ever since its launch in 2014, Tether has been an exception among the thousands of digital tokens that appeared after the creation of Bitcoin. Although Ether was intended as a “better” Bitcoin, Tether was created to solve two major problems in the early stages of the cryptocurrency market: the high price volatility of smaller altcoins and the difficulties investors faced in converting funds between traditional ‘fiat’ money and crypto.

That problem was solved with stablecoins, which have only grown in importance since then.

However, since stablecoins can be offered on crypto platforms, they are taking a bite out of the business of traditional banks. Tether, the largest stablecoin, has become increasingly important, especially in recent years, and now seems ready to assume its role as the ‘prince’ of cryptocurrencies.