Hidden by complexity? Measuring stablecoin, crypto and decentralised finance ecosystems (BIS Working Paper No 1377)
This BIS working paper measures stablecoin, crypto and DeFi activity from on-chain data, including about 1.3 billion Bitcoin transactions, and shows how much the results depend on method. Estimates of Bitcoin transfer value vary by up to a factor of six, simple market cap can be up to four times realised cap, and the share of USDT held in smart contracts ranges from over 20 percent on Ethereum to about 1 percent on Tron.
Key figures
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Variation in Bitcoin transfer value estimates by method | up to a factor of six | p. 3 |
| USDT held by smart contracts | over 20% of holdings on Ethereum vs around 1% on Tron | p. 3 |
| Bitcoin dataset | approximately 1.3 billion transactions and 3.6 billion transaction outputs | p. 10 |
| Simple market cap vs realised cap | up to four times, quarterly | p. 14 |
- Global