About & Methodology

Analytical Framework

The Stablecoin Beat framework treats stablecoins as settlement assets across fragmented blockchain systems and links them to the macro environment they operate within. Coverage is organized around five dimensions:

Data Sources

Stablecoin Beat operates a multi-source pipeline spanning on-chain queries, market-data aggregators, central-bank statistics, and regulator filings. Each source is authoritative for a specific domain; coverage overlaps are reconciled rather than blended.

Reconciliation rules. Supply and per-chain distribution figures are compiled from on-chain issuance records; market capitalization, price and volume figures from market data. Where the two report the same coin, agreement is within ~0.03%; the small difference reflects coverage methodology rather than data error, and each series anchors to a single designated source over its full history so no series ever switches basis mid-line. US Treasury yields and Fed-policy rates anchor to official Federal Reserve statistical releases; US bank deposit data anchors to FDIC filings.

Original Indicators

Beyond market data, Stablecoin Beat publishes ten original quantitative indicators as daily time series at /charts/. Methodologies are drawn from central-bank research, academic finance, and antitrust analysis, and applied consistently to the stablecoin universe.

Stablecoin Monetary Aggregates (S0 / S1 / S2)

Stablecoin Beat classifies dollar-denominated stablecoin claims into three tiers, ordered by claim distance. Think of S0, S1 and S2 as stablecoin monetary aggregates analogous to the monetary base, M1 and M2, with one deliberate difference: the fiat hierarchy orders money by liquidity, while this hierarchy orders claims by how many redemption steps separate the token a holder actually owns from the point at which redemption is finally satisfied, an issuer's redemption obligation for some designs and a protocol redemption mechanism for others.

Each tier is therefore published as two numbers. Net economic supply deduplicates backing relationships: locking one USDC to mint one bridged copy, or depositing one USDS into a wrapper, creates no new dollar claim, so net S2 equals S0 absent leverage or external collateral. Gross represented value counts every circulating token layer. The ratio of gross claims to the net base, the representation multiplier, measures how much market-valued claim structure has been built per dollar of base stablecoin: a reading near 1.0 describes a fully-collateralized system with little layering; a rising reading means representations and wrappers are accumulating on the same base.

Measurement: the native/bridged decomposition comes from per-chain issuance data (minted, circulating and bridged balances per chain per day) and is published for the largest coins, which cover the overwhelming majority of supply; the coverage boundary is stated wherever the aggregates appear. Wrapper lineages are curated per instrument and reviewed as new instruments enter coverage. These definitions govern how figures are aggregated across the platform: wrapper and bridge values are never added to headline supply.

These definitions are summarized here. The full specification, with the equations, the edge-case rules, the constituent admission policy and the revisions policy, is published as SB Methodology Papers No 1 (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21861584). Where this summary and the specification differ, the specification governs.

Coverage & Taxonomy

Every tracked coin is classified along three independent dimensions, so a single coin can be fiat-backed, USD-pegged, and yield-bearing at the same time.

Editorial Process

Stablecoin Beat maintains a separation between data, editorial, and research functions. Market signals are reviewed against observable data before publication; analytical pieces are anchored to primary data and cited literature.

• Data is collected, validated, and reconciled against on-chain reads where applicable.
• Where uncertainty exists in an interpretation, it is reflected explicitly in the framing.
• Model outputs and inferred figures are never presented as primary data.
• Causal claims that go beyond observed co-movement require a cited source. The chart pages carry per-page footnote sections linking to the specific BIS, IMF, ECB, FDIC, FATF, and other institutional sources that support their stated claims.

Editorial Standards

Stablecoin Beat is an independent publication. We do not accept sponsored content, paid placements, affiliate arrangements, or any compensation from stablecoin issuers, protocols, or financial institutions. Coverage is determined by data, not by commercial relationships.

When we make an error in data or commentary we correct it and note the correction in the affected piece. We do not silently edit published content.

Who Uses Stablecoin Beat

• Payment companies, fintech operators, and digital-asset platforms
• Treasury, risk, and compliance teams at institutional allocators
• Researchers and central-bank, IMF, BIS, and academic counterparts
• Market analysts and infrastructure providers

Corrections & Contact

Methodological queries and corrections can be sent through the contact form. We review all queries and respond publicly where the answer is relevant to other readers.