The text below explains how we monitor changes in the circulating supply of stablecoins as part of the Stress Test system.
Large shifts in supply — either through minting (expansion) or burning (contraction) — can serve as early indicators of stress events, liquidity shifts, or issuer-driven interventions.
We use CoinGecko’s API to retrieve daily stablecoin supply data.
Purpose
Monitoring circulating supply changes can highlight:
- Growing demand (supply expansion)
- Loss of trust or redemption pressure (supply contraction)
- Anomalous minting or burning patterns that may precede depegs or liquidity crises. The supply-changes metric complements price-based and liquidity-based stress indicators.
API Endpoint
Endpoint:
GET https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/{id}
Authentication:
Example Query (cURL)
curl -X GET "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/usd-coin"
curl -X GET "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/dai"
curl -X GET "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/usdt"
curl -X GET "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/trueusd"
curl -X GET "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/frax"
Example Response (truncated)
{
"id": "usd-coin",
"symbol": "usdc",
"market_data": {
"circulating_supply": 28500000000,
"total_supply": 30000000000
}
}
Important Fields
Field Purpose
- **market_data.circulating_supply **Number of tokens currently circulating
- **market_data.total_supply ** Total tokens issued (including reserved or non-circulating tokens)
Supply Change Evaluation Criteria
We monitor the daily percentage change in circulating supply:
- Stable (Low Risk): Daily change between -0.5% and +0.5%
- Moderate Risk: Daily change between -1.0% and -0.5%, or between +0.5% and +1.0%
- High Risk: Daily change exceeding ±1.0%
- Sudden sharp contractions (burns) are weighted more heavily than expansions.
Rate Limits and Notes
- CoinGecko’s public API allows 5–15 calls per minute.
- We update daily to align with other Stress Test metrics.
- No authentication key is needed for standard usage.
Last Word
- Tracking changes in stablecoin supply provides another valuable layer of visibility into market trust dynamics.
- While supply expansion is typically healthy, sudden contractions may reflect redemption surges or liquidity withdrawal events requiring close attention.
Responses are generated using AI and may contain mistakes.