$USDC and USDT are “stablecoins” meant to stay at $1, they can trade slightly above $1 when demand outpaces supply on exchanges. This happens because traders and institutions might prefer one stablecoin over the other at a given moment — for example, if USDC is seen as safer or more compliant, more people want to buy it, pushing its exchange price up. Similarly, if there’s heavy demand for USDT for trading or settlement, its price can temporarily rise above $1. These price movements are driven by market supply and demand dynamics, exchange liquidity differences, and trader preferences, not because the coins have changed their peg mechanism. Arbitrage bots and traders usually bring prices back toward $1 when the difference becomes large, but short-term pumps still happen when demand spikes.
