USDC vs DAI
USD Coin (USDC) and Dai (DAI) are both dollar stablecoins, but they are built very differently. Here is how they compare on live data and on what actually matters for safety.
| USD Coin (USDC) | Dai (DAI) | |
|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Circle | Sky (formerly MakerDAO) |
| Type | Fiat-backed | Crypto-collateralized |
| Backing | Cash and short-term US Treasuries, mostly in the BlackRock-managed Circle Reserve Fund | Overcollateralized crypto, other stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets |
| Launched | September 2018 | December 2017 |
| Market cap | $74.27B | $4.8B |
| Price | $0.9999 | $0.9999 |
| Distance from $1 | -0.01% | -0.01% |
| Chains | 157 | 49 |
| Worst recorded depeg | $0.8700 (Mar 2023) | $0.9000 (Mar 2023) |
| Lost to inflation | −25% | −26% |
| Regulation | MiCA-compliant in the EU; issued by a publicly listed, US-regulated company | Decentralized protocol with no licensed issuer |
The key difference
USDC is issued by a company that holds dollars and Treasuries; DAI is minted by a decentralized protocol against overcollateralized crypto and other assets. Circle can freeze USDC; DAI cannot be frozen at the token level. But part of DAI's collateral has historically been USDC — which is why both lost their peg together in March 2023.
Bottom line
Neither is risk-free. The better choice depends on which risk you would rather carry — issuer and reserve risk, smart-contract and collateral risk, or derivatives risk — and both still lose value to dollar inflation. This comparison is informational, not financial advice.
Stablecoins copy the dollar — inflation included. Unstablecoins take the opposite bet: no peg, a fixed or shrinking supply and volatility on the label. See them in the live unstablecoin rankings.
Market data: DefiLlama (hourly). Inflation: US CPI-U from FRED. This page is informational and not financial advice.