USDT vs USDC
Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) 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.
| Tether (USDT) | USD Coin (USDC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Tether | Circle |
| Type | Fiat-backed | Fiat-backed |
| Backing | Reserves held by Tether, mostly short-term US Treasury bills | Cash and short-term US Treasuries, mostly in the BlackRock-managed Circle Reserve Fund |
| Launched | October 2014 | September 2018 |
| Market cap | $184.17B | $74.34B |
| Price | $1.0000 | $1.0000 |
| Distance from $1 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Chains | 130 | 157 |
| Worst recorded depeg | $0.9250 (Oct 2018) | $0.8700 (Mar 2023) |
| Lost to inflation | −29% | −25% |
| Regulation | Not authorized under the EU's MiCA; a separate US token (USA₮) is issued under the GENIUS Act | MiCA-compliant in the EU; issued by a publicly listed, US-regulated company |
The key difference
USDT is bigger, older and dominant on exchanges and in emerging markets. USDC is the more transparent and more tightly regulated of the two: monthly attestations, reserves in cash and Treasuries managed through BlackRock, and MiCA compliance in Europe. USDT holds a more diverse reserve that includes gold and bitcoin and has never published a full audit.
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.