DeFi & Stablecoins
Best Stablecoins
A stablecoin is a promise about redemption. We rate the promise: what backs it, who verifies the backing, and who is legally obliged to honour it.
All 4 compared
Sorted by computed score. Column headers carry this category's weighting; the highest score in each pillar is marked. Tap a name for the full assessment.
| # | Service | Score | Custody35% | Cost10% | Regulation20% | Performance30% | Access5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | USDCThe strongest disclosure and reserve composition available | 8.5Strong | 8.6 — best in table | 8.4 — best in table | 9.0 — best in table | 8.0 | 8.6 |
| 02 | PYUSDA federally supervised issuer with a plain cash-and-Treasuries reserve | 7.8Solid | 8.4 | 8.2 | 8.6 | 6.8 | 6.4 |
| 03 | DAI / Sky USDSOn-chain collateral with transparent, verifiable backing | 7.6Solid | 7.8 | 8.0 | 6.6 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| 04 | USDTUnmatched liquidity and the widest venue acceptance | 7.5Solid | 7.0 | 7.4 | 5.8 | 8.8 — best in table | 9.2 — best in table |
The assessments
what each score rests on- 018.5/10
USDC
Best for the strongest disclosure and reserve composition available
Company file: Circle, owners, incidents →Strong◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026About 88% of reserves sit in a BlackRock-managed government money market fund held at BNY, the rest in bank cash, with monthly third-party attestations and an issuer that files audited accounts with the SEC. The March 2023 de-peg is instructive rather than damning: reserves were exposed to a failed bank, the exposure was disclosed immediately, and the peg recovered once the deposits were guaranteed.
Pillar scores
- Custody & Security35%
- 8.6
- Cost & Fee Transparency10%
- 8.4
- Regulation & Legal Standing20%
- 9.0
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 8.0
- Access & Support5%
- 8.6
Strengths
- Reserve composition published in detail and attested monthly
- Issuer files audited accounts with the SEC and is supervised by the OCC
- Disclosed its March 2023 bank exposure immediately rather than waiting
Against it
- Did de-peg to about $0.87 in March 2023 — reserve quality is not the same as reserve access
- Freezes on court or law-enforcement direction: 16 business wallets frozen under a sealed civil case in Mar 2026
- Will not freeze on its own during a hack, as the Apr 2026 Drift exploit showed
Full assessment of USDC →strong · 8.5/10 - 027.8/10
PYUSD
Best for a federally supervised issuer with a plain cash-and-Treasuries reserve
Company file: Paxos, owners, incidents →Solid◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026Issued by Paxos, an OCC-supervised national trust bank since 12 Dec 2025, against cash, Treasury bills and repo, with monthly KPMG attestations. Liquidity is a fraction of the incumbents, and the October 2025 episode in which one key minted 300 trillion PYUSD by mistake is a control finding, not a footnote.
Pillar scores
- Custody & Security35%
- 8.4
- Cost & Fee Transparency10%
- 8.2
- Regulation & Legal Standing20%
- 8.6
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 6.8
- Access & Support5%
- 6.4
Strengths
- Plain reserve composition — cash, Treasury bills and repo
- Issuer supervised by the OCC as a national trust bank
- Monthly KPMG attestation with published composition
Against it
- Liquidity is a small fraction of the incumbents
- One key could mint without limit, shown by the 300-trillion mis-mint of Oct 2025
- Issuer paid a $26.5M NYDFS penalty in 2025 over its Binance oversight
Full assessment of PYUSD →solid · 7.8/10 - 037.6/10
DAI / Sky USDS
Best for on-chain collateral with transparent, verifiable backing
Company file: Sky, owners, incidents →Solid◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026Backed by over-collateralised on-chain positions you can verify yourself rather than an attestation you have to trust; since 2024 DAI converts 1:1 to its successor, USDS. The catch is that a large share of that collateral is now USDC and tokenised off-chain credit — the very counterparties DAI was created to avoid — and March 2023 showed what that means for the peg.
Pillar scores
- Custody & Security35%
- 7.8
- Cost & Fee Transparency10%
- 8.0
- Regulation & Legal Standing20%
- 6.6
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 7.8
- Access & Support5%
- 8.4
Strengths
- Backing is verifiable on-chain rather than attested by a third party
- No custodian and no permission required to mint or swap
- DAI and USDS convert 1:1 in either direction
Against it
- Heavy dependence on USDC collateral — it followed USDC to about $0.89 in March 2023
- Real-world asset exposure adds counterparties governance cannot verify
- Governance concentration is a real control risk
Full assessment of DAI / Sky USDS →solid · 7.6/10 - 047.5/10
USDT
Best for unmatched liquidity and the widest venue acceptance
Company file: Tether, owners, incidents →Solid◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026The most liquid instrument in crypto by a wide margin and accepted everywhere. Disclosure has improved in stages: quarterly BDO attestations, then on 13 Aug 2026 a first full audit, with KPMG giving an unqualified opinion on Tether International’s 2025 statements. The reserve still holds gold, bitcoin and secured loans that are several times the equity buffer, and that buffer halved in Q2 2026.
Pillar scores
- Custody & Security35%
- 7.0
- Cost & Fee Transparency10%
- 7.4
- Regulation & Legal Standing20%
- 5.8
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 8.8
- Access & Support5%
- 9.2
Strengths
- The deepest liquidity of any stablecoin, by a wide margin
- Paid out more than $10bn of redemptions at $1 during the May 2022 Terra collapse
- First full audit (KPMG, FY2025) with an unqualified opinion
Against it
- Only one audited year so far; quarterly figures are still attestations
- Prior settlements over misstating reserves
- Gold, bitcoin and secured loans in the reserve are several times the equity buffer
Full assessment of USDT →solid · 7.5/10
A stablecoin is a promise about redemption, and the only question worth asking is who is legally obliged to honour it and with what. We do not score these as investments. We score the promise: what backs it, who verifies the backing, whether the verification is an audit or merely an attestation, and how the peg behaved the last time a lot of people wanted out at once.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an attestation and an audit?+
An attestation is an accountant confirming that specified assets existed at a specified moment. An audit examines the issuer’s financial statements as a whole, including liabilities and controls. Every issuer here publishes reserve attestations. Circle, as an SEC registrant, also files audited group accounts, and Tether published its first audited statements, for 2025, in August 2026. For Paxos we found monthly attestations but no published annual accounts. DAI’s collateral sits on-chain and can be checked directly.
Does a past de-peg mean a stablecoin is unsafe?+
It depends entirely on why. USDC de-pegged in March 2023 because a bank holding part of its reserves failed — a reserve access problem, disclosed immediately and resolved in days. Terra de-pegged because there were no reserves. Those are not the same event and the rubric does not treat them as one.
Why is compliance weighted at twenty per cent here?+
Because a stablecoin is a redemption promise, and a promise is only as good as the entity legally bound to it. Unlike a non-custodial protocol, where asking about licensing is close to a category error, here it is the question: who must give you a dollar back, and under whose supervision.
Assessed by
Blockchain Security Researcher · September 27, 2026