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October 3, 2026

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CRYPTO·COINBEAT

Journalism for the digital-asset economy

Ratings / DeFi & Infrastructure

Best Stablecoins

Ranked on what actually backs each dollar, who has verified it, and how the peg behaved when it was tested.

8 services ratedLast verified August 13, 2026Methodology

What the score is made of

Weights total 100% · how each axis is recorded ↓
Reserve quality
35%
What backs the token, how liquid it is, and how it would perform under redemption stress.
Attestation depth
25%
Frequency, scope and auditor quality of published reserve reporting.
Peg record
20%
Observed deviation during past stress events and how quickly it resolved.
Redemption access
20%
Who can redeem at par, at what size, and how quickly.

The table at a glance

8 rated · top score 9.3 · tap a row for the full entry

  1. 01USDCThe most conservative reserve profile among major stablecoins9.3
  2. 02USDS / DAIOn-chain collateral with transparent, verifiable backing9.0
  3. 03PYUSDUsers who want a stablecoin with a mainstream payments issuer behind it8.9
  4. 04RLUSDInstitutions wanting a trust-issued dollar on two settlement rails8.8
  5. 05crvUSDBorrowers who want soft liquidation instead of a cliff edge8.5
  6. 06USDTDeepest liquidity anywhere in crypto8.3
  7. 07FDUSDTrading pairs on venues where it is the default quote asset8.0
  8. 08USDeUsers who understand they are buying a basis-trade product7.4
Editor’s pickRank 01

USDC

The most conservative reserve profile among major stablecoins

Reserves held in short-dated Treasuries and cash at regulated institutions, with monthly attestations from a major accounting firm and a well-defined redemption process. Its one significant depeg, in March 2023, was a banking-sector event that resolved within days.

In its favour

  • Reserves in short-dated Treasuries and regulated cash accounts
  • Monthly attestations by a major accounting firm
  • Clear regulatory posture across several jurisdictions

Against it

  • Briefly depegged in March 2023 during a US banking failure
  • Issuer can freeze addresses at law-enforcement request
  • IssuerCircle
  • BackingCash and short-dated Treasuries
  • ReportingMonthly attestation
Score9.3

The weighted mean of the 4 axes below — each read from the fact printed beside it.

Strongest
Reserve quality9.6
Weakest
Peg record8.8

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
9.6
Reserves are held in cash at regulated banks and short-dated US Treasuries through a government money-market fund, with holdings published weekly at instrument level.
Attestation depth
9.4
Monthly attestation reports signed by a major accounting firm, alongside audited financial statements from an issuer that has been listed on the NYSE since June 2025.
Peg record
8.8
Fell to roughly $0.87 in March 2023 when part of the cash reserve sat at Silicon Valley Bank; the peg was restored within days once deposits were guaranteed.
Redemption access
9.0
Par redemption is available to verified institutional customers with published minimums; retail exit runs through the secondary market.

Read the full USDC review →

The rest of the table

02

USDS / DAI

On-chain collateral with transparent, verifiable backing

Every unit of collateral is visible on-chain and verifiable by anyone, which is a stronger form of transparency than any attestation. The backing now includes substantial real-world assets, which reintroduces exactly the counterparty risk the design was meant to avoid.

In its favour

  • Collateral is fully visible and auditable on-chain in real time
  • Long peg record through multiple market crises
  • Governance and parameter changes are public and debated openly

Against it

  • Growing real-world-asset exposure reintroduces off-chain counterparty risk
  • Governance is concentrated among large token holders
  • IssuerSky (formerly MakerDAO)
  • BackingCrypto collateral plus real-world assets
  • ReportingOn-chain, continuous

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
8.8
Collateral is visible on-chain in real time and includes crypto collateral, other stablecoins and tokenised real-world assets, with composition published continuously.
Attestation depth
9.6
The on-chain portion needs no attestation because it is directly verifiable; the real-world-asset portion depends on off-chain reporting from named counterparties.
Peg record
9.0
Held par through the 2020 and 2022 crises; the March 2023 deviation tracked its USDC collateral and closed with it.
Redemption access
8.6
Anyone can mint and redeem against the protocol at published parameters, and the peg-stability module allows one-for-one swaps subject to on-chain limits.

Full USDS / DAI review →

Score9.0
03

PYUSD

Users who want a stablecoin with a mainstream payments issuer behind it

Issued by a regulated New York trust company on behalf of a global payments firm, with monthly attestations and a reserve profile as conservative as any in the table. Adoption outside its own ecosystem is still modest.

In its favour

  • Issued under New York trust-company supervision
  • Conservative reserves with monthly attestation
  • Backed by a mainstream payments company's compliance apparatus

Against it

  • Liquidity and DeFi integration lag the incumbents
  • Freeze and seizure powers are held by the issuer
  • IssuerPaxos Trust for PayPal
  • BackingCash and short-dated Treasuries
  • ReportingMonthly attestation

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
9.2
Reserves are cash deposits and short-dated Treasuries held under a New York trust company, published monthly at instrument level.
Attestation depth
9.2
Monthly attestation by an independent accounting firm under the trust company's supervisory requirements.
Peg record
8.4
No material deviation on record since the 2023 launch.
Redemption access
8.4
Par redemption through the issuer for verified customers, with consumer redemption available inside the payments app.

Full PYUSD review →

Score8.9
04

RLUSD

Institutions wanting a trust-issued dollar on two settlement rails

A newer trust-company-issued stablecoin with a conservative reserve mandate and monthly reporting, available on both Ethereum and the XRP Ledger. Too young to have a peg record worth much yet.

In its favour

  • Issued under a New York trust charter with a conservative mandate
  • Monthly third-party attestation from launch
  • Native on two established settlement networks

Against it

  • Short operating history and limited stress testing
  • Secondary liquidity is thin outside its home ecosystem
  • IssuerStandard Custody / Ripple
  • BackingCash and short-dated Treasuries
  • ReportingMonthly attestation

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
9.2
Reserves are cash and short-dated Treasuries held under a New York trust charter, published monthly.
Attestation depth
9.0
Monthly attestation by an independent accounting firm since launch.
Peg record
8.2
Launched in late 2024 with no material deviation on record — a short history, which caps what the record can show.
Redemption access
8.2
Par redemption for verified institutional customers; retail exit runs through exchanges.

Full RLUSD review →

Score8.8
05

crvUSD

Borrowers who want soft liquidation instead of a cliff edge

A crypto-collateralised dollar whose lending design converts collateral gradually as prices fall rather than liquidating in one event, which is a genuine improvement for borrowers. Everything is on-chain and verifiable; the scale is small.

In its favour

  • Soft-liquidation design reduces cliff-edge losses for borrowers
  • Fully on-chain, continuously verifiable collateral
  • Held its peg through several volatile periods

Against it

  • Small supply and limited liquidity outside its own ecosystem
  • Mechanism is complex and hard for non-specialists to model
  • IssuerCurve
  • BackingCrypto collateral
  • ReportingOn-chain, continuous

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
8.2
Fully backed by on-chain crypto collateral in isolated markets, verifiable in real time, with no off-chain reserve component.
Attestation depth
9.2
No attestation is required because the collateral is on-chain; the contracts are audited with reports published.
Peg record
8.4
Has held close to par since 2023, with brief deviations during volatility closed by its own soft-liquidation mechanism.
Redemption access
8.0
Anyone can mint against supported collateral and redeem by repaying, at parameters published on-chain.

Full crvUSD review →

Score8.5
06

USDT

Deepest liquidity anywhere in crypto

The most traded asset in the sector, available on more chains and more venues than anything else, and it has held its peg through every crisis since 2017. Disclosure remains quarterly attestation rather than full audit, which is the long-standing and unresolved criticism.

In its favour

  • Unmatched liquidity and venue coverage
  • Held the peg through every major market crisis since 2017
  • Reserves now majority short-dated Treasuries by its own reporting

Against it

  • No full financial-statement audit has ever been published
  • Reserve composition includes secured loans and other assets
  • IssuerTether
  • BackingTreasuries plus other assets
  • ReportingQuarterly attestation

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
8.4
Reserves are majority short-dated US Treasuries by the issuer's own reporting, with the remainder including secured loans, precious metals, bitcoin and other investments; composition is published quarterly.
Attestation depth
7.4
Quarterly attestation reports by an accounting firm; no full financial-statement audit has been published in the token's history.
Peg record
9.4
Has held par through every major crisis since 2017, with brief deviations including a fall to roughly $0.95 during the Terra collapse in May 2022, recovered within days.
Redemption access
8.0
Par redemption is available to verified direct customers above a published minimum; retail exit runs through the secondary market.

Full USDT review →

Score8.3
07

FDUSD

Trading pairs on venues where it is the default quote asset

Widely used as a quote currency on major venues, with reserves held in trust and regular attestation. A brief 2025 depeg on rumours about the issuer showed how thin the confidence layer is for newer entrants.

In its favour

  • Deep liquidity on the venues where it is a default pair
  • Reserves held in segregated trust arrangements
  • Regular attestation reporting

Against it

  • Depegged briefly in 2025 on issuer-related rumours
  • Usage is concentrated on a small number of venues
  • IssuerFirst Digital
  • BackingCash and equivalents in trust
  • ReportingRegular attestation

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
8.4
Reserves are stated as cash and equivalents held in trust arrangements in Asia, published monthly.
Attestation depth
8.0
Monthly attestation by an accounting firm; custodian arrangements are documented in less detail than the US trust-issued alternatives.
Peg record
7.6
Fell to roughly $0.87 intraday in April 2025 after public claims about the issuer's solvency, recovering within the same week.
Redemption access
7.8
Par redemption for verified institutional customers; usage concentrates on a small number of venues.

Full FDUSD review →

Score8.0
08

USDe

Users who understand they are buying a basis-trade product

Not a reserve-backed stablecoin but a delta-neutral position: spot collateral hedged with short perpetuals, with the funding rate as the yield. It has worked well and it is structurally exposed to prolonged negative funding, which is a scenario, not a hypothetical.

In its favour

  • Fully transparent, verifiable position accounting
  • Held its peg through several volatile periods since launch
  • Yield source is disclosed explicitly rather than obscured

Against it

  • Printed $0.65 on Binance in October 2025 — a venue oracle failure that still liquidated real holders
  • Depends on perpetual funding staying positive, and on centralised venues to hold the hedge
  • IssuerEthena
  • BackingDelta-neutral hedged collateral
  • ReportingOn-chain plus custodial attestation

Scorecard — and what it was read from

Reserve quality
7.0
Backed by spot collateral hedged with short perpetual positions at centralised venues; composition and hedge positions are published, but this is a hedged position rather than a cash reserve.
Attestation depth
8.6
Publishes reserve and position attestations plus custodian confirmations; the hedge is verifiable only through those disclosures.
Peg record
6.5
Held par on-chain through the 10 October 2025 liquidation cascade — mint and redemption kept working, with about $2bn redeemed in 24 hours — but printed as low as $0.65 on Binance, whose oracle read its own thin internal order book instead of deeper external liquidity, triggering around $1bn of forced liquidations. Supply fell by several billion dollars in the weeks afterwards.
Redemption access
7.6
Mint and redemption are open to whitelisted counterparties only; retail exit runs through the secondary market.

Full USDe review →

Score7.4

↑ Back to the table at a glance

What the record supports

USDC remains the most conservative major stablecoin on every axis this table measures, and pays for it in yield it does not offer. USDT is the most liquid instrument in crypto, and the disclosure gap is the price of that liquidity. The yield-bearing designs further down are interesting products that should not be confused with cash — October 2025 made the point precisely: USDe's collateral and redemptions worked exactly as documented while the token printed $0.65 on the largest exchange, because a venue priced it off its own thin book.

A conclusion drawn from the facts above, and the only part of this page that is.

How a score is read

Each axis is read off the same five bands. They describe what is on the record, not how impressed we are.

9.0–10
Documented and independently verifiable
The claim is evidenced by a published record a third party can check — an attestation, an on-chain contract, a regulator's register — and nothing adverse is on file.
8.0–8.9
Documented, with gaps
Evidence exists but is partial, dated, or covers only part of what the axis measures.
7.0–7.9
Self-reported only
The operator publishes the information and no independent party has verified it.
6.0–6.9
Adverse event on record
A recorded incident, enforcement action or failure that has since been resolved, remediated or repaid.
Below 6
Undocumented or unresolved
No published evidence, or an incident with no resolution on the record. An absence of evidence is scored as an absence.

How we scored this table

A stablecoin is a promise that one token equals one dollar, so this table records what stands behind the promise: reserve composition by asset class, who holds it, who checks it and how often, and what happened at the moments the promise was tested.

Attestations and audits are recorded as different things, because issuers often present them as the same. An attestation confirms specified figures at a point in time under agreed procedures; a financial-statement audit is a broader examination. The page states which one exists, who signs it, and how often it appears.

Peg record is taken from price history rather than from the issuer's description of it: the size of each deviation, how long it lasted and the documented cause. Redemption access is recorded from the terms — a par redemption available only to whitelisted institutions above a minimum is recorded as such, because that is what it is.

  • Every score on this page carries the fact it was read from, printed beside the bar.
  • Yield-bearing designs are recorded by the source of the yield, and are not treated as reserve-backed cash.
  • On-chain collateral is verified directly; off-chain reserves are only as good as the reporting on them.

What each axis records, and where the facts come from

Reserve quality35%
What the reserves are composed of by asset class, where they are held, and what share sits in instruments that can be liquidated the same day.
Source: Issuer reserve reports and attestations, custodian disclosures, on-chain collateral where the backing is on-chain.
Attestation depth25%
Who signs the report, how often it is published, whether it is an attestation or a full financial-statement audit, and what scope it covers.
Source: Published attestation and audit reports and the signing firm's own statements.
Peg record20%
Every recorded deviation from par: its size, how long it lasted, and the documented cause.
Source: Market price history across venues, issuer statements, contemporaneous reporting.
Redemption access20%
Who can redeem at par, at what minimum size, and on what timeline, according to the issuer's own terms.
Source: Issuer terms of service, redemption documentation, on-chain redemption records.

Frequently asked questions

Is a stablecoin the same as holding dollars?+

No. You hold a claim on an issuer whose reserves you can inspect only through their reporting, and in most cases you cannot redeem at par yourself. It behaves like cash right up until the moment it does not.

What is the difference between an attestation and an audit?+

An attestation checks specific figures at a point in time under agreed procedures. An audit is a broader examination of the financial statements as a whole. Most stablecoin reporting is the former, described in language that suggests the latter.

Are yield-bearing stablecoins safe?+

They are structured products, not cash. The yield comes from somewhere — treasuries, funding rates, lending — and each source has a scenario where it stops or reverses. Read the mechanism before treating one as a dollar balance.

Should I hold my stablecoins on an exchange?+

Only what you are actively trading. Holding a stablecoin on an exchange stacks issuer risk on top of custodial risk, and the 2022 failures showed how quickly the second one becomes the binding constraint.

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