USDT vs USDC: the difference in the evidence

These are the two dollars of crypto, and the comparison is genuinely mixed: the one with far better evidence is the one that has broken its peg, and the one with weaker documentation is the one that has not.

USDC: issued by Circle, a US-listed public company. Audited financial statements filed with a securities regulator, monthly reserve attestations by a major accounting firm, reserves in cash and short-dated Treasuries at regulated institutions, MiCA-licensed in Europe. $73.9bn across 154 chains.

USDT: quarterly attestations rather than a full audit — point-in-time reports, a materially weaker instrument. Reserves include cash and Treasury bills alongside secured loans, bitcoin, gold and other investments. $183.3bn across 130 chains, roughly two and a half times USDC.

The composition difference matters more than the headline. Short-dated government paper is liquid in a crisis. Secured loans, bitcoin and gold behave very differently at exactly the moment redemption pressure arrives.

USDC traded down to about $0.87 in March 2023 when $3.3bn of Circle's reserves were trapped at Silicon Valley Bank over a weekend. It recovered when the US government guaranteed SVB deposits — full backing did not prevent the break, and a government decision resolved it.

USDT has never broken the same way, through repeated crises and years of predictions that it would. That is a real record, not an accident, and it deserves the same weight as the documentation running the other direction.

USDT is the money of this industry and nothing else is close. It is the quote currency for almost every order book in crypto, which means using anything else adds a conversion at both ends. On the practical question of moving a large amount at par, at any hour, on almost any chain, USDT wins outright.

USDC's depth is concentrated in regulated venues and DeFi on major chains, which is exactly where a US or EU user is likely to be operating anyway.

• Both can freeze your balance, and both have. See can a stablecoin issuer freeze your money.
• Neither pays you the interest on the reserves, which on tens of billions of dollars is a substantial sum going somewhere other than the holder.
• Both are claims on a company. Neither is a bearer asset, and neither behaves like one in a crisis.

If you are trading on offshore venues, USDT — it is what the books quote in, and converting to hold something else costs you at both ends.

If you are in the US or EU, on regulated venues or in DeFi on major chains, USDC — comparable utility with materially better evidence, and MiCA licensing matters in Europe.

If the position is large or long-held, both, split — and consider whether it should be a stablecoin at all rather than an instrument that pays you the interest.

Better evidence and better price behaviour are not the same claim. Here, they point at different tokens.

USDC has the stronger evidence — an audited, listed issuer holding cash and short-dated Treasuries — and it is the one that broke, briefly, in March 2023. USDT has weaker documentation, a broader reserve mix, and a better peg record plus unmatched depth. Both can be frozen and neither pays you. Split across both, and keep the balance a working one.