Stablecoins

The most decentralized stablecoin — ETH-only collateral, immutable contracts, no governance, no admin keys. The gold standard for censorship resistance.

The gold standard for decentralized stablecoins — immutable contracts, no governance, no admin keys, but small adoption limits real-world impact.

DeFi's original decentralized stablecoin — increasingly reliant on real-world assets, navigating a confusing rebrand to Sky.

FDUSD has rapidly grown through Binance's distribution muscle and Hong Kong's regulatory positioning, offering a compliant USD stablecoin alternative, but its Binance dependency and custodian transparency warrant careful scrutiny.

Permissionless stablecoin creation platform with RSR overcollateralization insurance — ambitious vision, growing but still early adoption.

The regulated alternative to USDT — transparent reserves but centralized control and the SVB depeg scar.

NYDFS-regulated tokenized gold from Paxos — the gold standard for on-chain gold with real regulatory oversight.

PayPal's regulated stablecoin via Paxos — a novel fintech bridge to crypto with strong reserves but fully centralized control.

The most decentralized Bitcoin-on-Ethereum bridge — threshold cryptography replaces centralized custodians, but adoption trails centralized alternatives like WBTC.

DeFi's leading Euro stablecoin (EURA) — technically sound and addresses a real gap, but Euro stablecoin demand is inherently limited.

Curve's stablecoin with the genuinely innovative LLAMMA soft-liquidation mechanism — a real advancement in DeFi mechanism design.

The world's largest stablecoin — unmatched liquidity but persistent transparency concerns and centralized freeze powers.

MakerDAO's rebranded stablecoin successor to DAI — same collateral engine, new identity, slower-than-expected adoption.

From fractional-algorithmic to fully backed — Frax evolved into a DeFi infrastructure protocol with RWA-collateralized stablecoin and lending products.

Aave's native stablecoin — recovered from a rough launch with persistent depeg issues, now stabilizing but still proving itself.

Alchemix's self-repaying stablecoin — genuinely innovative DeFi primitive where yield auto-repays your loan, but limited adoption and peg softness.

EURS is the most established Euro stablecoin with proper fiat backing and Maltese regulation, serving a genuine need for on-chain Euro exposure, but faces limited adoption and intense competition from MiCA-compliant newcomers.

Gemini's NYDFS-regulated stablecoin — impeccable compliance credentials but negligible adoption in a market dominated by USDC and USDT.

T-Bill backed yield-bearing stablecoin — real-world yield on-chain through daily rebasing, but fully centralized and early-stage.

MAS-regulated Singapore Dollar stablecoin — genuine regulatory compliance and bank-held reserves, but low adoption and fully centralized like all fiat-backed stablecoins.

Frax's pivot to full collateralization — backed by BlackRock's BUIDL and USD deposits, abandoning the original fractional-reserve experiment.

Ripple's new regulated stablecoin — strong institutional backing and compliance, but very early-stage adoption in a crowded market.

Yield-bearing staked FRAX token. Earns protocol revenue and RWA yield, part of Frax Finance's comprehensive DeFi ecosystem.

Tether-issued gold token — 1 XAUT = 1 oz physical gold in Swiss vaults, but carries all of Tether's transparency baggage.

Celo's stablecoin protocol with reserve-backed algorithmic stability — one of the few algorithmic stablecoins that has actually maintained its peg through multiple cycles.

Synthetix's synthetic USD stablecoin — heavily overcollateralized by SNX, functional within the Synthetix ecosystem but periodic peg instability and narrow adoption.

All-weather stablecoin with diversified reserve design — innovative approach to stablecoin resilience but very early with minimal adoption.

Binance's preferred fiat-backed stablecoin — rapid growth fueled by exchange incentives but heavily concentrated and less transparent than USDC.

Arbitrum yield-bearing stablecoin — hold USDs in your wallet and automatically earn yield from deployed collateral, but smart contract and strategy risk are the trade-off.

RWA-backed stablecoin with innovative yield redistribution — marred by the USD0++ depegging controversy that shook user confidence.

Privacy stablecoin using ZK proofs for shielded transfers — technically sound approach to private payments but minimal adoption and Tornado Cash regulatory shadow.

A high-yield synthetic dollar using delta-neutral hedging — innovative but carries funding rate and counterparty risks that remain untested in a prolonged bear market.

Inverse Finance's overcollateralized stablecoin — functional design but scarred by two 2022 exploits totaling ~$15M, operating in recovery mode with modest adoption.

Blast L2's auto-yield stablecoin backed by MakerDAO's T-bill exposure. Innovative concept but tied to a declining ecosystem.

Elastic supply rebase token targeting CPI-adjusted dollar — a fascinating monetary experiment with minimal real-world adoption.

USDD is TRON's stablecoin that pivoted from algorithmic to overcollateralized after Terra's collapse, but opaque reserves, Justin Sun's controversial reputation, and the algorithmic legacy demand heavy skepticism.

LST-backed stablecoin from Prisma Finance — innovative collateral model but severely impacted by a security exploit and governance controversies.

Elixir's synthetic dollar backed by delta-neutral strategies — innovative approach but carries the same systemic funding rate risks as Ethena's USDe model.

Circle's regulated Euro stablecoin — highest possible collateralization and peg confidence from a trusted issuer, but adoption is a fraction of USDC and the Euro stablecoin market remains small.

Protocol Controlled Value stablecoin that wound down voluntarily after the Rari exploit and compounding setbacks — a clean death for a troubled project.

Celo's native USD stablecoin backed by crypto reserves — decent peg stability and genuine mobile payment usage in emerging markets, but small market cap and reserve model carries crypto volatility risk.

TRON's MakerDAO clone — CDP-backed USDJ exists but is overshadowed by USDT and USDD within its own ecosystem, with centralization concerns around Justin Sun.

Venus Protocol's BSC stablecoin — persistently trades below peg due to weak stabilization mechanisms, and Venus's $200M liquidation cascade history doesn't inspire confidence.

Credit-based stablecoin that lost $182M in a flash loan governance attack — rebuilt by community but carries permanent trust deficit and unproven peg mechanism.

Once-reputable stablecoin that lost trust through Justin Sun association, opaque reserves, and depeg events — proceed with extreme caution.

Tether's Euro stablecoin — inherits USDT's market reach but also its transparency concerns. Negligible adoption compared to USDT, and Circle's EURC is the more trusted Euro stablecoin option.

The coupon-model algo stablecoin — innovative epoch-based design with time-limited coupons that still couldn't hold a peg, dead but academically influential.

The famous Basis revival — three-token algo stablecoin (BAC/BAS/BAB) that couldn't hold its peg and died, becoming a blueprint for how NOT to design algorithmic money.

The original algorithmic stablecoin death spiral — TITAN went from $65 to $0 in hours, IRON depegged permanently, Mark Cuban lost money. A precursor to Terra/LUNA's collapse.

Huobi-adjacent stablecoin that depegged to $0.30 in August 2022 and never recovered — users suffered catastrophic losses in a total trust collapse.

DEAD. The $40B algorithmic stablecoin collapse — UST depegged, LUNA hyperinflated to zero, Do Kwon arrested. The most destructive event in DeFi history.