Best stablecoins
Dollar and asset-pegged tokens. We scored 15 of them 0–10 from public data — market cap and peg mechanism (defillama stablecoins) — and ranked the 15 we could measure well enough to place fairly. No affiliate links: the order reflects the evidence, nothing else.
Last collection 2026-08-25: probed 252 services, measured 233, over a 90-day window. Collected by our own script, not by hand — reproducible, and reproducibly boring.
The full ranking
| # | Service | Score | Market cap | Peg dev | Age | Chains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tether | 1076% | $183.08B | 0.02% | — | 130 |
| 2 | USD Coin | 1076% | $73.71B | 0.01% | — | 154 |
| 3 | PayPal USD | 9.576% | $2.76B | 0.02% | — | 19 |
| 4 | Sky Dollar | 9.3276% | $6.62B | 0.00% | — | 7 |
| 5 | World Liberty Financial USD | 9.3276% | $4.06B | 0.04% | — | 8 |
| 6 | Global Dollar | 9.3276% | $3.34B | 0.01% | — | 6 |
| 7 | BlackRock USD | 9.3276% | $2.64B | 0.00% | — | 8 |
| 8 | Ondo US Dollar Yield | 9.2752% | $2.16B | 14.38% | — | 15 |
| 9 | Ripple USD | 9.1376% | $2.07B | 0.01% | — | 2 |
| 10 | United Stables | 9.1376% | $1.29B | 0.06% | — | 3 |
| 11 | USDGO | 8.7676% | $1.21B | 0.01% | — | 1 |
| 12 | Circle USYC | 8.7352% | $2.92B | 13.50% | — | 2 |
| 13 | Ethena USDe | 8.1376% | $4.07B | — | 2.5y | 1 |
| 14 | USDD | 7.8776% | $1.27B | — | 1.5y | 3 |
| 15 | Dai | 4.8852% | $17,944 | — | — | 49 |
Every figure carries the date it was taken, on the service’s card below, linked to its open source. Score is out of what we could measure — the % beside it is coverage.
How we scored stablecoins
These weights belong to this category alone. Signature measurement here: Market cap and peg mechanism (DefiLlama stablecoins) — Market cap is the trust vote; live peg deviation is the one job; backing longevity and reach follow. STATUS not scored for a token.
How much value the market trusts it with — TVL, reserves or market cap.
How long it has run and survived — time is signal.
How many chains it is deployed across.
How far the live price drifts from its intended peg.
Latency in this category is timed at a public API endpoint for every service, so the comparison is like-for-like. We never compare latency across categories — a DEX interface and an exchange API are not the same thing, and pretending otherwise would just reward whoever we happened to probe more cheaply.
The brief also defines FEES and UX (0%, 0%). We don’t publish them: we can’t measure them ourselves, and an estimate dressed as a measurement is worse than a gap. Full methodology
The services
Tether
$183.08B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.02% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 130 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
USD Coin
$73.71B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.01% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 154 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$2.76B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.02% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 19 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$6.62B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.00% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 7 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$4.06B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.04% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 8 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$3.34B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.01% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 6 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$2.64B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.00% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 8 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$2.16B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Yield-bearing by design: its price rises above $1 as yield accrues, so peg-deviation is not a failure and is not scored here.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 15 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$2.07B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.01% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 2 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Multi-chain reach: Deployed on 2 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
$1.29B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.06% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 3 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Multi-chain reach: Deployed on 3 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
USDGO
$1.21B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live price deviates 0.01% from the $1.00 peg (DefiLlama). A stablecoin's one job.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Multi-chain reach: Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Circle USYC
$2.92B in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Yield-bearing by design: its price rises above $1 as yield accrues, so peg-deviation is not a failure and is not scored here.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 2 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Multi-chain reach: Deployed on 2 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Ethena USDe
$4.07B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Not a pegged asset, or no live price available.
Live 2.5 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Multi-chain reach: Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
USDD
$1.27B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Not a pegged asset, or no live price available.
Live 1.5 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 3 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Timed at a different surface from the rest of this category, so not a fair comparison — not scored.
Track record: Live 1.5 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Dai
$17,944 in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Not a pegged asset, or no live price available.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 49 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Scale of value trusted: $17,944 in market cap (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Anyone who wants a battle-tested venue. Little value sits here yet, so it has not been stress-tested at scale — early-adopter territory.
Who we left out, and why
We looked at 15, ranked 15.
Head to head
How to choose stablecoins
Dollar and asset-pegged tokens — and the honest truth is that no single ranking fits everyone. Our scores tell you what is best-evidenced on public data: market cap and peg mechanism (defillama stablecoins). Use them as a shortlist, not a verdict.
Start at the top of the table, then open the full breakdown for any service you are considering. Read the coverage figure beside its score — a high number on thin coverage is a narrower claim than the same score fully measured. Check the “where we docked points” and “who it’s not for” notes on each card; the service that scores highest overall is not always the one that fits your specific need. And remember what these scores deliberately leave out — fees and support quality — which you should weigh yourself before committing.
Stablecoins ratings — FAQ
How are stablecoins ranked on this page?+
Each service is scored 0–10 from public data — market cap and peg mechanism (defillama stablecoins) — weighted for what matters in this category, plus our own latency and status checks. 15 of 15 are ranked; the rest we could not measure enough to place fairly. Every figure is dated and links to its source.
What is the best stablecoin?+
On the data we could measure, Tether scores highest at 10/10, ahead of USD Coin (10/10). "Best" here means best-evidenced, not most advertised — open each service below for the full breakdown and decide what fits your needs.
Why isn’t the biggest name at the top?+
Size is not a criterion. A large service that publishes no audits or status page cannot demonstrate its safety from the outside, so it scores below a smaller one that can — even if it is perfectly sound. We rate what is verifiable, not what is famous.
What does the "% measured" figure under a score mean?+
It is the share of this category's criteria weight we could actually fill for that service. Anything we could not measure is marked n/a and its weight is redistributed across the rest — never counted as zero — so the percentage tells you how complete the verdict is.
Do you earn money from these rankings?+
No. There are no affiliate links, no paid placements and no sponsored entries anywhere in the ratings section. That is what lets this list put a smaller, audited service above a bigger, opaque one.
No affiliate links, paid placements or ads anywhere on this site. How this is funded · Methodology