Ethena USDe vs USDC

Both of these are pegged to the dollar Neither price is discovered by a market, so the numbers below matter less than usual. What matters is who issues each one, what backs it, and what they disclose about the reserves.

Last 7 days, both indexed to zero

USDE ▲0.03% USDC ▲0.01%

Each line starts at zero seven days ago and shows the percentage move since, so the two are on the same scale regardless of what one coin costs. Seven days is a week, not a trend.

  USDE USDC
Selling $100,000 loses What a $100,000 sell actually lost against the quoted price. Measured on-chain where we sweep the coin, otherwise on the exchange that took it best. 1.20% Kraken, 24 Oct 0.01% Kraken, 24 Oct
Price A higher price per coin is not a bigger asset — it is the same value cut into fewer pieces. $0.9995 $0.9997
Market cap Price multiplied by circulating supply. The closest thing to "how big is this". $4.59B $71.63B (larger)
Rank by market cap #22 #6 (larger)
Change, 24h ▲0.02% ▲0.01%
Change, 7 days ▲0.02% ▲0.01%
24h volume How much actually changed hands. Thin volume against a large market cap means the price is easier to move than the cap suggests. $36.52M $9.12B (larger)
Daily turnover Volume as a share of market cap — how much of the asset trades in a day. 0.80% 12.74% (larger)
Circulating supply 4,594,585,116 USDE 71,650,588,956 USDC (larger)
Supply cap A hard cap and an uncapped supply are different designs, not a better and a worse one — what matters is whether issuance is predictable. No fixed cap No fixed cap
Below all-time high How far each sits under its own record price. It says where the price has been, not where it is going. ▼3.34% ▼4.16%
All-time high $1.03 Dec 2025 $1.04 Nov 2018

A highlighted figure is simply the larger of the two. It is marked on size, liquidity and supply — where bigger is a fact — and deliberately not on price or on percentage change, where "bigger" would be us implying a winner.

What each one is

Ethena USDe

USDe is a synthetic dollar issued by Ethena, launched in 2024. Despite trading near a dollar, it is not a stablecoin in the sense that USDC or Tether are — no bank account holds dollars behind it.

Read the full Ethena USDe page →

USDC

USD Coin (USDC) is a dollar stablecoin issued by Circle, launched in 2018. It is widely used as settlement cash across exchanges and decentralised finance, and is generally regarded as the more compliance-focused of the large stablecoins.

Read the full USDC page →

What each one can do

 USDEUSDC
Be sold for dollars Yes Through: An account at an exchange Yes Through: An account at an exchange
Be held without a company Not written up Partly Through: Circle
Earn a return by itself Partly Through: Ethena's staking contract No
Limit its own supply Not written up No
Hold a steady dollar value Partly Through: Ethena, the firms holding its backing, and the exchanges it hedges on Partly Through: Circle, and the banks and fund that hold its reserves
Be redeemed for what backs it Partly Through: Ethena, for approved users, or wherever you sell it Partly Through: Circle, or an exchange
Be used on other chains Not written up Yes Through: Circle

The reasons and the sources are on each coin’s page: Ethena USDe, USDC. A “yes” is a description, not a point scored.

Where each one lives

Ethena USDe

Issued as a token on Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base and 26 more.

The same name exists on several chains. Sending to the wrong one is the most common way people lose money here — check the contract address on the USDE page.

USDC

Issued as a token on Algorand, Aptos, Arbitrum, Arc and 31 more.

The same name exists on several chains. Sending to the wrong one is the most common way people lose money here — check the contract address on the USDC page.

Whichever you hold, holding it yourself is the same problem

Both of these can sit on an exchange, and on an exchange neither of them is yours in the way people assume. If you decide to hold either one properly, this is the category that does it — devices that keep the keys off any internet-connected machine.

All hardware wallets we list →  Some listings earn us a commission. That buys position on a list and nothing else — our rules, in writing.

We are not going to tell you which of these to buy.

We do not know your position, your timeframe or your tolerance for losing money, and any page that claims to answer this question without knowing those things is selling something. What we can do is make sure the facts above are current and that nothing on this page was paid for. Both of these assets can fall a long way.

Other comparisons

Figures for Ethena USDe and USDC synced 2m ago from CoinGecko and shown in USD. This page is market information and education, not financial advice, and nothing on it is a recommendation to buy or sell USDE or USDC. Both can lose value.

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