Tether
USDT
USDC
USDC
Tether vs USDC
Last 7 days, both indexed to zero
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.
| USDT | USDC | |
|---|---|---|
| Price A higher price per coin is not a bigger asset — it is the same value cut into fewer pieces. | $0.9992 | $0.9996 |
| Market cap Price multiplied by circulating supply. The closest thing to "how big is this". | $183.07B (larger) | $72.14B |
| Rank by market cap | #3 (larger) | #5 |
| Change, 24h | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Change, 7 days | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 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. | $32.89B (larger) | $7.96B |
| Daily turnover Volume as a share of market cap — how much of the asset trades in a day. | 17.97% (larger) | 11.04% |
| Circulating supply | 183,218,799,295 USDT (larger) | 72,171,381,011 USDC |
| 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. | ▼24.31% | ▼4.16% |
| All-time high | $1.32 Jul 2018 | $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.
How Tether and USDC actually differ
Both aim to be worth one US dollar, and both do it the same way: a company holds reserves and promises redemption. Neither is algorithmic. The real difference is who that company is and what it discloses.
Tether (USDT) is issued by Tether Limited and is the most heavily traded asset in crypto, especially outside the United States and on Tron, where it functions as the working dollar of the market. Its reserves are today largely short-dated US Treasury bills, reported through regular attestations. USD Coin (USDC) is issued by Circle, a US company that has leaned into regulation, publishes monthly attestations and holds reserves in a segregated fund of Treasuries and cash.
The distinction people miss is that attestations are not full audits — that is true of both — and that each has an incident on record. Tether settled with the New York Attorney General in 2021 over past statements about its backing. USDC briefly broke its peg in March 2023 when part of its cash sat at Silicon Valley Bank during the bank's failure, recovering when the deposits were made whole.
Both carry the same category of risk, and it is not volatility. It is counterparty risk: a private issuer holding real assets and honouring redemptions. Both can freeze tokens, and both have done so at law enforcement's request — so neither is censorship-resistant money, whatever else it is. Liquidity favours USDT in most markets; regulatory clarity in the US and Europe favours USDC. That is the trade, and it depends entirely on where you are and what you need the dollars for.
What each one is
Tether
Tether (USDT) is a stablecoin designed to hold a value of one US dollar. Launched in 2014, it is issued by Tether Limited, and it is consistently the most heavily traded asset in crypto — for many traders it functions as the dollar of the crypto market, particularly outside the United States.
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.
Where each one lives
Tether
Issued as a token on Aptos, Avalanche, Celo, Ethereum and 7 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 USDT page.
USDC
Issued as a token on Algorand, Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche and 28 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 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 Tether 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 USDT or USDC. Both can lose value.