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DAI vs GHO (Aave) DAI leads by 2 points.

DAI scores 2 points above GHO (Aave), led by counterparty and insolvency rank and redemption right exercised. DAI ranks #5 and GHO (Aave) #8 of 11 published stablecoins. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.

DAI58
GHO (Aave)56
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #5 and #8 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-DAI-VS-GHO-AAVE-22220735
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

DAI leads by 2 points

DAI scores 2 points above GHO (Aave), led by counterparty and insolvency rank and redemption right exercised.

DAI #5 of 1158
GHO (Aave) #8 of 1156
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99; a bar is empty at 41 and full at 99.
Why, term by termDAI leads on 2 of 4 published criteria; GHO (Aave) on 1. The terms sum to the gap.
TermDAIGHO (Aave)WeightPoints
Counterparty and insolvency rank2/101/107.2+1.9for DAI+1.0 of 32
Redemption right exercised4/103/106.7+1.7for DAI+0.9 of 32
Seizure and upgrade authority5/106/104.3−1.1for GHO (Aave)−0.6 of 32
Net of the terms+2.5
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.2
Reproduced gap+2.3
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below5856+2.0

Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.

  • A row-above bound on one row means the criterion arithmetic does not reproduce the displayed gap exactly.
Quick facts

At a glance

2 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactDAIGHO (Aave)
PricingSnapshotMINT/REDEEM FEE — official Sky Protocol documentation, https://developers.skyeco.com/protocol/liquidity/litepsm/ (fetched 29 September 2026), under “LitePSM-DAI-USDC @ Ethereum” > Details: “Fees have not been activated for DAI → USDC and USDC → DAI.” and “Fees could change in the future.” CORROBORATED ON-CHAIN 2026-09-29: MCD_LITE_PSM_USDC_A (0xf6e72Db5454dd049d0788e411b06CfAF16853042) returned tin() = 0 and tout() = 0 at Ethereum block 26,080,880 — no fee in either direction. MINIMUM: none is imposed by the contract (verified source: the fee is applied only inside “if (tout_ > 0) {” and no require() bounds the amount). CAPACITY: the pocket 0x37305B1cD40574E4C5Ce33f8e8306Be057fD7341 held 4,128,078,640.19 USDC against a DAI totalSupply of 4,601,170,733.74 at that block, with the pocket’s USDC allowance to the PSM effectively unlimited. THE PAGE THAT IS SILENT: the only binding agreement, the Skybase International Terms of Use (docs.sky.money/legal/skybase-international/terms-of-use, “Version: 2.0 | Last Modified: 1 September 2026”, fetched 29 September 2026), contains 0 occurrences of “DAI”, “redeem” and “redemption”; it prices nothing because it promises nothing. Gas is the only unavoidable cost and is paid to Ethereum, not to any issuer. TYPED RATE (label, not a quote): spreadPct = 0 — the LitePSM DAI → USDC swap at par with tin = tout = 0.PUBLISHED (marketing, https://aave.com/gho, fetched 29 September 2026): "Swap USDC, USDT for GHO at 1:1 — free to redeem." The same page's numeric counters (Max swap fee, Total Backing, Total Reserves, current borrow and savings rates) are still rendered client-side and serve placeholders to a non-browser fetch, so no fee or rate figure is readable from the page as published; the quoted sentence is the only static fee statement on it. NO BINDING DOCUMENT PRICES ANYTHING: the Aave Terms of Service (https://aave.com/terms-of-service, rewritten, "Updated 07 September 2026") and the Aave App Terms of Service (https://aave.com/legal/app/terms-of-service, "Updated 14 August 2026"), both fetched 29 September 2026, contain no mint fee, no redemption fee and no minimum, and mention GHO only in the footer menu. ACTUAL LIVE PRICING, read on-chain 29 September 2026 at Ethereum block 26,082,183 via https://ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com: GSM_USDT 0x882285E62656b9623AF136Ce3078c6BdCc33F5E3 returns getFeeStrategy() = 0x06fbDE909B43f01202E3C6207De1D27cC208AcC1, whose getSellFee(1e18) = 0 and getBuyFee(1e18) = 1e15, i.e. 0.00% to convert USDT into GHO and 0.10% to convert GHO back out; GSM_USDC 0x3A3868898305f04beC7FEa77BecFf04C13444112 now returns a DIFFERENT strategy, 0xfDB0090A92d20EE39d82ac680477b1F58f0A23dE, whose getSellFee(1e18) = 0 and getBuyFee(1e18) = 1.5e15, i.e. 0.15% to leave via USDC (on 19 August 2026 both GSMs used the 0.10% strategy). WORKED EXAMPLE (label: on-chain read, not a page price): GSM_USDT getGhoAmountForBuyAsset(1000000000) returns 1,000.000000 waEthUSDT for 1,178.220242 GHO, of which gross 1,177.043199 GHO and fee 1.177043 GHO. CAPACITY: GSM_USDT getAvailableLiquidity() = 16,136,899.348701 waEthUSDT (worth 19,012,821.45 GHO by getGhoAmountForBuyAsset) and GSM_USDC 0.029227 waEthUSDC, so the par exit covers 2.72% of the 699,000,000 GHO supply (7.60% on 19 August 2026); the exit pays a wrapped Aave deposit receipt (waEthUSDT / waEthUSDC), not dollars. There is NO minimum and NO account requirement: buyAsset and sellAsset carry only the notFrozen and notSeized modifiers, and getIsFrozen() and getIsSeized() both return false on both GSMs. BORROWING: Aave v3 Pool 0x87870Bca3F3fD6335C3F4ce8392D69350B4fA4E2 getReserveData(GHO) at the same block returns currentVariableBorrowRate = 4.25% (3.75% on 19 August 2026). CAUTION FOR THE NEXT READER: neither live fee-strategy address appears in Aave's own documentation, https://aave.com/docs/ecosystem/gho.md (fetched 29 September 2026), whose address table still lists GSMUSDCFixedFeeStrategy 0xE5025A7c15a44283A0616567181587eE6A646D64 and GSMUSDTFixedFeeStrategy 0xA4346AEa575fCf5777D32F419E5850E5c68B2329; all fees above were read from the live contracts.
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotglobalglobal
From the published criteria

Which should you pick?

DAI

58#5 of 11
Leads
Pick it when
Pick DAI if counterparty and insolvency rank matters most — it scores 2/10 to GHO (Aave)'s 1/10 there (weight 30).
Strength
Seizure and upgrade authority — 5/10
Tradeoff
The thing that makes DAI feel dollar-redeemable — an instant, zero-fee, no-KYC, no-minimum 1:1 swap into USDC that works at billion-dollar size today — is a mutable governance parameter, not a promise, and it can be revoked faster than governance can normally act. This is now quoted from the source rather than inferred: DssLitePsmMom (0x467b32b0407Ad764f56304420Cddaa563bDab425, verified source, Sourcify exact_match) carries a section banner reading "Governance actions without delay" directly above "function halt(address psm, Flow what) external auth {". A second model run confirmed the mom is armed: PSM.wards(0x467b...b425) = 1 at block 25,789,445. The PSM's own source states "Setting `tin` or `tout` to `HALTED` effectively disables selling and buying gems respectively.", HALTED is "uint256 public constant HALTED = type(uint256).max;", and buyGem opens with "require(tout_ != HALTED, "DssLitePsm/buy-gem-halted");" — so the exit closes the same block it is decided, bypassing the 48-hour governance delay (MCD_PAUSE.delay() = 172800 seconds, re-read on-chain), while Sky's own documentation says only "Fees could change in the future." The chainlog also publishes a purpose-built emergency spell factory for this action, EMSP_LITE_PSM_HALT_FAB (0xB261b73698F6dBC03cB1E998A3176bdD81C3514A). Compounding it: the exit does not deliver dollars, it delivers USDC — "gem.transferFrom(pocket, usr, gemAmt);" — another issuer's token whose own retail redemption is gated, and the 4.13B USDC funding it sits at a single address Circle can blacklist (USDC.isBlacklisted(pocket) resolves and returned false at block 25,789,445 — the power is live, merely unused). And the holder has no unilateral fallback: the Emergency Shutdown Module that historically converted DAI into a direct pro-rata claim on collateral is disarmed — developers.skyeco.com/archive/shutdown/emergency-shutdown/ carries "The Emergency Shutdown Module ESM is currently deprecated" and MCD_ESM.min() returns 2^256-1 against a fire() guarded by "require(Sum >= min, "ESM/min-not-reached");", with ESM.Sum() standing at 0.0013058682050532. Sum can never reach min, so it can never be fired. Only Sky governance can now cage the system.

GHO (Aave)

56#8 of 11
Pick it when
Pick GHO (Aave) if seizure and upgrade authority matters most — it scores 6/10 to DAI's 5/10 there (weight 18).
Strength
Seizure and upgrade authority — 6/10
Tradeoff
Nobody owes you anything, and the page that says otherwise is not a contract. aave.com/gho sells GHO as "Every GHO is backed by more than $1 of crypto held inside Aave." and "Swap USDC, USDT for GHO at 1:1 — free to redeem." — but the only binding documents Aave publishes, its Terms of Service (Updated 07 September 2026) and Aave App Terms of Service (Updated 14 August 2026), never use the words 'redeem' or 'redemption', never mention GHO outside the footer menu, name two different counterparties ('Aave Labs' and 'Aave Interfaces Ltd'), and state "We do not act as your broker, exchange, lender, borrower, counterparty, agent, adviser, trustee or fiduciary in connection with your use of the Protocol." and "We do not take possession, custody or control of your digital assets or funds." What you get instead is better than nothing and worse than a right: a permissionless protocol swap facility that any wallet can use today with no account, no KYC and no minimum — but it charges 0.10% to leave through the USDT leg and 0.15% through the USDC leg while entry is free, it pays you a wrapped Aave deposit receipt rather than dollars, on 2026-09-29 it covered 19.01m GHO against a 699,000,000 supply (2.72%), with the USDC leg down to 0.029227 units, and a single governance transaction can switch it off. That is exactly what happened to its predecessor on 2025-03-17, when $24.0m of exit inventory was swept to the treasury in one transaction and both swap contracts were disabled for good, with no un-seize function in the code.
Self-identify in 10 seconds

Which one is actually for you?

DAILeads

Choose DAI if counterparty and insolvency rank matters most

  • Counterparty and insolvency rank: 2/10 against 1/10 for GHO (Aave) (weight 30)
  • Redemption right exercised: 4/10 against 3/10 for GHO (Aave) (weight 28)
GHO (Aave)

Choose GHO (Aave) if seizure and upgrade authority matters most

  • Seizure and upgrade authority: 6/10 against 5/10 for DAI (weight 18)
Criterion by criterion

Scorecard

Published criteria · weight in points of 868 of 8 cells scored. Strength is read from the evidence file; the weight is the published one. Methodology

Counterparty and insolvency rank

by 1 of 10weight 7.2 of 86DAI leads
DAI2 out of 10
GHO (Aave)1 out of 10

Redemption right exercised

by 1 of 10weight 6.7 of 86DAI leads
DAI4 out of 10
GHO (Aave)3 out of 10

Reserve and assurance scope

weight 5.8 of 86Tie
DAI2 out of 10
GHO (Aave)2 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

by 1 of 10weight 4.3 of 86GHO (Aave) leads
DAI5 out of 10
GHO (Aave)6 out of 10

Score dimensions

weights sum to 86

The published score is five dimensions, each weighted for the category. "Published criteria" is the criteria block above; the other four are the engine's own terms — availability, friction, trust record, measured data. Each bar is one side's points out of that dimension's maximum; the weight beside the name is its points of the 86-point weighted total. The published criteria above can fill 24 of the block’s 30. A weight marked “constant here” belongs to a dimension every ranked product in the category holds at the same value: it still counts in the total, and it orders nothing here.

Availabilityweight 20 of 86 · constant here
DAI14/20GHO (Aave)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
DAI7.4/30GHO (Aave)6.5/30
DAI leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
DAI2.7/10GHO (Aave)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
DAI3.2/8GHO (Aave)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
DAI8.3/18GHO (Aave)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

Choose DAI unless the term GHO (Aave) leads on is the one you are buying.

Pick GHO (Aave) if seizure and upgrade authority matters most — it scores 6/10 to DAI's 5/10 there (weight 18).

The published order weighs every criterion the same way for everyone. To weigh them your way, run .

From the published order

Next best action

If this isn't your case

Other matchups worth comparing

How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
  • Control failure: a key or vote changes the rules, freezes or mints.
    Scored by Who can freeze, burn or replace your balance — and have they? · 18% (DAI 5/10, GHO (Aave) 6/10)
  • Insolvency failure: the firm or issuer that owes you cannot pay.
    Scored by Who exactly owes you the dollar, and where do you rank when they fail? · 30% (DAI 2/10, GHO (Aave) 1/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (DAI 2/10, GHO (Aave) 2/10)
  • Exit failure: you cannot get out at par, on time, or with what is yours.
    Scored by Can the person actually holding it get a dollar back at par — and has anyone, at size? · 28% (DAI 4/10, GHO (Aave) 3/10)
Not assessed by this ranking: Contract failure, Custody failure, Regulatory failure, Information failure. A high place says nothing about these; the Methodology tab says what each means.
Questions

Frequently asked questions

DAI scores 2 points above GHO (Aave), led by counterparty and insolvency rank and redemption right exercised. Published scores, out of 100: DAI 58 (rank 5 of 11 stablecoins), GHO (Aave) 56 (rank 8 of 11).

Related pages

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Written and reviewed by Founder
Reviewed Next review by Methodology v2026.10.18
How this page is reviewed

Reviewed means both products compared here was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.

Accountable for this review: Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder.

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