DAI scores 5 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and seizure and upgrade authority. DAI ranks #5 and TUSD (TrueUSD) #11 of 11 published stablecoins. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.
DADAI58
vs
TUTUSD (TrueUSD)53
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #5 and #11 of 11
DAI scores 5 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and seizure and upgrade authority.
DADAI #5 of 1158
TUTUSD (TrueUSD) #11 of 1153
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 3 of 4 published criteria; TUSD (TrueUSD) on 0. The terms sum to the gap.
TermDAITUSD (TrueUSD)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 authority5/103/104.3+2.2for DAI+1.2 of 32
Net of the terms+5.9
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.1
Reproduced gap+5.7
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below5853+5.0
Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.
DAIScore 58DAI is the only coin in this pool with no issuer: the sole binding agreement a holder can reach names its counterparty as bare "Skybase International" with no corporate suffix, no jurisdiction and no company number, states in its Version 2.0 of 1 September 2026 that Skybase International "does not control or operate any version of the Sky Protocol", and never mentions DAI — so nobody owes the holder a dollar and there is no estate to rank in. What exists instead is an immutable, un-freezable, un-upgradeable token whose mint authority is provably frozen to a single contract for all time, and whose 1:1 exit into USDC is real, permissionless, uncapped and currently free — and is a governance parameter that can be switched off in the same block it is decided.Strength: Seizure and upgrade authority — 5/10Watch-out: 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.TUSD (TrueUSD)Score 53A live stablecoin whose binding Terms of Use name no legal entity and expressly do not guarantee redemption, and whose own same-day assurance report — reasonable assurance under ISAE 3000 (Revised), signed by Moore CPA Limited — shows US Treasury Bills of $0 and 99.98% of the reserve sitting as a single at-cost balance at First Digital Trust Limited that the report says 'cannot be readily convertible to cash' and is subject to ongoing legal proceedings.Strength: Redemption right exercised — 3/10Watch-out: That the reserve backing it holds zero US Treasury Bills. TUSD's own assurance report, dated 19 August 2026 and signed by Moore CPA Limited, lists 'US Treasury Bills $0', '$78,900.88' of cash, and $501,850,000 — 99.98% — as a single balance at First Digital Trust Limited, which the same report says 'has invested all or substantially all of the collateral in other instruments to generate yield, which cannot be readily convertible to cash, and are subject to ongoing legal proceedings.' Techteryx has a worldwide freezing order from the DIFC Courts over up to US$456 million and says it has arranged separate 'alternative liquidity' so that tokens 'in public circulation' can still be redeemed — while the same report discloses that 412,585,497.92 of the 494,515,082.75 tokens issued are held by Techteryx itself. A close second: the Terms of Use you agree to name no company at all — 'Company' is defined as 'us', and a search of the full Terms for 'Ltd', 'Limited', 'LLC', 'Inc.' and 'Techteryx' returns zero hits — and those same Terms state that 'the Company does not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of TrueUSD tokens for US Dollars.'
Quick facts
At a glance
2 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactDAITUSD (TrueUSD)
Conversion spreadSnapshotMINT/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.MINT/REDEEM FEES — TrueUSD Terms of Use, https://app.tusd.io/terms-of-use (a JavaScript app; the Terms text is served from https://app-cdn.tusd.io/static/js/4464.9b870b98.chunk.js, the same build as in August, fetched 29 September 2026): "You are responsible for all on-chain transaction costs associated with on-chain transfers of any TrueUSD. The Company does not charge any Fees for minting or redeeming any TrueUSD and does not charge any on-chain transaction fees in addition to the blockchain-specific transaction fees associated with such transfers." HOMEPAGE ECHO — https://tusd.io (fetched 29 September 2026): "Additionally, TUSD does not charge any fees for its minting and redemption." MINIMUM — Terms of Use: "We reserve the right to prohibit wire submissions of fiat currency or redemption requests of TrueUSD if the total amount submitted or requested is less than US$1,000." — a discretionary floor, not a stated hard minimum: the issuer reserves the right to REFUSE below US$1,000 rather than promising to accept at or above it. ROUNDING — Terms of Use: "All TrueUSD tokens will be rounded down to the nearest amount of the lowest circulating denomination of the underlying fiat currency, upon redemption." WHAT THE FREE FEE BUYS — the same Terms: "The Platform is only intended to facilitate such mints and redemptions and the Company does not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of TrueUSD tokens for US Dollars." and "In order to cause TrueUSD tokens to be issued or redeemed by the Company, you must be a verified customer of the Company." SILENT ON: no page loaded on 29 September 2026 states a redemption SLA, a settlement window, a banking-partner wire fee, or any maximum; no separate fee-schedule page exists. TYPED RATE (label, not a quote): spreadPct = 0 — the issuer charges no mint or redemption fee; only network gas applies.
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotglobalglobal
From the published criteria
Which should you pick?
DA
DAI
58#5 of 11
Leads
Pick it when
Pick DAI if counterparty and insolvency rank matters most — it scores 2/10 to TUSD (TrueUSD)'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.
TU
TUSD (TrueUSD)
53#11 of 11
Pick it when
TUSD (TrueUSD) leads DAI on no published criterion and no score dimension — pick it only if a fact outside the score (country, funding rail, custody) decides for you.
Strength
Redemption right exercised — 3/10
Tradeoff
That the reserve backing it holds zero US Treasury Bills. TUSD's own assurance report, dated 19 August 2026 and signed by Moore CPA Limited, lists 'US Treasury Bills $0', '$78,900.88' of cash, and $501,850,000 — 99.98% — as a single balance at First Digital Trust Limited, which the same report says 'has invested all or substantially all of the collateral in other instruments to generate yield, which cannot be readily convertible to cash, and are subject to ongoing legal proceedings.' Techteryx has a worldwide freezing order from the DIFC Courts over up to US$456 million and says it has arranged separate 'alternative liquidity' so that tokens 'in public circulation' can still be redeemed — while the same report discloses that 412,585,497.92 of the 494,515,082.75 tokens issued are held by Techteryx itself. A close second: the Terms of Use you agree to name no company at all — 'Company' is defined as 'us', and a search of the full Terms for 'Ltd', 'Limited', 'LLC', 'Inc.' and 'Techteryx' returns zero hits — and those same Terms state that 'the Company does not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of TrueUSD tokens for US Dollars.'
Self-identify in 10 seconds
Which one is actually for you?
DADAILeads
Choose DAI if counterparty and insolvency rank matters most
Counterparty and insolvency rank: 2/10 against 1/10 for TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 30)
Redemption right exercised: 4/10 against 3/10 for TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 28)
Seizure and upgrade authority: 5/10 against 3/10 for TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 18)
DAIScore 58DAI is the only coin in this pool with no issuer: the sole binding agreement a holder can reach names its counterparty as bare "Skybase International" with no corporate suffix, no jurisdiction and no company number, states in its Version 2.0 of 1 September 2026 that Skybase International "does not control or operate any version of the Sky Protocol", and never mentions DAI — so nobody owes the holder a dollar and there is no estate to rank in. What exists instead is an immutable, un-freezable, un-upgradeable token whose mint authority is provably frozen to a single contract for all time, and whose 1:1 exit into USDC is real, permissionless, uncapped and currently free — and is a governance parameter that can be switched off in the same block it is decided.Strength: Seizure and upgrade authority — 5/10Watch-out: 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.
TUTUSD (TrueUSD)
TUSD (TrueUSD) leads DAI on no published criterion
Choose it only if something outside the published criteria decides for you — your country, a funding rail, or custody.
TUSD (TrueUSD)Score 53A live stablecoin whose binding Terms of Use name no legal entity and expressly do not guarantee redemption, and whose own same-day assurance report — reasonable assurance under ISAE 3000 (Revised), signed by Moore CPA Limited — shows US Treasury Bills of $0 and 99.98% of the reserve sitting as a single at-cost balance at First Digital Trust Limited that the report says 'cannot be readily convertible to cash' and is subject to ongoing legal proceedings.Strength: Redemption right exercised — 3/10Watch-out: That the reserve backing it holds zero US Treasury Bills. TUSD's own assurance report, dated 19 August 2026 and signed by Moore CPA Limited, lists 'US Treasury Bills $0', '$78,900.88' of cash, and $501,850,000 — 99.98% — as a single balance at First Digital Trust Limited, which the same report says 'has invested all or substantially all of the collateral in other instruments to generate yield, which cannot be readily convertible to cash, and are subject to ongoing legal proceedings.' Techteryx has a worldwide freezing order from the DIFC Courts over up to US$456 million and says it has arranged separate 'alternative liquidity' so that tokens 'in public circulation' can still be redeemed — while the same report discloses that 412,585,497.92 of the 494,515,082.75 tokens issued are held by Techteryx itself. A close second: the Terms of Use you agree to name no company at all — 'Company' is defined as 'us', and a search of the full Terms for 'Ltd', 'Limited', 'LLC', 'Inc.' and 'Techteryx' returns zero hits — and those same Terms state that 'the Company does not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of TrueUSD tokens for US Dollars.'
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
DAI2/10 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)1/10 out of 10
Redemption right exercised
by 1 of 10weight 6.7 of 86DAI leads
DAI4/10 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)3/10 out of 10
Reserve and assurance scope
weight 5.8 of 86Tie
DAI2/10 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)2/10 out of 10
Seizure and upgrade authority
by 2 of 10weight 4.3 of 86DAI leads
DAI5/10 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)3/10 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
DAI14/20TUSD (TrueUSD)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
DAI7.4/30TUSD (TrueUSD)5.2/30
DAI leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
DAI2.7/10TUSD (TrueUSD)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
DAI3.2/8TUSD (TrueUSD)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
DAI8.3/18TUSD (TrueUSD)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order
Choose DAI unless the term TUSD (TrueUSD) leads on is the one you are buying.
TUSD (TrueUSD) leads DAI on no published criterion and no score dimension — pick it only if a fact outside the score (country, funding rail, custody) decides for you.
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, TUSD (TrueUSD) 3/10)
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, TUSD (TrueUSD) 1/10)
Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (DAI 2/10, TUSD (TrueUSD) 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, TUSD (TrueUSD) 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 5 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and seizure and upgrade authority. Published scores, out of 100: DAI 58 (rank 5 of 11 stablecoins), TUSD (TrueUSD) 53 (rank 11 of 11).
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.
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