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Head-to-head · Stablecoins

FDUSD (First Digital USD) vs frxUSD (Frax USD) FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads by 6 points.

FDUSD (First Digital USD) scores 6 points above frxUSD (Frax USD), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority. FDUSD (First Digital USD) ranks #4 and frxUSD (Frax USD) #7 of 11 published stablecoins. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.

FDUSD (First Digital USD)62
frxUSD (Frax USD)56
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #4 and #7 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-FDUSD-FIRST-DIGITAL-USD-VS-FRXUSD-FRAX-USD-d088fb62
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads by 6 points

FDUSD (First Digital USD) scores 6 points above frxUSD (Frax USD), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority.

FDUSD (First Digital USD) #4 of 1162
frxUSD (Frax USD) #7 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 termFDUSD (First Digital USD) leads on 2 of 4 published criteria; frxUSD (Frax USD) on 0. The terms sum to the gap.
TermFDUSD (First Digital USD)frxUSD (Frax USD)WeightPoints
Reserve and assurance scope6/103/105.8+4.5for FDUSD (First Digital USD)+2.3 of 32
Seizure and upgrade authority4/103/104.3+1.1for FDUSD (First Digital USD)+0.6 of 32
Net of the terms+5.6
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.2
Reproduced gap+5.5
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below6256+6.0

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

Quick facts

At a glance

2 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactFDUSD (First Digital USD)frxUSD (Frax USD)
PricingSnapshotNO FEE SCHEDULE IS PUBLISHED ANYWHERE REACHABLE, AND NO MINIMUM IS PUBLISHED AT ALL. Re-verified 29 September 2026. (a) The binding FDD Terms (https://firstdigitallabs.webflow.io/legal/fdd-terms, fetched 29 September 2026) are SILENT on mint and redeem fees and on minimums: the document’s only fee sentence concerns currency conversion — “If you transmit your wire in a currency other than in the currency which the FDD is denominated in, we will deduct an amount of FDD that results following a currency conversion of any fees charged for such currency conversion.” (b) The FD121 Account User Agreement (https://firstdigitallabs.webflow.io/legal/fd121-account-user-agreement, fetched 29 September 2026) defers to a schedule it does not link: “FD121 may charge fees in connection with the Services. You agree to pay the fees shown to you, if any, or as separately agreed between you and FD121 without set off or deduction. Fees are generally disclosed in the fee schedule which we publicize from time to time; we may change any of the fees that FD121 charges at any time, with or without notice.” No such schedule was found at any URL on 29 September 2026. A full-text search of both documents for “minimum” returns only the severability boilerplate “the minimum extent necessary” — there is no minimum ticket published anywhere. (c) The only price claim is on the product marketing page (https://firstdigitallabs.webflow.io/fdusd, fetched 29 September 2026), under the heading “Mint and Redeem at Near-Zero Cost”: “We offer zero fee minting and redemption, as long as you mint more than you redeem.” The condition matters — zero-fee redemption holds only while the client mints more than it redeems, and what is charged otherwise is published nowhere; this marketing claim is in no binding document. (d) Access, quoted from the issuer’s transparency page (fetched 29 September 2026): “Please note that First Digital Labs does not sell tokens directly to retail customers.”NO BINDING DOCUMENT PRICES MINT OR REDEMPTION. The FraxNet Terms of Service, https://net.frax.com/terms (fetched 29 September 2026; the page's "Last updated" line renders the fetch date, and the extracted text is the same 16,771 characters as in August), contain 0 occurrences of "redeem", "redemption", "minimum" and "frxUSD", and no fee table of any kind. PUBLISHED FEES — Frax documentation, https://docs.frax.com/frxusd/fiat-onramp-offramp (fetched 29 September 2026), whose "Fees" section lists exactly two items: Exchange Fee, "May be applied by Bridge.xyz during currency conversion"; RWA Liquidation Fee, "A 1 BPS conversion fee may apply if real-world assets (RWAs) are being liquidated to meet cash redemptions". Both are conditional and the exchange leg is unquantified. The same page gates the fiat route: "All users must complete Persona KYC/KYB and Bridge.xyz verification", and the only supported account types are "U.S. checking accounts" and "U.S. savings accounts". ON-CHAIN FEES AND CAPACITY (label: eth_call reads at Ethereum blocks 26,082,253-26,082,262, not page prices): the permissionless USDC route 0x4F95C5bA0C7c69FB2f9340E190cCeE890B3bd87c still returns mintFee() = 0 and redeemFee() = 0, but holds 0 USDC (totalAssets() = 0; it held 1,385,323.315876 USDC on 19 August 2026), so it cannot pay out today; the RWA routes USTB 0x5fbAa3A3B489199338fbD85F7E3D444dc0504F33, BUIDL 0xe827abf9f462ac4f147753d86bc5f91e186e4e9c and WTGXX 0x860Cc723935FC9A15fF8b1A94237a711DFeF7857 return mintFee() = 0 and redeemFee() = 1e14, i.e. 1 basis point, and require addresses "onboarded to hold BUIDL, USTB, or WTGXX" (https://docs.frax.com/frxusd/mint-and-redeem-routes); the USDB route 0xFE2Ea8dE262d956e852F12DE108fda57171a0a29 is fee-free and holds 1.538966 USDB; an AUSD route 0x537bed9200fc5a14ab56e554016753676eff12b0, added as a minter at block 25,832,426 and not listed on the routes page, charges a 1e14 (1 basis point) redeemFee and holds 35,696.844801 AUSD. frxUSD totalSupply() = 93,369,845.27. NOT A PRICE: https://docs.frax.com/frxusd still advertises "Earn 4.1% APY from Treasury yields (subject to treasury backing performance)" — the sfrxUSD/FraxNet savings product, which this page does not score.
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotglobalglobal
From the published criteria

Which should you pick?

FDUSD (First Digital USD)

62#4 of 11
Leads
Pick it when
Pick FDUSD (First Digital USD) if reserve and assurance scope matters most — it scores 6/10 to frxUSD (Frax USD)'s 3/10 there (weight 24).
Strength
Reserve and assurance scope — 6/10
Tradeoff
The marketing says the reserve sits in a “bankruptcy-remote trust structure” and the contract says you own none of it. https://firstdigitallabs.webflow.io/fdusd (read 2026-08-19) states: “FDUSD is fully backed on a one-to-one basis by cash and cash equivalents only, held in a secure, bankruptcy-remote trust structure.” The transparency page adds that reserve assets are “fully segregated from the Trust company’s assets to isolate the Trust company’s bankruptcy” — the CUSTODIAN's bankruptcy, not the issuer's. The FDD Terms (https://firstdigitallabs.webflow.io/legal/fdd-terms, read 2026-08-19) then say of the issuer: “FDD Reserves are owned beneficially by FD121.” and, in the next sentence, “you acknowledge that you are not entitled, whether by way of contract, trust or otherwise, to such assets or any interest or other returns whatsoever earned by FD121 or its custodian on FDD Reserves.” The footer of that same Terms page settles it: “FD121 (BVI) Limited, which is not a trust company, is a financial technology company, not a bank.” A buyer who reads only the product page will believe a trust stands between them and FD121 (BVI) Limited's insolvency. No document says it does, the Terms say the opposite, the issuer's own footer says it is not a trust company, and FD121 (BVI) Limited holds no stablecoin authorisation on any register — the HKMA Register of Licensees under the Stablecoins Ordinance, re-loaded 2026-08-19, names only Anchorpoint Financial Limited (FRS01) and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (FRS02).

frxUSD (Frax USD)

56#7 of 11
Pick it when
frxUSD (Frax USD) leads FDUSD (First Digital USD) 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
This record scores frxUSD; the legacy pair does not belong in it. Every legacy-token read reproduces at pinned block 25,790,057 on 2026-08-19: legacy FRAX 0x853d955aCEf822Db058eb8505911ED77F175b99e returns name() = 'Frax', symbol() = 'FRAX', totalSupply() = 219,320,045.8726, more than twice frxUSD's 99,546,198.812956; legacy sFRAX 0xA663B02CF0a4b149d2aD41910CB81e23e1c41c32 returns 'Staked FRAX' / 'sFRAX' at 56,157,367.8378; sfrxUSD 0xcf62F905562626CfcDD2261162a51fd02Fc9c5b6 returns 'Staked Frax USD' / 'sfrxUSD' at 30,289,675.5744; and FXS 0x3432B6A60D23Ca0dFCa7761B7ab56459D9C964D0 still returns 'Frax Share' / 'FXS'. FIP-428 renames the governance token: gov.frax.finance topic 3652, "[FIP - 428] Frax North Star Proposal - V2" (2025-03-09), states "FXS will be renamed to FRAX" and "'Legacy' FRAX (the original stablecoin) will be renamed to Legacy Frax Dollar". On the read date the string "FRAX" could therefore mean a legacy stablecoin, a governance token mid-rename, or the retired brand of frxUSD. FIP-430 proposes, and nothing records as done, "(1) establishing two distinct balance sheets—one for Legacy FRAX Dollar and one for frxUSD"; neither FIP carries an execution receipt. It also says "the Frax Finance DAO will no longer guarantee 1-to-1 migration between Legacy FRAX Dollar and frxUSD" and leaves Legacy FRAX to "continue to operate under its AMO-driven, DeFi-native model". net.frax.com says frxUSD "can always be redeemed 1:1 for US dollars", while the Terms of Service on the same domain contain the word "redeem" zero times and still describe "a fractional-algorithmic stablecoin". And on 2026-09-29 the permissionless USDC route held 0 USDC and the fee-free USDB route 1.538966 USDB, so the documented permissionless par exit could not pay out, while the undisclosed live mint authority is still there.
Self-identify in 10 seconds

Which one is actually for you?

FDUSD (First Digital USD)Leads

Choose FDUSD (First Digital USD) if reserve and assurance scope matters most

  • Reserve and assurance scope: 6/10 against 3/10 for frxUSD (Frax USD) (weight 24)
  • Seizure and upgrade authority: 4/10 against 3/10 for frxUSD (Frax USD) (weight 18)
frxUSD (Frax USD)

frxUSD (Frax USD) leads FDUSD (First Digital USD) on no published criterion

  • Choose it only if something outside the published criteria decides for you — your country, a funding rail, or custody.
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

weight 7.2 of 86Tie
FDUSD (First Digital USD)2 out of 10
frxUSD (Frax USD)2 out of 10

Redemption right exercised

weight 6.7 of 86Tie
FDUSD (First Digital USD)3 out of 10
frxUSD (Frax USD)3 out of 10

Reserve and assurance scope

by 3 of 10weight 5.8 of 86FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads
FDUSD (First Digital USD)6 out of 10
frxUSD (Frax USD)3 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

by 1 of 10weight 4.3 of 86FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads
FDUSD (First Digital USD)4 out of 10
frxUSD (Frax USD)3 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
FDUSD (First Digital USD)14/20frxUSD (Frax USD)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
FDUSD (First Digital USD)8.6/30frxUSD (Frax USD)6.5/30
FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
FDUSD (First Digital USD)2.7/10frxUSD (Frax USD)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
FDUSD (First Digital USD)3.2/8frxUSD (Frax USD)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
FDUSD (First Digital USD)8.3/18frxUSD (Frax USD)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

Choose FDUSD (First Digital USD) unless the term frxUSD (Frax USD) leads on is the one you are buying.

frxUSD (Frax USD) leads FDUSD (First Digital USD) 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% (FDUSD (First Digital USD) 4/10, frxUSD (Frax USD) 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% (FDUSD (First Digital USD) 2/10, frxUSD (Frax USD) 2/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (FDUSD (First Digital USD) 6/10, frxUSD (Frax USD) 3/10)
  • 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% (FDUSD (First Digital USD) 3/10, frxUSD (Frax USD) 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

FDUSD (First Digital USD) scores 6 points above frxUSD (Frax USD), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority. Published scores, out of 100: FDUSD (First Digital USD) 62 (rank 4 of 11 stablecoins), frxUSD (Frax USD) 56 (rank 7 of 11).

Related pages

Go deeper

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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