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Head-to-head · Stablecoins

FDUSD (First Digital USD) vs USDe FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads by 7 points.

FDUSD (First Digital USD) scores 7 points above USDe, led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope. FDUSD (First Digital USD) ranks #4 and USDe #9 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
USDe55
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #4 and #9 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-FDUSD-FIRST-DIGITAL-USD-VS-USDE-4765323a
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads by 7 points

FDUSD (First Digital USD) scores 7 points above USDe, led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope.

FDUSD (First Digital USD) #4 of 1162
USDe #9 of 1155
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 3 of 4 published criteria; USDe on 1. The terms sum to the gap.
TermFDUSD (First Digital USD)USDeWeightPoints
Counterparty and insolvency rank2/101/107.2+1.9for FDUSD (First Digital USD)+1.0 of 32
Redemption right exercised3/101/106.7+3.5for FDUSD (First Digital USD)+1.8 of 32
Reserve and assurance scope6/103/105.8+4.5for FDUSD (First Digital USD)+2.3 of 32
Seizure and upgrade authority4/107/104.3−3.4for USDe−1.7 of 32
Net of the terms+6.5
Reproduced gap+6.5
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below6255+7.0

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)USDe
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.”ISSUER FEES: NIL, STATED. USDe Terms and Conditions (https://docs.ethena.fi/resources/usde-terms-and-conditions.md, "Last Updated: August 2025", fetched 29 September 2026), section 12 "Fees; Authorization": "Except as disclosed to you prior to completing a transaction as a Mint User, Ethena BVI will not charge you any fees for tokenizing assets for USDe, or receiving USDe. Any cost of executing a mint or redemption transaction is a cost reimbursement to cover friction such as blockchain gas fees or execution fees paid by Ethena BVI." USDe Mint User Agreement (https://docs.ethena.fi/resources/usde-mint-user-agreement.md, "Last Updated: August 2025", fetched 29 September 2026), section 9 "Fees": "The Company may charge fees in connection with the Services, which will typically not represent fees for the Company’s own account and will constitute reimbursements for costs associated with transactions initiated by you, such as blockchain gas fees and execution fees." and "The applicable Digital Currency network may charge a fee in connection with blockchain transactions. You are responsible for all such fees." MINIMUMS: THE PAGES ARE SILENT. Neither binding document publishes a mint or redemption minimum; re-searched 29 September 2026, "minimum" still appears exactly once in each document, in both cases as severability boilerplate. What replaces a published minimum is a published discretion, Mint User Agreement section 12 "Transaction Limits": "The Company reserves the right to change the mint, redemption, transfer, and velocity limits as we deem necessary." and "We may establish individual or aggregate transaction limits on the size or number of mints, redemptions, transfers or other transactions that you initiate using your status as a Mint User during any specified time period." Unlike Tether, which publishes a 100,000 USD floor and a redemption fee a reader can price, Ethena publishes no number at all — access is gated by whitelisting, not by a posted ticket size. CONVERSION RATE ON THE WAY IN, Terms section 13 "Currency Conversion": "All tokenizations of assets will be credited in USDe to your whitelisted wallet(s) based on a rate of one (1) USDe per 1 USD ($1) of notional value", with that value set as follows: "Such value shall be calculated by Ethena BVI based on the asset in its sole discretion". NOTE FOR THE CARD: a zero issuer fee is not a cheap product here — it is a fee schedule for a counterparty class the retail reader cannot join (Terms section 2: "If you are a Holding User, you do not have a right to redeem USDe with Ethena BVI."). The retail cost of entry and exit is the market spread, which this spec grades at zero.
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 counterparty and insolvency rank matters most — it scores 2/10 to USDe's 1/10 there (weight 30).
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).

USDe

55#9 of 11
Pick it when
Pick USDe if seizure and upgrade authority matters most — it scores 7/10 to FDUSD (First Digital USD)'s 4/10 there (weight 18).
Strength
Seizure and upgrade authority — 7/10
Tradeoff
That you are not the customer. USDe Terms and Conditions, opening paragraph (https://docs.ethena.fi/resources/usde-terms-and-conditions.md, read 2026-08-19 (verification pass)): "For the avoidance of doubt, Holding Users are not customers of Ethena BVI." and section 2: "If you are a Holding User, you do not have a right to redeem USDe with Ethena BVI." Unless you are KYC-whitelisted as a Mint User — a status Ethena's docs describe as "subject to clearing KYC/KYB checks exclusively for approved market making counterparties" (https://docs.ethena.fi/overview/ethena-overview, read 2026-08-19 (verification pass)), and which US residents are barred from by Mint User Agreement section 1 ("Users in the United States are not eligible to become a Mint User.") — your only exit is selling to someone else at whatever the market pays. Compounding it, the redemption a Mint User does get is in kind and pro rata, "Ethena BVI (or an affiliate designated by Ethena BVI) commits to redeem 1 USDe for the notional value relating to its pro rata portion of the USDe Reserves in supported digital assets, up to a maximum amount of 1 USD in notional value, subject to these Terms, applicable law, and any fees where applicable." — a cap, not a floor — and section 11 confirms the reserves "Ethena BVI does not guarantee that the value of one (1) USDe will always or ever equal 1 USD ($1) on any platform. Due to a variety of factors, the value of USDe on third-party platforms such as cryptocurrency exchange platforms could fluctuate above or below 1 USD ($1), and the risk factors highlighted at docs.ethena.fi (as well as presently unknown risk factors) may result in the USDe Reserves falling to less than 1 USD ($1) of notional value per USDe in circulation." None of this is reachable from the product site: as served on 2026-08-19, https://ethena.fi/ contains the word "terms" nowhere in its delivered payload, while its footer strings "Careers" and "Brand Kit" do appear, proving the footer ships and the contract link does not.
Self-identify in 10 seconds

Which one is actually for you?

FDUSD (First Digital USD)Leads

Choose FDUSD (First Digital USD) if counterparty and insolvency rank matters most

  • Counterparty and insolvency rank: 2/10 against 1/10 for USDe (weight 30)
  • Redemption right exercised: 3/10 against 1/10 for USDe (weight 28)
  • Reserve and assurance scope: 6/10 against 3/10 for USDe (weight 24)
USDe

Choose USDe if seizure and upgrade authority matters most

  • Seizure and upgrade authority: 7/10 against 4/10 for FDUSD (First Digital USD) (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 86FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads
FDUSD (First Digital USD)2 out of 10
USDe1 out of 10

Redemption right exercised

by 2 of 10weight 6.7 of 86FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads
FDUSD (First Digital USD)3 out of 10
USDe1 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
USDe3 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

by 3 of 10weight 4.3 of 86USDe leads
FDUSD (First Digital USD)4 out of 10
USDe7 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)14/20USDe14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
FDUSD (First Digital USD)8.6/30USDe6.1/30
FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
FDUSD (First Digital USD)2.7/10USDe2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
FDUSD (First Digital USD)3.2/8USDe3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
FDUSD (First Digital USD)8.3/18USDe8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

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

Pick USDe if seizure and upgrade authority matters most — it scores 7/10 to FDUSD (First Digital USD)'s 4/10 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% (FDUSD (First Digital USD) 4/10, USDe 7/10)
  • 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, USDe 1/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (FDUSD (First Digital USD) 6/10, USDe 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, USDe 1/10)
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 7 points above USDe, led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope. Published scores, out of 100: FDUSD (First Digital USD) 62 (rank 4 of 11 stablecoins), USDe 55 (rank 9 of 11).

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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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