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GHO (Aave) vs USDS (Sky) GHO (Aave) leads by 1 point.

GHO (Aave) scores 1 point above USDS (Sky), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority. GHO (Aave) ranks #8 and USDS (Sky) #10 of 11 published stablecoins. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.

GHO (Aave)56
USDS (Sky)55
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #8 and #10 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-GHO-AAVE-VS-USDS-SKY-0b7f504f
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

GHO (Aave) leads by 1 point

GHO (Aave) scores 1 point above USDS (Sky), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority.

GHO (Aave) #8 of 1156
USDS (Sky) #10 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 termGHO (Aave) leads on 2 of 4 published criteria; USDS (Sky) on 1. The terms sum to the gap.
TermGHO (Aave)USDS (Sky)WeightPoints
Redemption right exercised3/104/106.7−1.7for USDS (Sky)−0.9 of 32
Reserve and assurance scope2/101/105.8+1.5for GHO (Aave)+0.8 of 32
Seizure and upgrade authority6/105/104.3+1.1for GHO (Aave)+0.6 of 32
Net of the terms+0.9
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread+0.2
Reproduced gap+1.0

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

  • GHO (Aave)'s lead rests on lighter criteria: USDS (Sky) is ahead on redemption right exercised, which carries more weight (28) than any criterion GHO (Aave) leads on (24).
  • 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.
FactGHO (Aave)USDS (Sky)
PricingSnapshotPUBLISHED (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.MINT/REDEEM FEES AND MINIMUMS ARE NOT IN ANY BINDING DOCUMENT. The Skybase International Terms of Use (https://docs.sky.money/legal/skybase-international/terms-of-use, "Version: 2.0 | Last Modified: 1 September 2026", fetched 29 September 2026) is the silent page: 0 occurrences of "redeem" or "redemption", and no fee schedule or minimum of any kind for acquiring or exiting USDS. The only published pricing sits in the protocol documentation and on-chain. Sky Protocol Docs, https://developers.sky.money/protocol/tokens/usds/ (redirects to developers.skyeco.com, fetched 29 September 2026), DAI USDS Converter: "Converts DAI to USDS at a fixed ratio of 1:1 and vice versa." / "No fees assessed." / "Fees cannot be enabled on this route in the future." Sky Protocol Docs, https://developers.sky.money/guides/psm/litepsm/ (fetched 29 September 2026): "The tin fee is assessed on all sellGem transactions, and the tout fee is assessed on all buyGem transactions. Both tin and tout values are set by Sky Ecosystem governance." and "All users, both public and authorized, can only swap up to the DAI and USDC balances held by LitePSM-DAI-USDC." CURRENT VALUES, all read at ONE Ethereum block, 26,082,220 (2026-09-29T09:26:59Z) via https://ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com: LitePSM-DAI-USDC 0xf6e72Db5454dd049d0788e411b06CfAF16853042 tin() = 0 and tout() = 0; LitePSMWrapper-USDS-USDC 0xA188EEC8F81263234dA3622A406892F3D630f98c tin() = 0 and tout() = 0. No minimum size is published or enforced on either route; the practical ceiling is module inventory — 4,133,680,653.128042 USDC in the Pocket 0x37305B1cD40574E4C5Ce33f8e8306Be057fD7341 at that block against a USDS totalSupply of 6,672,590,279.74 (label: on-chain reads, true only at the stamped block). Marketing counterpart on https://sky.money/ (fetched 29 September 2026), reworded since August: "Swap anytime. No fees, no slippage."
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotglobalglobal
From the published criteria

Which should you pick?

GHO (Aave)

56#8 of 11
Leads
Pick it when
Pick GHO (Aave) if reserve and assurance scope matters most — it scores 2/10 to USDS (Sky)'s 1/10 there (weight 24).
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.

USDS (Sky)

55#10 of 11
Pick it when
Pick USDS (Sky) if redemption right exercised matters most — it scores 4/10 to GHO (Aave)'s 3/10 there (weight 28).
Strength
Seizure and upgrade authority — 5/10
Tradeoff
That nobody is on the other side. Sky's binding Terms of Use (Version 2.0, last modified 1 September 2026) contain zero occurrences of the words "redeem" or "redemption", and the same document states that Skybase International "is not a subsidiary, agent, or representative of the Sky Protocol" and that neither it nor its affiliates are "party to any transaction on the Sky Protocol" — so there is no entity a holder can present USDS to for a dollar, and no insolvency rank to hold. The par exit everyone actually uses is a swap into USDC through a governance-owned module, and Sky's own protocol documentation says "Governance can set either tin or tout to the value of type(uint256).max , halting sellGem and buyGem transactions respectively on the LitePSM. Transactions would be halted for both public and authorized users." while sky.money's homepage advertises "Swap anytime. No fees, no slippage." Worse than the fee switch: the DAI leg's converter is genuinely immutable, but it mints through UsdsJoin, whose mint call is auth-gated on the token, so a single deny() from the pause proxy severs that route too. A buyer who read only the homepage would learn none of this.
Self-identify in 10 seconds

Which one is actually for you?

GHO (Aave)Leads

Choose GHO (Aave) if reserve and assurance scope matters most

  • Reserve and assurance scope: 2/10 against 1/10 for USDS (Sky) (weight 24)
  • Seizure and upgrade authority: 6/10 against 5/10 for USDS (Sky) (weight 18)
USDS (Sky)

Choose USDS (Sky) if redemption right exercised matters most

  • Redemption right exercised: 4/10 against 3/10 for GHO (Aave) (weight 28)
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
GHO (Aave)1 out of 10
USDS (Sky)1 out of 10

Redemption right exercised

by 1 of 10weight 6.7 of 86USDS (Sky) leads
GHO (Aave)3 out of 10
USDS (Sky)4 out of 10

Reserve and assurance scope

by 1 of 10weight 5.8 of 86GHO (Aave) leads
GHO (Aave)2 out of 10
USDS (Sky)1 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

by 1 of 10weight 4.3 of 86GHO (Aave) leads
GHO (Aave)6 out of 10
USDS (Sky)5 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
GHO (Aave)14/20USDS (Sky)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
GHO (Aave)6.5/30USDS (Sky)6.1/30
GHO (Aave) leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
GHO (Aave)2.7/10USDS (Sky)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
GHO (Aave)3.2/8USDS (Sky)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
GHO (Aave)8.3/18USDS (Sky)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

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

Pick USDS (Sky) if redemption right exercised matters most — it scores 4/10 to GHO (Aave)'s 3/10 there (weight 28).

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% (GHO (Aave) 6/10, USDS (Sky) 5/10)
  • 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% (GHO (Aave) 1/10, USDS (Sky) 1/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (GHO (Aave) 2/10, USDS (Sky) 1/10)
  • 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% (GHO (Aave) 3/10, USDS (Sky) 4/10)
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

GHO (Aave) scores 1 point above USDS (Sky), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority. Published scores, out of 100: GHO (Aave) 56 (rank 8 of 11 stablecoins), USDS (Sky) 55 (rank 10 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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