Skip to main content

Head-to-head · Stablecoins

PayPal USD (PYUSD) vs FDUSD (First Digital USD) PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads by 17 points.

PayPal USD (PYUSD) scores 17 points above FDUSD (First Digital USD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and seizure and upgrade authority. PayPal USD (PYUSD) ranks #1 and FDUSD (First Digital USD) #4 of 11 published stablecoins. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.

PayPal USD (PYUSD)79
FDUSD (First Digital USD)62
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #1 and #4 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-PAYPAL-USD-PYUSD-VS-FDUSD-FIRST-DIGITAL-USD-9a83cdf7
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads by 17 points

PayPal USD (PYUSD) scores 17 points above FDUSD (First Digital USD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and seizure and upgrade authority.

PayPal USD (PYUSD) #1 of 1179
FDUSD (First Digital USD) #4 of 1162
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99; a bar is empty at 41 and full at 99.
Why, term by termPayPal USD (PYUSD) leads on 3 of 4 published criteria; FDUSD (First Digital USD) on 1. The terms sum to the gap.
TermPayPal USD (PYUSD)FDUSD (First Digital USD)WeightPoints
Counterparty and insolvency rank7/102/107.2+9.4for PayPal USD (PYUSD)+4.8 of 32
Redemption right exercised8/103/106.7+8.7for PayPal USD (PYUSD)+4.5 of 32
Reserve and assurance scope4/106/105.8−3.0for FDUSD (First Digital USD)−1.5 of 32
Seizure and upgrade authority6/104/104.3+2.2for PayPal USD (PYUSD)+1.2 of 32
Net of the terms+17.3
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread+0.1
Reproduced gap+17.4
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below7962+17.0

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.
FactPayPal USD (PYUSD)FDUSD (First Digital USD)
PricingSnapshotISSUER SIDE, binding terms (https://paxos.com/stablecoin-terms-conditions/ → www.paxos.com/terms-and-conditions/stablecoin-terms-conditions, “Last Modified: June 30, 2026”, fetched 29 September 2026). Fee: §2.8.2.1 “Paxos will not charge you fees for redeeming USD Stablecoins.” Minimum: §2.7.4 “Paxos may require a minimum amount for redemption, which may be updated from time to time, equal to the minimum wire fee charged by your bank for the transaction.” Rate: §2.7.1 “ALL REDEMPTIONS WILL BE ON A ONE-FOR-ONE BASIS, NOTWITHSTANDING ANY CHANGE IN THE MARKET VALUE OF THE RESERVE ASSETS BACKING USD STABLECOINS.” A reserve fee accrues to the issuer, §2.8.1.2: “We will apply a fee to reserves backing USD Stablecoins, and you agree to pay us such fee as determined by an appropriate market rate, provided that no fee will be imposed that reduces the USD Stablecoin reserves to below the amount of USD Stablecoins outstanding.” The schedule itself is NOT on this page — §2.8.1.1 defers it: “An overview of our fees is set forth in the Paxos User Guide at https://help.paxos.com or otherwise in a pricing supplement provided to you by Paxos separate from this USD Stablecoin Agreement” || RETAIL SIDE, https://www.paypal.com/us/digital-wallet/manage-money/crypto/pyusd (fetched 29 September 2026): “There are no fees to buy, sell, hold or transfer PYUSD to eligible PayPal users.” and “You can buy and sell 1 PYUSD for 1 USD on PayPal.” || RETAIL SIDE, THE FULL FEE PAGE, https://www.paypal.com/us/digital-wallet/paypal-consumer-fees (fetched 29 September 2026). Buy/sell table, general crypto: “1.00 - 74.99 USD” “2.20%”, “75.00 – 200.00 USD” “2.00%”, “200.01 – 1000.00 USD” “1.80%”, “1000.01 USD +” “1.50%”, followed by “The fees above do not apply to buying and selling PYUSD”. Transfers: “Receiving a crypto transfer” “No fee”; “Transferring crypto to another PayPal or Venmo branded cryptocurrency account” “No fee”; to an outside address “You will be charged a cryptocurrency network fee, payable in the crypto you transfer, which varies.” Bundled one-step flows ONLY: “For PYUSD, you will pay 1.5% on the USD value of the PYUSD that you transfer to your external wallet.” and “For PYUSD, you will pay 1.5% on the USD value of the PYUSD that you receive from your external wallet.” Disclosed but unquantified for PYUSD: “The exchange rate you’ll see before buying or selling crypto will also include a cryptocurrency conversion spread”. No minimum or maximum PYUSD amount is published on either PayPal page. || MARKETING HEADLINE, paxos.com/pyusd (fetched 29 September 2026): “Zero fees to convert PYUSD to USD with PayPal and Paxos”. || TYPED RATE (label, not a quote): spreadPct = 0 — i.e. a 0% spread on the par (one-for-one) redemption, resting on §2.8.2.1 and §2.7.1 above. The 1.5% applies only to the bundled one-step flows and is not typed.NO 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.”
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotglobalglobal
From the published criteria

Which should you pick?

PayPal USD (PYUSD)

79#1 of 11
Leads
Pick it when
Pick PayPal USD (PYUSD) if counterparty and insolvency rank matters most — it scores 7/10 to FDUSD (First Digital USD)'s 2/10 there (weight 30).
Strength
Redemption right exercised — 8/10
Tradeoff
The protections are scoped to Paxos account-holders; the powers are scoped to everyone. §3.5.6 says the freeze, seizure, forfeiture and destruction section “This Section 3.5 applies to all holders of USD Stablecoins, regardless of whether the holder is a Customer of Paxos.” — but §2.2.2 says “Only Customers may purchase USD Stablecoins from us or redeem USD Stablecoins from us.” and the bankruptcy-remoteness sentence at §3.2.3.1 is framed as “Your assets held with Paxos Trust” and sits inside a subsection headed “3.2.3. Pass-Through Insurance Option.” Buy PYUSD on an exchange, hold it in your own wallet, and you are inside the seizure clause and outside the redemption clause. Note that the prior draft's second complaint — that PayPal's 1:1 zero-fee conversion does not reach on-chain coins — was WRONG and has been withdrawn: “Fee Table: Transferring a cryptocurrency Transfer Type Fee Receiving a crypto transfer No fee Transferring crypto to another PayPal or Venmo branded cryptocurrency account No fee Transferring crypto to an address outside of PayPal or Venmo You will be charged a cryptocurrency network fee, payable in the crypto you transfer, which varies.” The 1.5% applies only to PayPal's bundled one-step buy-and-transfer and transfer-and-sell flows. The real qualification on the PayPal leg is legal, not priced: the counterparty there is PayPal Digital, Inc., where “You do not own any specific, identifiable, Crypto Asset.” and “Crypto Assets, including PYUSD, are not insured by FDIC, SIPC or any other public or private insurer, including against cyber theft or theft by other means.”

FDUSD (First Digital USD)

62#4 of 11
Pick it when
Pick FDUSD (First Digital USD) if reserve and assurance scope matters most — it scores 6/10 to PayPal USD (PYUSD)'s 4/10 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).
Self-identify in 10 seconds

Which one is actually for you?

PayPal USD (PYUSD)Leads

Choose PayPal USD (PYUSD) if counterparty and insolvency rank matters most

  • Counterparty and insolvency rank: 7/10 against 2/10 for FDUSD (First Digital USD) (weight 30)
  • Redemption right exercised: 8/10 against 3/10 for FDUSD (First Digital USD) (weight 28)
  • Seizure and upgrade authority: 6/10 against 4/10 for FDUSD (First Digital USD) (weight 18)
FDUSD (First Digital USD)

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

  • Reserve and assurance scope: 6/10 against 4/10 for PayPal USD (PYUSD) (weight 24)
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 5 of 10weight 7.2 of 86PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)7 out of 10
FDUSD (First Digital USD)2 out of 10

Redemption right exercised

by 5 of 10weight 6.7 of 86PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)8 out of 10
FDUSD (First Digital USD)3 out of 10

Reserve and assurance scope

by 2 of 10weight 5.8 of 86FDUSD (First Digital USD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)4 out of 10
FDUSD (First Digital USD)6 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

by 2 of 10weight 4.3 of 86PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)6 out of 10
FDUSD (First Digital USD)4 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
PayPal USD (PYUSD)14/20FDUSD (First Digital USD)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
PayPal USD (PYUSD)15.3/30FDUSD (First Digital USD)8.6/30
PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)2.7/10FDUSD (First Digital USD)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)3.2/8FDUSD (First Digital USD)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)8.3/18FDUSD (First Digital USD)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

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

Pick FDUSD (First Digital USD) if reserve and assurance scope matters most — it scores 6/10 to PayPal USD (PYUSD)'s 4/10 there (weight 24).

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% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 6/10, FDUSD (First Digital USD) 4/10)
  • 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% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 7/10, FDUSD (First Digital USD) 2/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 4/10, FDUSD (First Digital USD) 6/10)
  • 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% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 8/10, FDUSD (First Digital 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

PayPal USD (PYUSD) scores 17 points above FDUSD (First Digital USD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and seizure and upgrade authority. Published scores, out of 100: PayPal USD (PYUSD) 79 (rank 1 of 11 stablecoins), FDUSD (First Digital USD) 62 (rank 4 of 11).

Related pages

Go deeper

Trust & process
Individual reviews
Other comparisons
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.

How we review · Review calendar · Corrections log · How we make money

Free advisorNo signup needed

Skip the comparison — get your best match

Answer a few quick questions and get one clear recommendation based on how you actually plan to use crypto — with rationale, tradeoffs, and a path to monitor the decision.

No signupFree first pass · PrivateNo spam · No account

Not financial advice · Independent · Always do your own research

Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research