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Head-to-head · Stablecoins

PayPal USD (PYUSD) vs GHO (Aave) PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads by 23 points.

PayPal USD (PYUSD) scores 23 points above GHO (Aave), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope. PayPal USD (PYUSD) ranks #1 and GHO (Aave) #8 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
GHO (Aave)56
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #1 and #8 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-PAYPAL-USD-PYUSD-VS-GHO-AAVE-92a4fea6
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads by 23 points

PayPal USD (PYUSD) scores 23 points above GHO (Aave), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope.

PayPal USD (PYUSD) #1 of 1179
GHO (Aave) #8 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 termPayPal USD (PYUSD) leads on 3 of 4 published criteria; GHO (Aave) on 0. The terms sum to the gap.
TermPayPal USD (PYUSD)GHO (Aave)WeightPoints
Counterparty and insolvency rank7/101/107.2+11.2for PayPal USD (PYUSD)+5.8 of 32
Redemption right exercised8/103/106.7+8.7for PayPal USD (PYUSD)+4.5 of 32
Reserve and assurance scope4/102/105.8+3.0for PayPal USD (PYUSD)+1.5 of 32
Net of the terms+23.0
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.1
Reproduced gap+22.9
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below7956+23.0

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

  • 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.
FactPayPal USD (PYUSD)GHO (Aave)
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.PUBLISHED (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.
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 GHO (Aave)'s 1/10 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.”

GHO (Aave)

56#8 of 11
Pick it when
GHO (Aave) leads PayPal USD (PYUSD) 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
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.
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 1/10 for GHO (Aave) (weight 30)
  • Redemption right exercised: 8/10 against 3/10 for GHO (Aave) (weight 28)
  • Reserve and assurance scope: 4/10 against 2/10 for GHO (Aave) (weight 24)
GHO (Aave)

GHO (Aave) leads PayPal USD (PYUSD) 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

by 6 of 10weight 7.2 of 86PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)7 out of 10
GHO (Aave)1 out of 10

Redemption right exercised

by 5 of 10weight 6.7 of 86PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)8 out of 10
GHO (Aave)3 out of 10

Reserve and assurance scope

by 2 of 10weight 5.8 of 86PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)4 out of 10
GHO (Aave)2 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

weight 4.3 of 86Tie
PayPal USD (PYUSD)6 out of 10
GHO (Aave)6 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)14/20GHO (Aave)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
PayPal USD (PYUSD)15.3/30GHO (Aave)6.5/30
PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)2.7/10GHO (Aave)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)3.2/8GHO (Aave)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)8.3/18GHO (Aave)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

Choose PayPal USD (PYUSD) unless the term GHO (Aave) leads on is the one you are buying.

GHO (Aave) leads PayPal USD (PYUSD) 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% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 6/10, GHO (Aave) 6/10)
  • 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, GHO (Aave) 1/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 4/10, GHO (Aave) 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% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 8/10, GHO (Aave) 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 23 points above GHO (Aave), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope. Published scores, out of 100: PayPal USD (PYUSD) 79 (rank 1 of 11 stablecoins), GHO (Aave) 56 (rank 8 of 11).

Related pages

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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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