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Head-to-head · Stablecoins

PayPal USD (PYUSD) vs TUSD (TrueUSD) PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads by 26 points.

PayPal USD (PYUSD) scores 26 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope. PayPal USD (PYUSD) ranks #1 and TUSD (TrueUSD) #11 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
TUSD (TrueUSD)53
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #1 and #11 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-PAYPAL-USD-PYUSD-VS-TUSD-TRUEUSD-307578aa
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads by 26 points

PayPal USD (PYUSD) scores 26 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope.

PayPal USD (PYUSD) #1 of 1179
TUSD (TrueUSD) #11 of 1153
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 4 of 4 published criteria; TUSD (TrueUSD) on 0. The terms sum to the gap.
TermPayPal USD (PYUSD)TUSD (TrueUSD)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
Seizure and upgrade authority6/103/104.3+3.4for PayPal USD (PYUSD)+1.7 of 32
Net of the terms+26.3
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.1
Reproduced gap+26.3
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below7953+26.0

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)TUSD (TrueUSD)
Conversion spreadSnapshotISSUER 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.MINT/REDEEM FEES — TrueUSD Terms of Use, https://app.tusd.io/terms-of-use (a JavaScript app; the Terms text is served from https://app-cdn.tusd.io/static/js/4464.9b870b98.chunk.js, the same build as in August, fetched 29 September 2026): "You are responsible for all on-chain transaction costs associated with on-chain transfers of any TrueUSD. The Company does not charge any Fees for minting or redeeming any TrueUSD and does not charge any on-chain transaction fees in addition to the blockchain-specific transaction fees associated with such transfers." HOMEPAGE ECHO — https://tusd.io (fetched 29 September 2026): "Additionally, TUSD does not charge any fees for its minting and redemption." MINIMUM — Terms of Use: "We reserve the right to prohibit wire submissions of fiat currency or redemption requests of TrueUSD if the total amount submitted or requested is less than US$1,000." — a discretionary floor, not a stated hard minimum: the issuer reserves the right to REFUSE below US$1,000 rather than promising to accept at or above it. ROUNDING — Terms of Use: "All TrueUSD tokens will be rounded down to the nearest amount of the lowest circulating denomination of the underlying fiat currency, upon redemption." WHAT THE FREE FEE BUYS — the same Terms: "The Platform is only intended to facilitate such mints and redemptions and the Company does not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of TrueUSD tokens for US Dollars." and "In order to cause TrueUSD tokens to be issued or redeemed by the Company, you must be a verified customer of the Company." SILENT ON: no page loaded on 29 September 2026 states a redemption SLA, a settlement window, a banking-partner wire fee, or any maximum; no separate fee-schedule page exists. TYPED RATE (label, not a quote): spreadPct = 0 — the issuer charges no mint or redemption fee; only network gas applies.
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 TUSD (TrueUSD)'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.”

TUSD (TrueUSD)

53#11 of 11
Pick it when
TUSD (TrueUSD) 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
Redemption right exercised — 3/10
Tradeoff
That the reserve backing it holds zero US Treasury Bills. TUSD's own assurance report, dated 19 August 2026 and signed by Moore CPA Limited, lists 'US Treasury Bills $0', '$78,900.88' of cash, and $501,850,000 — 99.98% — as a single balance at First Digital Trust Limited, which the same report says 'has invested all or substantially all of the collateral in other instruments to generate yield, which cannot be readily convertible to cash, and are subject to ongoing legal proceedings.' Techteryx has a worldwide freezing order from the DIFC Courts over up to US$456 million and says it has arranged separate 'alternative liquidity' so that tokens 'in public circulation' can still be redeemed — while the same report discloses that 412,585,497.92 of the 494,515,082.75 tokens issued are held by Techteryx itself. A close second: the Terms of Use you agree to name no company at all — 'Company' is defined as 'us', and a search of the full Terms for 'Ltd', 'Limited', 'LLC', 'Inc.' and 'Techteryx' returns zero hits — and those same Terms state that 'the Company does not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of TrueUSD tokens for US Dollars.'
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 TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 30)
  • Redemption right exercised: 8/10 against 3/10 for TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 28)
  • Reserve and assurance scope: 4/10 against 2/10 for TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 24)
TUSD (TrueUSD)

TUSD (TrueUSD) 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
TUSD (TrueUSD)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
TUSD (TrueUSD)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
TUSD (TrueUSD)2 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

by 3 of 10weight 4.3 of 86PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
PayPal USD (PYUSD)6 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)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
PayPal USD (PYUSD)14/20TUSD (TrueUSD)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
PayPal USD (PYUSD)15.3/30TUSD (TrueUSD)5.2/30
PayPal USD (PYUSD) leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)2.7/10TUSD (TrueUSD)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)3.2/8TUSD (TrueUSD)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
PayPal USD (PYUSD)8.3/18TUSD (TrueUSD)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

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

TUSD (TrueUSD) 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, TUSD (TrueUSD) 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% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 7/10, TUSD (TrueUSD) 1/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (PayPal USD (PYUSD) 4/10, TUSD (TrueUSD) 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, TUSD (TrueUSD) 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 26 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), 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), TUSD (TrueUSD) 53 (rank 11 of 11).

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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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