Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026
Ripple USD (RLUSD) leads by 20 points
Ripple USD (RLUSD) scores 20 points above USDe, led by counterparty and insolvency rank, redemption right exercised, and reserve and assurance scope.
USDe #9 of 1155
Ripple USD (RLUSD) #3 of 1175Why, term by termRipple USD (RLUSD) leads on 3 of 4 published criteria; USDe on 1. The terms sum to the gap.
TermRipple USD (RLUSD)USDeWeightPoints
Counterparty and insolvency rank5/101/107.2+7.5for Ripple USD (RLUSD)+3.8 of 32
Redemption right exercised5/101/106.7+7.0for Ripple USD (RLUSD)+3.6 of 32
Reserve and assurance scope8/103/105.8+7.5for Ripple USD (RLUSD)+3.8 of 32
Seizure and upgrade authority5/107/104.3−2.2for USDe−1.2 of 32
Net of the terms+19.7
Reproduced gap+19.8
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below7555+20.0
Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.
Ripple USD (RLUSD)Score 75The best-evidenced reserve in the pool sitting behind a much weaker holder claim: Deloitte examines CUSIP-level T-bills at a named custodian monthly, while the binding terms tell the holder they have no property interest in any of it, no fiduciary is owed to them, and they cannot redeem unless they become an institutional Customer under a contract Ripple does not publish.Strength: Reserve and assurance scope — 8/10Watch-out: The regulatory scaffolding around RLUSD is genuinely better than most of this pool, and the reserve disclosure is the best in it — CUSIP-level, Deloitte-examined, monthly, with a named custodian. None of that is the same thing as a claim you can enforce, and the gap between the two is this record's whole point. The binding RLUSD User Terms say the reserve is “segregated from SCTC's other assets” and then say, in the same subsection, “RLUSD does not convey any direct or indirect property interest in or right to withdraw any assets held in the Reserve”, and later that “Ripple does not provide any trust or fiduciary services to any User under these Terms.” Meanwhile the whitepaper says deposits are “held specifically for the benefit of RLUSD holders”, the attestation criteria say the Reserve holds assets “on behalf of RLUSD holders”, and the OCC letter describes “collateral trustee services for the benefit of RLUSD holders on a fiduciary basis” — for a bank that does not yet exist, under an approval the OCC expressly labels preliminary. The contract governs, and it gives the holder a segregation covenant with no stated insolvency rank, no property interest and no fiduciary duty. Second caveat, on comparability: the 2026-09-29 re-read raised criterion 2 from 4 to 5, the bottom of the band the methodology names for RLUSD, and level with USDC. The terms grant every holder a redemption right and then condition it on becoming a Customer, and the 2026 whitepaper's gate is the same shape as Circle Mint's closure to individuals, which the ladder already weighs for USDC in that band: “Ripple will not conduct B2C transactions.” Third: the terms are stale in a way that matters. They are stamped “Last updated: October 3, 2024” — and still so on 2026-09-29, almost two years on — and in the interim the OCC preliminarily approved a Ripple national trust bank intended to hold the reserve as collateral trustee. If that bank opens, the custody architecture behind this coin changes and the binding document describing it will not have moved. Finally, one number that is not a defect but should not be misread: the LEI on the current whitepaper resolves to the right company with entity status ACTIVE, but its GLEIF REGISTRATION status is LAPSED. Those are different fields; a lapsed identifier registration is not a lapsed charter, and it is scored as nothing more. Two things changed when every document was read again. First, the NYDFS redeemability question is settled, in Ripple's favour on the gate itself: the June 8, 2022 guidance, retrieved this session as bytes from the Internet Archive's raw replay of the dfs.ny.gov URL, confers a par redemption right on “any lawful holder” but expressly subjects it to “reasonable, non-burdensome conditions … such as the ability of the stablecoin holder to onboard successfully with the Issuer before redeeming.” The regulator permits the onboarding gate. What the regulator also requires — “clear, conspicuous redemption policies, approved in advance by DFS in writing”, with a default of T+2 where the issuer does not state its own — Ripple does not publish, which is why criterion 2 goes no higher than 5, the bottom of its band. Second, criterion 4 scores 5, not 6: the chain has twenty role grants; the MINTER and BURNER roles are held not only behind the multisig but also by a Wormhole NttManager proxy that appears in no Ripple document; and because MultiSign weights signatures, replacing the code takes three signatures, not seven. The freeze power had been exercised 192 times by August 2026; the 2026-09-29 re-read counts 214 against 214 distinct addresses since August 2024, 22 of them new and most on 2026-08-25, with not a single reversal and no published record of any of it. Nothing in the reserve or the attestation changed; the CUSIP schedule was re-read position by position and every figure reproduced.USDeScore 55A BVI-issued synthetic dollar whose own binding terms say it is not a claim on the issuer, whose reserve sits in the issuer's own legal title with no trust and no fiduciary duty, and whose redemption right is withheld from every holder who is not a whitelisted market maker.Strength: Seizure and upgrade authority — 7/10Watch-out: 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.