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Head-to-head · Stablecoins

USDe vs TUSD (TrueUSD) USDe leads by 2 points.

USDe scores 2 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority. USDe ranks #9 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.

USDe55
TUSD (TrueUSD)53
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #9 and #11 of 11
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot Evidence verified through 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-USDE-VS-TUSD-TRUEUSD-55e3dc5c
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

USDe leads by 2 points

USDe scores 2 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority.

USDe #9 of 1155
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 termUSDe leads on 2 of 4 published criteria; TUSD (TrueUSD) on 1. The terms sum to the gap.
TermUSDeTUSD (TrueUSD)WeightPoints
Redemption right exercised1/103/106.7−3.5for TUSD (TrueUSD)−1.8 of 32
Reserve and assurance scope3/102/105.8+1.5for USDe+0.8 of 32
Seizure and upgrade authority7/103/104.3+4.5for USDe+2.3 of 32
Net of the terms+2.5
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.2
Reproduced gap+2.3
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below5553+2.0

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

  • USDe's lead rests on lighter criteria: TUSD (TrueUSD) is ahead on redemption right exercised, which carries more weight (28) than any criterion USDe leads on (24).
Quick facts

At a glance

2 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactUSDeTUSD (TrueUSD)
PricingSnapshotISSUER FEES: NIL, STATED. USDe Terms and Conditions (https://docs.ethena.fi/resources/usde-terms-and-conditions.md, "Last Updated: August 2025", fetched 29 September 2026), section 12 "Fees; Authorization": "Except as disclosed to you prior to completing a transaction as a Mint User, Ethena BVI will not charge you any fees for tokenizing assets for USDe, or receiving USDe. Any cost of executing a mint or redemption transaction is a cost reimbursement to cover friction such as blockchain gas fees or execution fees paid by Ethena BVI." USDe Mint User Agreement (https://docs.ethena.fi/resources/usde-mint-user-agreement.md, "Last Updated: August 2025", fetched 29 September 2026), section 9 "Fees": "The Company may charge fees in connection with the Services, which will typically not represent fees for the Company’s own account and will constitute reimbursements for costs associated with transactions initiated by you, such as blockchain gas fees and execution fees." and "The applicable Digital Currency network may charge a fee in connection with blockchain transactions. You are responsible for all such fees." MINIMUMS: THE PAGES ARE SILENT. Neither binding document publishes a mint or redemption minimum; re-searched 29 September 2026, "minimum" still appears exactly once in each document, in both cases as severability boilerplate. What replaces a published minimum is a published discretion, Mint User Agreement section 12 "Transaction Limits": "The Company reserves the right to change the mint, redemption, transfer, and velocity limits as we deem necessary." and "We may establish individual or aggregate transaction limits on the size or number of mints, redemptions, transfers or other transactions that you initiate using your status as a Mint User during any specified time period." Unlike Tether, which publishes a 100,000 USD floor and a redemption fee a reader can price, Ethena publishes no number at all — access is gated by whitelisting, not by a posted ticket size. CONVERSION RATE ON THE WAY IN, Terms section 13 "Currency Conversion": "All tokenizations of assets will be credited in USDe to your whitelisted wallet(s) based on a rate of one (1) USDe per 1 USD ($1) of notional value", with that value set as follows: "Such value shall be calculated by Ethena BVI based on the asset in its sole discretion". NOTE FOR THE CARD: a zero issuer fee is not a cheap product here — it is a fee schedule for a counterparty class the retail reader cannot join (Terms section 2: "If you are a Holding User, you do not have a right to redeem USDe with Ethena BVI."). The retail cost of entry and exit is the market spread, which this spec grades at zero.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?

USDe

55#9 of 11
Leads
Pick it when
Pick USDe if reserve and assurance scope matters most — it scores 3/10 to TUSD (TrueUSD)'s 2/10 there (weight 24).
Strength
Seizure and upgrade authority — 7/10
Tradeoff
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.

TUSD (TrueUSD)

53#11 of 11
Pick it when
Pick TUSD (TrueUSD) if redemption right exercised matters most — it scores 3/10 to USDe's 1/10 there (weight 28).
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?

USDeLeads

Choose USDe if reserve and assurance scope matters most

  • Reserve and assurance scope: 3/10 against 2/10 for TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 24)
  • Seizure and upgrade authority: 7/10 against 3/10 for TUSD (TrueUSD) (weight 18)
TUSD (TrueUSD)

Choose TUSD (TrueUSD) if redemption right exercised matters most

  • Redemption right exercised: 3/10 against 1/10 for USDe (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
USDe1 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)1 out of 10

Redemption right exercised

by 2 of 10weight 6.7 of 86TUSD (TrueUSD) leads
USDe1 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)3 out of 10

Reserve and assurance scope

by 1 of 10weight 5.8 of 86USDe leads
USDe3 out of 10
TUSD (TrueUSD)2 out of 10

Seizure and upgrade authority

by 4 of 10weight 4.3 of 86USDe leads
USDe7 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
USDe14/20TUSD (TrueUSD)14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
USDe6.1/30TUSD (TrueUSD)5.2/30
USDe leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
USDe2.7/10TUSD (TrueUSD)2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
USDe3.2/8TUSD (TrueUSD)3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
USDe8.3/18TUSD (TrueUSD)8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

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

Pick TUSD (TrueUSD) if redemption right exercised matters most — it scores 3/10 to USDe's 1/10 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% (USDe 7/10, 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% (USDe 1/10, TUSD (TrueUSD) 1/10)
    Scored by What is really behind it, and what did the third party actually opine on? · 24% (USDe 3/10, 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% (USDe 1/10, 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

USDe scores 2 points above TUSD (TrueUSD), led by reserve and assurance scope and seizure and upgrade authority. Published scores, out of 100: USDe 55 (rank 9 of 11 stablecoins), TUSD (TrueUSD) 53 (rank 11 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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