Stablecoins

Stablecoins are the part of crypto most people actually transact in, and the part where the interesting question is not price but backing. A token designed to be worth one dollar is only worth one dollar for as long as something credible stands behind it.

So this section covers reserves and who audits them, redemption in practice rather than in a whitepaper, the regulatory frameworks being written specifically for issuers, and the episodes where a peg has slipped. Our stablecoin entry explains the main designs: reserve-backed tokens holding cash and short-term government debt, crypto-collateralised tokens over-collateralised to absorb volatility, and algorithmic designs with no real backing — several of which have failed catastrophically.

Two things make this coverage matter more than it looks. First, stablecoins are the main bridge between crypto and the banking system, so rules aimed at issuers or at the banks holding their reserves land on the whole market. Second, an enormous share of stablecoin transfer volume runs on a handful of networks — TRON carries a great deal of it — which concentrates operational risk in places most holders never think about.

We report depegs when they happen with the figures and the timeline, and we do not treat an issuer's reassurance as verification. Where reserve composition is disclosed we link the disclosure; where it is not, we say so plainly, because that absence is the story.

A stablecoin holding is not a savings account: there is no deposit insurance, and yields offered on stablecoin deposits are compensation for risk somewhere in the chain. Nothing in this section is financial advice.