Is USDT the same as USDC?

No. Both aim to stay at one US dollar, but USDT is issued by Tether and USDC by Circle. They're separate tokens with separate contracts, and swapping one for the other uses a market rate close to 1:1, not exactly 1:1.

Which is safer, USDT or USDC?

That depends on what you weigh, and this isn't advice. Circle reports USDC's reserves as cash and short-term US government debt; Tether reports mostly US Treasury bills plus other assets such as gold and bitcoin. Both publish attestations, not full audits, and both have briefly slipped below $1: USDC in March 2023, USDT in May 2022. How reserves are reported and the depegs have the details.

USDT vs USDC: what's actually different

By the Flipperr team · Last updated: 5 November 2026

USDT and USDC are both stablecoins: tokens meant to stay worth one US dollar each. Most of the time they trade very close to each other, and for moving money around they work the same way. The differences are in who stands behind them, how they report on it, and where you can use them.

Who issues them

USDT (Tether) is issued by Tether. It's the older of the two and has more tokens in circulation.
USDC (USD Coin) is issued by Circle, a US company.

Both say every token is backed by reserves. Circle's are cash and short-term US government debt; Tether's are mostly US Treasury bills, plus other assets such as gold and bitcoin. Both redeem tokens for dollars, but direct redemption needs a verified account with the issuer and, at Tether, a large minimum. Most people buy and sell on exchanges.

How their reserves are reported

Both publish regular reserve reports on their transparency pages: Tether's and Circle's. These are attestations by an accounting firm, which check the reserves on particular dates and are narrower than a full audit. Read the latest ones yourself rather than relying on a summary, this one included.

Where each one lives

On Flipperr, USDT and USDC are each on six of the seven chains we support for them:

USDT: TRON, BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum and Solana.
USDC: Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon and BNB Smart Chain.

Flipperr doesn't support USDC on TRON: Circle stopped issuing it there in February 2024 and ended support in February 2025. It doesn't support USDT on Base either: Base is USDC only here. On Polygon and Arbitrum, the USDC we support is native USDC issued by Circle, not the older bridged USDC.e, and on Base it's native too, not the bridged USDbC. On BNB Smart Chain, USDC is a Binance-Peg token. The USDT to USDC page lists every contract, and the seven networks compared covers how the chains differ.

Same wallet, separate tokens

On any one network, the same address holds both: your MetaMask address keeps USDT and USDC on Ethereum side by side, and a Phantom address does the same on Solana. They're still separate tokens with separate contracts, so a wallet may need each one added by its contract before it shows.

That also means sending one where the other was expected is a wrong-token mistake. An exchange deposit page for USDT may not credit USDC sent to the same address, and on a Flipperr order only the token shown on the deposit page is part of the swap. If it's already happened, see sent on the wrong network or token.

Both have slipped below $1

Stablecoins aim for $1, but their market price can move. USDC fell well below $1 for a few days in March 2023, after Circle said part of its reserves was held at Silicon Valley Bank, which had just failed; it recovered once US authorities said the bank's depositors would be paid in full. USDT dipped below $1 for a few hours in May 2022, in the selling that followed the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin.

Both recovered, but neither is risk-free. Our risk policy says the same.

Why a USDT to USDC swap isn't exactly 1:1

They're two different tokens with their own markets, so at any moment one USDT is worth slightly more or less than one USDC. A swap uses that market rate, with the fees inside it. On Flipperr, the form shows the live rate as “1 USDT ≈ x USDC” and the amount you'll get before you create an order, and the rate floats until your deposit arrives.

Example USDT and USDC swaps

Which one should you hold?

That's your call, and this isn't financial advice. Practical questions help more than opinions:

What does the receiver accept? An exchange, app or person usually names one, and sending the other means swapping first.
Which network do you need? If it's TRON, it has to be USDT. If it's Base, on Flipperr it has to be USDC.
Where do you trade? On exchanges and P2P markets, check which pairs and offers your market actually has before you pick.
How much do the issuer differences matter to you? Read both issuers' reports and decide.

In many countries, swapping one crypto asset for another can count as a taxable event. You're responsible for your own taxes, so check with a tax professional.

Questions

Is USDT the same as USDC?: No. Both aim to stay at one US dollar, but USDT is issued by Tether and USDC by Circle. They're separate tokens with separate contracts, and swapping one for the other uses a market rate close to 1:1, not exactly 1:1.
Which is safer, USDT or USDC?: That depends on what you weigh, and this isn't advice. Circle reports USDC's reserves as cash and short-term US government debt; Tether reports mostly US Treasury bills plus other assets such as gold and bitcoin. Both publish attestations, not full audits, and both have briefly slipped below $1: USDC in March 2023, USDT in May 2022. How reserves are reported and the depegs have the details.