Dai (DAI) and USD Coin (USDC): a comparison
Dai and USD Coin set side by side: how the quotes moved, how the protocols are built and what tasks each one was made for.
Specifications of DAI and USDC
| Dai (DAI) | USD Coin (USDC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.00 | $0.999553 |
| Ticker | DAI | USDC |
| Type | token | token |
| Launched | 2017 | 2018 |
| Built by | MakerDAO | Circle |
| Supply cap | no cap | no cap |
| In circulation | 4.48 B DAI | 70.12 B USDC |
| Market cap | $4.48 B | $70.09 B |
| Rank by cap | #23 | #5 |
| Network | — | Ethereum (ERC20) |
| Fees are paid in | — | ETH |
Source: CoinGecko, Nov 10, 2026 12:57. How these numbers are counted
Price movement: DAI and USDC
The start of the period is taken as 100 for both prices: the chart shows the difference in movement, not the quotes themselves.
| Period | DAI | USDC |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | +0.01% | −0.02% |
| 30 days | +0.01% | −0.02% |
| 90 days | +0.01% | −0.01% |
The link between their daily moves over the quarter is 0.15 (they travel apart).
The tasks DAI and USDC were made for
- A dollar equivalentDai and USD Coin
How Dai and USD Coin are built
How Dai works
The collateral is always worth more than the amount of DAI issued against it. If the collateral falls in price, the position goes to automatic liquidation and the backing is preserved. Interest rates set by the governance mechanism help hold the price near a dollar.
What Dai is for
In DeFi, DAI is used to build lending, borrowing and liquidity pools. It is also taken by those who want a dollar asset managed by a protocol rather than by a single company.
How USD Coin works
USDC, like USDT, lives in several blockchains at once — Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, BNB Smart Chain and others. When dollars arrive in the reserves, Circle mints new tokens; when they are taken back, the tokens are burned. It is this mechanism that holds the price at the one-dollar mark.
What USD Coin is for
DeFi protocols and businesses that care about a regulated issuer lean towards USDC more often. It is taken for payments, dollar savings, trading and moving funds from one blockchain to another.