Dai (DAI) and Tether (USDT): a comparison
Dai and Tether 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 USDT
| Dai (DAI) | Tether (USDT) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.00 | $0.999086 |
| Ticker | DAI | USDT |
| Type | token | token |
| Launched | 2017 | 2014 |
| Built by | MakerDAO | Tether Limited |
| Supply cap | no cap | no cap |
| In circulation | 4.48 B DAI | 177.04 B USDT |
| Market cap | $4.48 B | $176.88 B |
| Rank by cap | #23 | #3 |
| Network | — | TRON (TRC20) |
| Fees are paid in | — | TRX |
Source: CoinGecko, Nov 10, 2026 12:57. How these numbers are counted
Price movement: DAI and USDT
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 | USDT |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | +0.01% | −0.01% |
| 30 days | +0.01% | −0.02% |
| 90 days | +0.01% | −0.01% |
The link between their daily moves over the quarter is -0.07 (they travel apart).
The tasks DAI and USDT were made for
- A dollar equivalentDai and Tether
How Dai and Tether 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 Tether works
USDT has no blockchain of its own. The same dollar token lives in several networks at once: TRON, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, TON, Polygon, Arbitrum and others. You cannot move the token from one network to another directly — that is done through exchanges and bridges.
What Tether is for
People sit out drawdowns in USDT, settle deals, send dollars abroad and pay for services with it. By trading volume it is the market's number one asset and the most familiar way to lock in the result after selling other coins.