HostUSDC vs ALETH — price, size and safety, side by side
USDC (Solana) vs ALETH (Optimism) — every figure is the freshest dated measurement we hold for that token, never a live-feed guess. Prices stamped 2026-10-17 / 2026-10-17.
USDC vs ALETH — normalized performance, 2026-09-21 to 2026-10-17T03:15:24
| USDC | ALETH | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.9998 | $2.36K |
| Market cap | $8.60B | $20.45M |
| 24h volume | $1.90B DEX | $38.35K DEX |
| Liquidity | $464.95M | $2.21M |
| FDV | $8.60B | $4.29M |
| Holders | 5,248,202 | 4,163 |
| Age (days) | — | 1,199 |
| Safety grade | A | B |
Where they differ
- USDC measures ~420× the market cap of ALETH
- USDC measures ~210× the liquidity of ALETH
- USDC measures ~49,536× the 24h volume of ALETH
- USDC measures ~1,261× the holder count of ALETH
- over the shared window USDC moved −0.00% while ALETH moved −10.5%
What the data says
USDC
USDC is the dollar most of Solana actually trades in, and judging it takes a different lens than the one that works on memecoins. This is a centralized, fiat-backed stablecoin: Circle issues it, holds the reserves behind it, and publishes monthly attestations of those reserves. On Solana it lives at mint EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v, where the October 6, 2026 snapshot records about $8.6 billion of market capitalization, roughly 5.25 million holders, and around $465 million of tracked pool liquidity — the deepest dollar venue on the chain.
Here is the part that confuses people who learned token safety from rug-checkers: USDC's mint and freeze authorities are live, on purpose, permanently. Circle has to mint new USDC when dollars come in and burn it when they go out — that is what "backed" means mechanically — and it maintains the ability to freeze addresses to comply with sanctions and court orders, which it has used. On a memecoin, a live mint authority is the classic rug lever; on a fiat-backed stablecoin it is the product working as designed. The risk hasn't vanished — it has moved from an anonymous deployer to a regulated company, which is a trade most holders are knowingly making.
ALETH
ALETH at 0x3e29d3a9316dab217754d13b28646b76607c5f04 is Alchemix's ETH claim on Optimism — the ether-denominated sibling of the protocol's self-repaying dollar, a receipt whose backing is a yield-bearing ETH position. The October 9, 2026 snapshot prices a $20.5 million asset-wide market cap against a $4.3 million fully-diluted read of the local float — and that float is just 1.7 thousand claims, a small book by any measure.
Inside the small book the depth is real: $2.2 million of tracked pool liquidity reads deep against the local float, on $68.1 thousand of 24-hour volume. The record runs 1,181 days — the same vintage as its dollar sibling, both surviving deployments of a protocol that has long since gone through its hype cycle.
FAQ
Which is bigger, USDC or ALETH?
By tracked market cap: USDC (Solana) measures $8.60B and ALETH (Optimism) measures $20.45M — dated snapshots, not a live feed.
Which is safer, USDC or ALETH?
On the contract checks we publish: USDC (Solana) grades A and ALETH (Optimism) grades B. A grade is a structural check on the contract, not a promise about the asset.
How have USDC and ALETH performed over the shared window?
Between 2026-09-21 and 2026-10-17T03:15:24, the measured snapshots show USDC at −0.00% and ALETH at −10.5%.
The grade column is the one CMC's compare page cannot print — our grade is computed from the contract itself (mint/freeze authority, liquidity, holder concentration). Changes are measured over the shared window stated on the chart, 2026-09-21→2026-10-17T03:15:24; a token with fewer measured points measures a shorter span inside it.
Figures are dated on-chain snapshots, not a live feed. Safety grades are structural checks — not investment advice. Free · no signup · a HostDeFi product.