HostUSDC vs PYUSD — price, size and safety, side by side
USDC (Solana) vs PYUSD (Ethereum) — 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 PYUSD — normalized performance, 2026-09-08 to 2026-10-17T06:15:22
| USDC | PYUSD | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.9997 | $0.9987 |
| Market cap | $8.60B | $2.87B |
| 24h volume | $1.90B DEX | $22.51M DEX |
| Liquidity | $464.95M | $61.19M |
| FDV | $8.60B | $1.76B |
| Holders | 5,248,202 | 111,057 |
| Age (days) | — | 268 |
| Safety grade | A | B |
Where they differ
- USDC measures ~3.0× the market cap of PYUSD
- USDC measures ~7.6× the liquidity of PYUSD
- USDC measures ~84× the 24h volume of PYUSD
- USDC measures ~47× the holder count of PYUSD
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.
PYUSD
PYUSD is what a stablecoin looks like when it's built for regulators first and DeFi second. PayPal USD is issued not by PayPal directly but by Paxos Trust Company, a New York–chartered trust supervised by NYDFS, with reserves held in dollar deposits, U.S. Treasuries, and equivalents, attested monthly. The Ethereum deployment lives at 0x6c3ea9036406852006290770bedfcaba0e23a0e8, where HostDeFi's October 9, 2026 snapshot records roughly $61 million of tracked pool liquidity and $11 million of daily on-chain volume — modest next to USDC or USDT, in keeping with a coin whose primary life is inside PayPal and Venmo balances rather than on DEXes.
Read the contract powers through the regulated-issuer lens or you'll misread them as red flags. PYUSD's contract can mint (against dollars in), burn (against dollars out), pause transfers entirely, and freeze or even wipe balances at specific addresses under Paxos's asset-protection role. On an anonymous token, that list is a rug in waiting; here it is the legally mandated toolkit of a New York trust company, and NYDFS supervision is precisely the reason those powers exist. The trade you make holding PYUSD is explicit: maximum issuer accountability, in exchange for maximum issuer control.
FAQ
Which is bigger, USDC or PYUSD?
By tracked market cap: USDC (Solana) measures $8.60B and PYUSD (Ethereum) measures $2.87B — dated snapshots, not a live feed.
Which is safer, USDC or PYUSD?
On the contract checks we publish: USDC (Solana) grades A and PYUSD (Ethereum) grades B. A grade is a structural check on the contract, not a promise about the asset.
How have USDC and PYUSD performed over the shared window?
Between 2026-09-08 and 2026-10-17T06:15:22, the measured snapshots show USDC at −0.02% and PYUSD at −0.13%.
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, 2026-09-08→2026-10-17T06:15:22; 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.