Stablecoins have proliferated this year, so much so that it’s been hard to keep track of them all. In a bid to remedy that, this article compiles a list of all stablecoins that are currently tradable – plus several others that are on their way. This is the ultimate A-Z of stablecoins. For now, at least.
B is for Basis
Basis (formerly Basecoin) is the hottest stablecoin in town, attracting investment from all the usual crypto bigshots. It intends to adhere to the US dollar via an algorithmically adjusted supply. When demand rises, more Basis is created; when it falls, more are bought back, helping maintain the peg.
B is for Bitusd
Bitusd is an old stablecoin now, and it’s starting to wobble. The bulk of its trade occurs on the Bitshares exchange, though it’s also available on Openledger DEX. While it would be stretching the truth to call Bitusd a ‘stable’ stablecoin these days, it still functions. Just.
C is for Carbon
Carbon uses an algorithmically adjusted supply based on demand to maintain parity with the US dollar, similar to Basis. Will it work? We’ll have to wait and see.
C is for CK USD
Little is known about CK USD, whose team are as mysterious as the workings of its stablecoin. Coinmarketcap has no data regarding its total circulating supply, but reports a staggering 24-hour volume of $137 million on BCEX and Allcoin. Whatever CK USD is, it seems to work.
D is for Dai
Dai, created using the MakerDAO, has a market cap 1/20th the size of Tether’s, but it’s a stablecoin on the up, while adhering closely to its obligatory dollar peg. What Dai lacks in market cap it makes up for in transparency. While there are concerns over the possibility of Dai’s collateral-based Ethereum assets being inadequate during extreme market volatility, the stablecoin has worked faithfully so far.
H is for Havven
Havven has two stablecoins: nusd and eusd, the latter an Ethereum-based USD-pegged coin. Havven’s stablecoins are primarily for use within its own ecosystem, so don’t expect to see this pair replacing Tether anytime soon, though there is an EOS version of nusd in the works.
K is for Kowala
Kowala (KUSD) has yet to be unleashed, but big things are expected. A good stablecoin is like a good immune system: you only appreciate the job it was doing when it fails. The measure of any good stablecoin’s success is its ability to cling, limpet-like, to the US dollar through thick and thin.
N is for Nubits
Nubits is a failed stablecoin, and is included here as an example of what can happen when stablecoins go wrong. It is currently trading on Upbit and Bittrex for $0.15. Despite miserably failing to keep its US dollar peg, which it abandoned sometime around January, Nubits is still performing better than most of this year’s ICO tokens.
R is for Rockz
Billed as “the world’s most bulletproof cryptocurrency”, Rockz is a Swiss stablecoin that is launching soon via an ICO. Unusually, it is entering the world via an ICO. If its token can remain rock solid with the Swiss franc it’s backed by, it will have done its job.
S is for Stably
All the cool kids (mostly VC funds) are investing in stablecoins right now. Stably raised $500,000 earlier this year ahead of its launch on the Ethereum and Stellar blockchains. Each USD-pegged Stably coin will be backed by a corresponding cash reserve.
S is for Steem Dollars
Dan Larimer is hailed by his acolytes as a visionary. The only trouble is that once he has moved on to better things, the projects he left behind have a tendency to falter. Like Bitusd, Steem Dollars only resemble a US dollar in the vaguest possible sense these days. Someone needs to invent a term for a coin that’s no longer technically a stablecoin: fablecoin.
T is for Tether
Available on the Omni blockchain and also as an ERC20 token, Tether is the daddy of stablecoins. Supposedly backed by real USD deposits, the stablecoin maintains pretty close parity with its $1 peg. While controversial due to lack of full financial audit, Tether’s $2.8 billion market cap makes it bigger than all but seven cryptocurrencies. But is it too big to fail? For now, Tether seems to be working.
T is for Trueusd
Trust Token’s Trueusd is backed by collateralized USD assets held in escrow accounts. With Binance, Bittrex, and India’s Zebpay all adopting Trueusd, this stablecoin’s star is in the ascendancy.
U is for USD-C
Circle is reportedly working on its own stablecoin, USD-C, which should first see life on Poloniex exchange. It will operate on the Ethereum network and be pegged to the US dollar.
U is for Usdvault
Usdvault is collateralized with gold bullion held in Swiss vaults. The creators claim the stable coin will be based off a 1:1 USD price ratio, backed by precious metals.
Over a long enough timeframe, most of these stablecoins, like most cryptocurrencies in general, are probably destined for failure. For now, at least, those that are tradable (with the exception of Nubits), seem to work. As the saying goes, “Any port in a storm”, and in capricious crypto markets, stablecoins have been welcomed by all who’ve sought refuge in them.