Stablecoins: What Are They For?

Stablecoins are the steady-value crypto option for payments, saving, borrowing, and DeFi.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to hold a fixed value, and this article compares the main ways to use them so you can decide what fits your goals.

At a glance

USDS: onchain savings with more control

USDS is the successor to Dai, and its pitch is simple: keep dollar-like value while staying fully onchain and fully under user control. That makes it attractive if you want a stable asset for DeFi, but do not want to move into a bank-style product just to hold dollars in crypto form.

The trade-off is that crypto-backed systems can be more complex than fiat-backed ones. You need to understand how collateral, protocol rules, and market conditions affect stability, especially if you plan to use USDS for lending or savings rather than just holding it.

USDC: the mainstream dollar token

USDC is the largest US-regulated fiat-backed stablecoin, with a market cap of $76.7 billion in the source data. If your priority is familiarity, liquidity, and broad support across wallets, exchanges, and dapps, USDC is usually the easiest stablecoin to explain to a newcomer.

The downside is trust. Fiat-backed stablecoins depend on an issuer, reserve management, and audits, so you are accepting some centralized risk in exchange for convenience and scale. For many users, that is a fair trade, but it is still a trade.

GHO: borrowing and governance inside DeFi

GHO is built by Aave and uses a hybrid model that mixes crypto-collateral backing with community governance. That makes it interesting for users who already live in DeFi and want a stablecoin tied closely to a lending ecosystem rather than a standalone payments token.

Its smaller size, about $583 million in market cap, means it is not as universally available as USDC. In practice, GHO is best when you value protocol alignment and DeFi-native design more than maximum reach.

Glo Dollar: spend stablecoins and fund public goods

Glo Dollar is the odd one out in a useful way: it is a stablecoin that routes profits to public goods and charities. The user experience is still a dollar-pegged token, but the social impact angle may matter if you want your crypto activity to do something beyond payments or yield.

Because its market cap is only about $2.1 million, it is the least proven option here in terms of scale and liquidity. That does not make it bad, but it does mean it is better suited to niche use or values-driven users than to people who need the deepest markets.

When to pick what

Pick USDS if you want a stablecoin for DeFi and care about keeping control of your funds without leaning on a traditional issuer.

Pick USDC if you want the safest default for most beginners, payments, and wallets that already support the biggest dollar token.

Pick GHO if you already use Aave or want a stablecoin that feels like part of a broader lending and governance system.

Pick Glo Dollar if your main goal is to support public goods or charities while still using a stable dollar token.

For most readers, USDC is the default pick, unless you specifically want onchain self-custody and DeFi-native design, in which case USDS is the better fit.