Circle vs RAI

How Circle vs RAI compare on our ratings, stablecoin specs, funding, pros and cons.

Circle4.7/5

RAI3.0/5

Feature	Circle Visit	RAI Visit
Ratings
Our score	4.7/5	3.0/5
User rating	No reviews yet	No reviews yet
Reserves & transparency	5.0	4.5
Peg stability	4.5	2.5
Regulation	5.0	1.0
Liquidity & chains	5.0	2.5
Redemption	4.0	4.0
Specs
Tickers	USDC, EURC	RAI
Pegged to	US dollar	Other
Backing	Cash & treasuries	Crypto collateral
Yield-bearing	No	No
Regulated issuer	Yes	No
Licenses & charters	US BitLicense (NYDFS), US FinCEN MSB, France EMI (ACPR / MiCA), UK EMI (FCA), Singapore MPI (MAS), ADGM FSRA FSP, Bermuda Class F	Not disclosed
Supply / market cap	$72.9B as of October 2026	Not disclosed
Chains	Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Base, Stellar	Ethereum, Fantom, Polygon, Solana, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism
Reserve reports	Monthly reserve attestations by Deloitte & Touche, with daily CUSIP-level reporting of the Circle Reserve Fund via BlackRock.	Not disclosed
Redemption terms	1:1 par redemption with 0% fees via Circle Mint for verified institutional accounts; retail redemptions via secondary exchanges.	Collateral redeemed from SAFEs via repayment or by token holders through Global Settlement at the floating redemption price
Issuer can freeze tokens	Yes	No
Company
Founded	2013	2020
Headquarters	United States	—
Investors	Not disclosed	Lemniscap, Pantera Capital, Paradigm
Strengths and weaknesses
Pros	Reserves backed 1:1 by cash and short-dated Treasuries with daily CUSIP reporting Monthly reserve attestations published by Deloitte & Touche Direct institutional minting and redemption at 1:1 with zero fees via Circle Mint Holds regulatory licenses in the US, EU, UK, and Singapore	No fiat reserves or banking dependencies Smart contracts feature no blacklist or token freeze capabilities Pure ETH backing with fully transparent on-chain collateral reserves Accessible globally on Ethereum mainnet, with bridged tokens on Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, and Solana
Cons	Circle has onchain blacklist capabilities to freeze tokens on public addresses Direct fiat redemption requires corporate KYB onboarding through Circle Mint Depegged to $0.87 during the March 2023 Silicon Valley Bank failure Reserves carry counterparty exposure to partner banks holding cash deposits	Floats against the US dollar rather than holding a static $1.00 peg Collateral depositors face liquidation risk during steep ETH market drawdowns Contract vulnerability in September 2026 resulted in an exploit draining 5.94 ETH Bridged versions introduce cross-chain bridge smart-contract risks
Best for	Institutional cross-border payment settlement, DeFi liquidity providers and traders, European entities needing MiCA compliance	DeFi collateral without fiat risk, Users avoiding centralized freeze capabilities, ETH holders seeking decentralized borrowing

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