Lesson 7 of 10 · 2 min read
Stablecoins
Digital dollars, and why 'stable' has a small print.
What they are
A stablecoin is a token designed to stay worth one dollar (or one euro). The ones on Viru, like USDC, USDT, PYUSD and EURC, are backed by cash and short-term government debt held by the issuer, who promises to redeem each token for a dollar.
Students use them to park money between trades without converting back to a bank account.
The small print
Stable depends on the issuer actually holding the reserves and honoring redemptions. Issuers are regulated to different degrees. A stablecoin isn't a bank deposit and isn't insured.
Viru deliberately doesn't list stablecoins that pay yield or hold other crypto as backing, because those behave more like funds than like cash.
Education only. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything.