USDT vs USDC for business payments

What they have in common

Both are stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, and both are issued by a company that holds reserves against them: USDT by Tether, USDC by Circle. For a payment that means:

• you price in US dollars and the customer pays the equivalent in the coin they choose, so neither side carries a price swing between order and payment;
• both exist on several blockchains, so the network is part of the payment as well as the coin (see TRC20, ERC20 and BEP20 for payments);
• both can be sent from a wallet or an exchange, and both arrive as a crypto transfer that the sender cannot reverse.

Qvard supports USDT and USDC among its assets; see the supported coins for the networks each is available on.

Where they differ for a payment

• Reach among customers. USDT is the stablecoin many customers already hold, especially for transfers between individuals and in many regions. USDC is common among customers who work with regulated exchanges and financial products. Which one a given customer holds is a fact about that customer, not about your business.
• Issuer and transparency. The two issuers are different companies in different jurisdictions with different approaches to reserve reporting and regulation. Some businesses and some customers have a policy that prefers one issuer; check whether yours does.
• Networks. Each coin is available on several networks, and which network is cheapest or most convenient for a customer can differ by coin. The customer chooses the asset and the network on the payment page.
• Freezing. Both issuers can freeze tokens at an address. That is a property of the coin, not of your gateway, and it matters if you hold large balances for long.

None of these differences changes how the payment is created: you send the same request, and the customer picks the coin on the payment page.

Risks to understand

Stablecoins are not risk-free. Three honest points:

• Issuer risk. A stablecoin is only as good as the reserves and the company behind it. If you hold balances for a long time, think about how much exposure to a single issuer you accept.
• Peg risk. In stress a stablecoin can trade below a dollar. For a payment that settles within minutes this is a small risk; for a balance you hold for weeks it is not nothing.
• Operational risk. The most common loss is a customer sending on the wrong network, and it happens equally with both coins.

You reduce the first two by not keeping more in stablecoins than you need and by withdrawing to your own wallet or converting through a service you trust. Withdrawal costs only the network fee; withdrawal to a bank account in fiat is not available.

Which one to accept

For most businesses the answer is both:

• Accepting both removes one reason for a customer to abandon the payment ("I hold the other coin").
• It costs you nothing extra to create the payment: the customer chooses on the payment page, or you can preselect a payment method to steer them.
• It spreads, a little, your exposure to a single issuer.

Offer one only when you have a clear reason, for example a customer base that overwhelmingly uses one coin, or a policy that requires one issuer. In either case say clearly on your checkout which coins and networks you accept.

Practical setup

1. Create the payment in US dollars as usual: one POST to https://api.qvard.com/api/v1/payment with your key in the Authorization: Bearer header, your order number as id and the amount as price.
2. Let the customer choose the coin and the network on the payment page. Pass a paymentSystemId only if you want to open it with a specific method selected.
3. Mark the order paid only from the webhook, which is sent when the payment is completed; answer exactly HTTP 200.
4. Reconcile in dollars: record the order value in dollars and keep the payment id beside it, whatever the coin.

The request formats are in crypto payment API for developers, and the most common starting point in how to accept USDT TRC20 payments.

FAQ