# USDC vs USDT: which one to pay contractors in

URL: https://www.orla.finance/en/pay-contractors/usdc-vs-usdt
Markdown twin of that page. Append `.md` to any Orla page URL to get one.

Both are dollar stablecoins and both move for cents to a few dollars. The differences are who issues them, where they live, what it costs to redeem them, and who can freeze them. Here is each from the issuers' own pages on 23 October 2026.

### Pay in the one your contractor can turn into money cheaply

The coin matters less than the network and the exchange at the other end.

#### USDT has the larger supply, most of it on TRON

Tether's transparency page, updated at 23:30 UTC on 22 October 2026, puts USDT in circulation at $182.6 billion, of which $92.7 billion is on TRON and $85.5 billion on Ethereum. A contractor in a market where people are paid on TRON will usually ask for USDT there, and their exchange will take it.

#### USDC is the one with weekly reserve disclosure

Circle's transparency page puts USDC in circulation at $71.9 billion against $72.2 billion of reserves as of 19 October 2026, discloses reserve holdings weekly, and has a Big Four firm provide monthly assurance that reserves exceed circulation. Most of the reserve sits in the Circle Reserve Fund, an SEC-registered government money market fund. In July 2024 Circle said USDC can be issued in the EU under MiCA through its French e-money institution. If your accountant or auditor will ask what backs the coin, Circle's weekly holdings and monthly assurance report are the documents to hand over; for USDT it is Tether's latest reserves report.

#### Either one, never both by accident

A team that pays some contractors in USDT on TRON and others in USDC on Solana keeps a little TRX and a little SOL on two wallets and two sets of addresses. That is fine when it is a decision, and expensive when it is an accident. Pick one per contractor, write the network into the agreement, and keep one fallback.

### USDC and USDT on one table

From each issuer's own pages, read on 23 October 2026.

| Question | USDC | USDT |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Issuer | Circle; in the EU, Circle's French e-money institution | Tether International, S.A. de C.V. |
| In circulation | $71.9 billion, as of 19 October 2026 | $182.6 billion, updated 22 October 2026 |
| Largest networks | Circle does not split it by network on that page | TRON $92.7 billion, Ethereum $85.5 billion, Solana $2.75 billion |
| Reserves reported | Weekly holdings, monthly assurance by a Big Four firm, most in an SEC-registered money market fund | Reserves report of 30 June 2026: assets $187.75 billion against liabilities $183.64 billion |
| Redeeming with the issuer | Through Circle Mint, for businesses, less fees where applicable | From 100,000 USD; the greater of $1,000 or 0.1% a redemption; 150 USD to verify an account |
| Freezing | May block transfers under its blocklisting policy, and may be required to freeze USDC on a legal order (terms of 15 October 2026) | Its terms let it freeze tokens and blacklist an address (terms of 26 February 2026) |
| Sending on Ethereum | $0.007, Etherscan's estimate for an ERC-20 transfer at 0.044 gwei | $0.006 for a USDT transfer at 0.044 gwei |

Neither is a bank deposit, and the issuer's redemption terms are for businesses that hold an account with it; a contractor cashes out through an exchange.

### The network fee, network by network

Paid by the sender in the chain's own coin, the same for 400 as for 40,000.

#### Ethereum

Etherscan's gas tracker at 01:09 UTC on 23 October 2026 showed gas at 0.044 gwei, a USDT transfer at $0.006 (54,128 gas) and its estimate for an ERC-20 token transfer, the kind a USDC transfer is, at $0.007 (65,000 gas). Gas moves with congestion, so that is one night's figure, not a promise. Base, Arbitrum and Polygon share the same 0x address, keep separate balances and have their own gas.

#### TRON

A USDT transfer spends energy. The latest confirmed USDT transfers on TRON at 01:10 UTC used 64,285 energy when the recipient already held USDT and 130,285 when it held none. The network's own parameter prices energy at 100 sun a unit, so a wallet without staked energy burns about 6.4 TRX or 13 TRX a transfer, roughly $2.11 or $4.28 at a TRX price of $0.328 that hour. Paying a new address costs about twice as much as paying one that has been paid before.

#### Solana

The base fee is 5,000 lamports per signature, paid in SOL, with an optional priority fee on top. A recipient who has never held the token needs a token account opened, about 0.002 SOL once, and a wallet that holds only USDC cannot move it until it holds a little SOL.

#### The other end

The contractor pays to turn tokens into their currency: an exchange's trading fee, a withdrawal and their bank. That is usually the largest cost on the whole route, and it depends on which coin and network their exchange supports cheaply. Ask them before you choose.

### Four risks a bank transfer does not have

#### No recall

There is no chargeback and no bank to phone. What can be done happens before the send.

#### The issuer can freeze

Circle's USDC terms, updated 15 October 2026, say it may be required to freeze USDC on a legal order from a valid government authority, and Tether's terms let it freeze tokens and blacklist addresses. Rare for a payroll, and real: the address you pay matters.

#### The wrong network

USDT on TRON and USDT on Ethereum are different tokens on different chains. Money sent to an address on the wrong chain, or to a network the contractor's exchange does not credit, can be lost.

#### A lookalike address

Address poisoning copies the first and last characters of an address you know. Copying from your transaction history instead of from the contractor's own message is how it works.

### Paying contractors in either one, under one rule

The coin and the network are a property of the wallet you pay from; the rule and the record are the same.

#### An address per network on the contact

A contractor's card keeps a wallet address per network with one marked default. The account you pay from decides which of them can be used at all: a TRON wallet offers TRON addresses, an Ethereum wallet the EVM ones, so the wrong network is not a choice the form offers.

#### A batch signed once

A batch draws from one wallet and pays in its coin or a token it holds, up to 200 rows, from a CSV if you like. Payments above a threshold need the signatures the rule asks for, and whoever proposed a payment cannot sign it.

#### Checks before the send

A recipient that looks like a contact but differs in the middle is held, with the contact it resembles named under the row. Where address screening is on, the run offers to screen every address with no check from the last month, one paid check each; the verdict reads Low risk, High risk or Blacklisted, and a high-risk address is held back until someone releases that payee. Not enough TRX for energy is told apart from not enough USDT, and the preview on Solana shows the token account a new recipient needs.

#### The record the accountant gets

Each payment shows its transaction id and what the network actually charged; the fee is its own row in SOL, TRX or ETH. The month leaves as journal lines for Xero or QuickBooks with the value in your base currency at that day's rate.

### Questions

**Is USDC or USDT better for paying contractors?**

The one the contractor can cash out cheaply where they live. USDT has the larger supply and most of it on TRON; USDC has weekly reserve disclosure, monthly assurance by a Big Four firm and, since July 2024, issuance in the EU under MiCA through Circle's French e-money institution. Ask the contractor which coin and network their exchange credits, then pay there.

**Which is safer, USDC or USDT?**

Safer for what. Both issuers can freeze an address under their terms, and neither token is a bank deposit. They differ in what the issuer publishes about reserves: Circle a weekly breakdown and monthly assurance, Tether a daily circulation figure and periodic reserves reports, the latest as of 30 June 2026. Which risk matters more to you is a judgment this page cannot make.

**What is stablecoin payroll?**

Paying people a regular amount in a dollar stablecoin instead of by bank transfer. For contractors it works like any payout with a different rail; the tax forms describe the payee, not the money, and whether a stablecoin payout is allowed in their country or yours is a question for a local adviser.

**How do I pay contractors in USDC?**

Agree the network in writing, save the contractor's address on their contact, fund the paying wallet with USDC and a little of the chain's coin for fees, pay a small test amount first, then pay the batch. In Orla the run checks the address, the balance and the fee coin before anything leaves, and records the hash and the fee.

**Why did a USDT transfer on TRON cost more than on Ethereum on 23 October 2026?**

Because Ethereum's gas was 0.044 gwei that night while a TRON transfer from a wallet with no staked energy burns TRX at a fixed energy price. Staking or renting energy on TRON lowers it, and Ethereum's gas rises with congestion, so check both on the day.

### Read next

- Paying contractors in USDC or USDT: costs, risks, books: https://www.orla.finance/en/pay-contractors/usdc
- How to pay international contractors, five ways: https://www.orla.finance/en/pay-contractors/international
- How to pay international vendors: https://www.orla.finance/en/pay-suppliers/international
- What a stablecoin is, defined: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/stablecoin
- What an off-ramp is, and its three prices: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/off-ramp
- The same payout priced against a wire and Wise: https://www.orla.finance/en/international-payment-cost-calculator
- Why screen a counterparty's crypto address: https://www.orla.finance/en/blog/why-screen-a-counterparty-crypto-address
- Crypto in Orla: https://www.orla.finance/en/product/crypto/wallets