The decentralized-stablecoin field in 2026 is led by two very different designs. Sky (formerly MakerDAO) tops the list with roughly $5.9B in protocol TVL as of July 2026 (DefiLlama) and about $12.5B in combined USDS and DAI supply. Ethena (~$4.7B TVL) is close behind with its delta-hedged USDe synthetic dollar. Frax Finance (~$280M) and Liquity (~$210M) round out the original four, which together hold roughly $11.1B. Two additions complete the picture: Usual, whose T-bill-backed USD0 still circulates ~$550M after its January 2025 USD0++ controversy, and Curve's crvUSD (~$220M supply) with its distinctive soft-liquidation engine.
Sky and MakerDAO are counted as a single entry — Sky (formerly MakerDAO) — since Sky is Maker's Endgame rebrand.
How we picked
- Protocol TVL and stablecoin supply from DefiLlama's protocol and stablecoin datasets, fetched July 12, 2026 — TVL ranks the list; supply is quoted per coin.
- Audit history — firm names from each protocol's official security or audit documentation.
- Peg mechanism — how the coin is collateralized and what happens under stress, from official docs.
- Track record through 2025–2026 — including negative events: depegs, redeployments and incidents are stated, not hidden.
Comparison table (July 2026)
| Protocol | TVL / supply (Jul 2026) | Chains | Audits | Key mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sky | $5.9B TVL · USDS $7.6B + DAI $4.9B | USDS on 7 | ChainSecurity, Cantina, Trail of Bits | Overcollateralized CDPs; Sky Savings Rate via sUSDS |
| Ethena | $4.7B TVL · USDe $3.9B + USDtb $0.8B | USDe on 30+ | Zellic, Spearbit, Quantstamp, Cantina, Pashov | Delta-neutral perp hedge; sUSDe captures funding yield |
| Frax | ~$280M TVL · frxUSD $110M + FRAX $170M | frxUSD on 20+ | Trail of Bits, Certik, Certora, Code4rena | frxUSD fully backed by tokenized T-bill funds |
| Liquity | ~$210M TVL · LUSD $27M + BOLD $29M | Ethereum | ChainSecurity, Dedaub, Certora, Coinspect | Immutable CDPs; v1 110% MCR, v2 user-set rates |
| Usual | $97M TVL · USD0 ~$550M supply | 2 | Sherlock, Spearbit, Halborn | T-bill-backed USD0; USD0++ bond with $0.87 floor |
| crvUSD | ~$220M supply | 12 (circulating) | MixBytes, ChainSecurity | LLAMMA soft liquidations across price bands |
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#1
Sky (formerly MakerDAO)
$5.9B TVL (Jul 2026)
Maker's Endgame rebrand and issuer of DAI, the original decentralized overcollateralized stablecoin. USDS is the upgraded stablecoin (1:1 with DAI); SKY replaces MKR. Sky Savings Rate (SSR) and Sky Stars subDAOs structure the new ecosystem.
Sky's developer security pages list audits by ChainSecurity and Cantina across USDS, sUSDS and the Endgame Toolkit, with Trail of Bits on the multi-collateral core. DefiLlama shows USDS at $7.6B and DAI at $4.9B as of July 2026; the Sky app itself reports about $11B of combined supply backed by roughly $14B in collateral, with sUSDS paying a 3.6% savings rate. Endgame kept shipping in 2025: SPK, the first Star token, launched June 17, 2025 with a 300M-token airdrop. Nine years of continuous peg operation is unmatched among decentralized issuers.
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#2
Ethena
$4.7B TVL (Jul 2026)
Issuer of USDe synthetic dollar via delta-neutral ETH/BTC perp shorts on CEXs. sUSDe captures the funding-rate yield. USDtb (BUIDL-backed) and Converge L1 expand the stack.
Ethena's audit page lists Zellic, Spearbit, Quantstamp, Cantina and Pashov across USDe v1 and later releases, with Quantstamp and others covering USDtb. USDe held about $3.9B in circulating supply as of July 2026 (DefiLlama), hedged by shorting BTC, ETH and other approved assets in perpetual and deliverable futures. The regulatory milestone came in July 2025, when Ethena tapped federally chartered Anchorage Digital to issue its ~$1.5B USDtb onshore — the first stablecoin on a GENIUS Act compliance path. The structural caveat: USDe yield depends on funding rates and exchange counterparties — a different risk profile from CDPs.
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#3
Frax Finance
~$280M TVL (Jul 2026)
Stablecoin and DeFi suite. frxUSD succeeded FRAX as the flagship fully-collateralized stablecoin; frxETH is the LST; sfrxUSD captures yield; Fraxtal is the protocol's OP Stack L2.
Frax's audit index spans Trail of Bits (2021–2024, including Fraxtal), Certik, Code4rena and Certora, plus its internal Frax Security Cartel reviews. Its defining 2025 move was frxUSD, launched in early January 2025 and fully collateralized by tokenized Treasury funds — BlackRock's BUIDL (via Securitize), Superstate's USTB and WisdomTree's WTGXX — a complete departure from the fractional-algorithmic design FRAX pioneered in December 2020. As of July 2026 frxUSD circulates about $110M against roughly $170M of legacy FRAX (DefiLlama).
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#4
Liquity
~$210M TVL (Jul 2026)
Decentralized borrowing protocol. v1 issues LUSD against ETH at a 110% minimum collateral ratio with no governance and no recurring interest. v2 issues BOLD against WETH, wstETH and rETH with user-set interest rates.
Liquity is the purist's pick: v1 has run immutable and governance-free since April 2021. Its v2 docs list audits by ChainSecurity, Dedaub, Certora (formal verification) and Coinspect, plus a Cantina competition. The track record includes a stumble handled transparently — a stability-pool bug found in February 2025 led to a full v2 redeployment, and BOLD relaunched on mainnet May 19, 2025 with user-set rates and up to 91% LTV on ETH. The two versions hold about $210M combined ($135M v1, $74M v2), with LUSD and BOLD each circulating around $30M (DefiLlama, July 2026).
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#5
Usual
USD0 ~$550M supply (Jul 2026)
Issuer of USD0, a stablecoin fully backed by tokenized US Treasury bills (Hashnote USYC, M0, Superstate collateral), with USD0++ as a bond-like locked version and USUAL as the reward token.
Usual's tech docs list audits by Sherlock, Spearbit and Halborn. It earns its place on scale — roughly $550M of USD0 outstanding as of July 2026 (DefiLlama) — but with a documented trust scar: on January 10, 2025 the team switched USD0++ early redemption from 1:1 to its $0.87 floor price with minimal notice, and USD0++ traded down to about $0.90, triggering liquidations and an exodus from Curve and Pendle pools. A revenue switch and a 1:1 unstake option (forfeiting accrued rewards) followed within days; the floor-price bond mechanics remain in the docs for anyone weighing USD0++.
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#6
crvUSD (Curve)
~$220M supply (Jul 2026)
Curve's native overcollateralized stablecoin, minted against ETH, LSTs and BTC derivatives. Its LLAMMA liquidation engine continuously converts collateral instead of firing one-shot liquidations.
crvUSD's design is the technical standout: LLAMMA spreads collateral across up to 50 price bands and soft-liquidates — gradually swapping collateral to crvUSD as price falls and back again as it recovers — so borrowers are only hard-liquidated at zero health. Audits by MixBytes (June 2023) and ChainSecurity cover the stablecoin contracts. Circulating supply is about $220M across 12 chains as of July 2026 (DefiLlama), modest next to Sky or Ethena, and Curve has kept building on it: in late 2025 the DAO voted to expand a crvUSD credit line backing the Yield Basis project. Live since May 2023.