ARE WE
STABLE YET?

Built on Dan Larimer's BitShares protocol, BitUSD was the first serious attempt at a $1 token: crypto-collateralized, overcollateralized with BTS, and steered by on-chain market incentives. It held its peg surprisingly well for years, proved the concept was possible, and quietly faded into history. Every stablecoin since stands on this prototype.

Announced in July 2014 as 'Realcoin' and rebranded Tether in November, USDT launched on Bitcoin's Omni layer in 2015 with a simple promise: every token backed 1:1 by dollars in a bank account. It became the most traded stablecoin in history — and the most disputed. Reserve composition, the Bitfinex relationship, an $18.5M NYAG settlement (2021) and a $41M CFTC fine (2021) are all part of its log. The peg, however, has held.

Nu's 'stable' coin used an algorithmic supply mechanism backed by fractional reserves and shareholder voting. It depegged briefly in 2016, then collapsed outright in 2018 when a bank run drained its thin backing. NuBits is the first entry in what would become a recurring pattern: algorithmic stability that works right up until it doesn't.

Circle and Coinbase launched USD Coin through the Centre consortium: fiat-reserve backed, monthly attestations, US-regulated issuers. It was the industry's attempt to answer Tether's credibility problem with audits instead of assertions. In March 2023 it briefly dipped to ~$0.87 when Silicon Valley Bank failed with $3.3B of Circle's reserves inside — and recovered within days once the FDIC stepped in. Minor incident, logged.

MakerDAO's Multi-Collateral DAI launched in November 2019: every DAI minted against locked crypto collateral (ETH and friends) worth more than the DAI issued, with liquidation rules enforced by smart contract rather than a company's word. Later governance votes added real-world assets — US Treasuries among them — blurring the line between 'crypto-native' and 'traditional' backing while keeping the peg.

TerraUSD promised algorithmic stability via a mint-and-burn link with its sister token LUNA. When confidence cracked in early May 2022, the reflexive loop ran in reverse: UST depegged, LUNA hyperinflated, and roughly $60 billion of paper value evaporated in under a week. It remains the largest stablecoin failure ever logged, triggered contagion across the industry (Three Arrows, Celsius, Voyager), and sent founder Do Kwon from podcast darling to fugitive to convicted fraud.

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation entered into force in June 2023, with its stablecoin rules (reserve requirements, redemption rights, issuer licensing) applying from 30 June 2024. For the first time, a major jurisdiction defined what a lawful stablecoin actually is — and several exchanges delisted non-compliant tokens rather than comply.

On 18 July 2025 the US signed the GENIUS Act into law: a federal framework for payment stablecoins requiring 1:1 backing in cash and short-term Treasuries, monthly disclosures, and federal or state charters. The era of 'trust us, the dollars are there' officially became the era of 'show us, every month.' The status check finally has a legal definition of stable.