USDC or USDT: what matters when a business accepts one of them.

Should a business accept USDC or USDT?

A business should accept the stablecoin its customers already hold, then check that the token fits its country's rules and its plan for turning tokens into bank money. That is a rule about acceptance, not about which token to keep: this post takes no view on holding either one. What accepting a stablecoin involves day to day is in stablecoin payments for business.

Fianto publishes this post and accepts only USDC, on Solana, so we have a side. We have kept to what each issuer and regulator publishes, read on 15 October 2026, and we say below when USDT is the better fit.

How do USDC and USDT compare for merchants?

USDC and USDT compare as follows on the points a merchant runs into, each from the issuer's or the regulator's own page.

How do Circle and Tether report their reserves?

Circle discloses USDC reserve holdings every week and gets monthly third-party assurance, while Tether publishes a quarterly attestation and in August 2026 announced its first full audit, of its 2025 financial statements. In Circle's words on its transparency page, "USDC reserve holdings are fully disclosed on a weekly basis", and "a Big Four accounting firm provides monthly third-party assurance". The page says most of the reserve sits in the Circle Reserve Fund, a government money market fund, and the rest in cash, mostly at a handful of very large banks.

Tether's Q2 2026 attestation release, dated 31 July 2026 and prepared by BDO, reports total assets of US$187,751,426,411 against liabilities of US$183,641,897,215 at 30 June 2026. On 13 August 2026 Tether announced that KPMG issued an unqualified opinion on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. Tether's transparency page says circulation figures are "typically published daily".

For a merchant the use of these reports is narrow: they tell you whether the issuer publishes what backs the token you are paid in, and how often. They do not tell you what a token will be worth tomorrow, and nothing here is a forecast.

Can a merchant redeem USDC or USDT for dollars?

A merchant can redeem either token with its issuer only after opening an account there, so a business without one turns both into bank money through an exchange or another service. The issuers' own terms set the bar:

• Circle's USDC terms say "You may not redeem USDC with Circle unless and until you open a Circle Mint account."
• Tether's terms say "you must be a verified customer of Tether" to have tokens issued or redeemed, and its fee schedule lists a verification fee of "150 USD in Tether Tokens", a minimum redemption of 100,000 USD and a fee of "The greater of $1,000 or 0.1%" per redemption.

Fianto does neither step for you. There is no fiat payout: USDC lands in your wallet and stays there until you move it. What to record when it arrives, and when you sell it, is in accounting for USDC revenue.

Which stablecoins can a business in the EU accept?

The EU's MiCA rules require a dollar stablecoin offered to the public in the EU to have an authorised issuer, and ESMA keeps an interim list of them. The interim register of e-money token issuers, downloaded on 15 October 2026, lists Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, authorised by France's ACPR as an electronic money institution from 1 July 2024. Tether does not appear in it.

The rules bite on crypto service providers more than on shops. On 8 October 2026 ESMA said that crypto-asset service providers authorised under MiCA "should cease providing services related to non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins to clients in the European Union". The statement names no token. What that means for a business that receives a stablecoin directly from a customer is a question for a lawyer in your country; this is not legal advice.

Can USDC or USDT be frozen?

Both issuers reserve the right to freeze tokens and block addresses. Circle's USDC terms say "Circle reserves the right to 'block' certain USDC addresses" and to "freeze associated USDC (temporarily or permanently)". Tether's terms include the right to "freeze any Tether Tokens held by you" and, for prohibited use, "blacklisting any Digital Tokens Address which holds Tether Tokens".

On Fianto this shows up in one place. A subscription renewal from a frozen USDC account fails, and that failure counts toward the four attempts Fianto makes before the subscription ends; failed renewals and retries has the schedule. A one-off payment needs a USDC token account that is not frozen, or the customer cannot pay at all.

When is USDT the better token to accept?

USDT is the better token to accept when your customers hold USDT and would have to swap to pay you otherwise. Every swap is a step where a sale can drop, so the token your buyers already have usually wins. Tether lists Solana among the networks it issues USDT on, along with Ethereum, Tron and others.

Fianto is not the tool for that case. It accepts one mint, USDC on Solana; a customer holding USDT would have to swap to USDC in their own wallet first, and Fianto does not swap. Its plans, caps and prices are all set in USDC. If you sell to a USDC crowd on Solana, the steps are in how to accept USDC on Solana, and recurring billing in USDC is on the USDC subscriptions page. If your customers sit on another network, read USDC on Solana vs Ethereum, Base or Polygon first.