Stablecoin

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value relative to a reference asset — most commonly the US dollar. Major examples include USDC (Circle), USDT (Tether), and DAI (MakerDAO). Stablecoins are widely used to pay for tokenized domains and to settle marketplace transactions because they remove the price-volatility risk that buying with ETH or BTC introduces between listing and settlement. Different stablecoins use different backing models — fully fiat-reserved (USDC), overcollateralized crypto (DAI), or algorithmic (a category with a troubled history, e.g., the Terra/Luna collapse). Read What Are Stablecoins? for the deeper dive.