A payment screen that lists Bitcoin, Ether, USDT, and Litecoin can make them look like four versions of the same thing. They are all digital assets, but they do not behave alike when a price is quoted or a transaction is sent. Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin have market prices that can move independently, while USDT is designed to follow the US dollar. The network carrying the payment and the service receiving it add separate variables that also need to be taken into account.

A 2026 systematic review of stablecoins examined 122 primary studies and described fiat-backed stablecoins as lower-volatility media of exchange. USDT and USDC were the most frequently analysed examples in the reviewed literature. That distinction is useful at…