Research

Stablecoin and self-custody insights

What to do this quarter, and why. Each piece is dated, signed, and built around one number we measured in production or can cite to a primary source. Help answers how, guides answer what, insights answer whether.

Safety · 2026-09-08

86¢

USDC's lowest price during the March 2023 Silicon Valley Bank weekend, per the Federal Reserve

Is USDC Safe to Hold in 2026? Reserves, Law and the Depeg Record

Is USDC safe? What backs it, what the GENIUS Act now requires, how low it fell in March 2023, and why self-custody removes one of its two risks but not both.

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Yield · 2026-09-10

$17.6B

Aave total value locked across chains on DefiLlama, the day we checked

Aave vs Morpho for USDC Yield: How to Read Vault Risk

Aave vs Morpho for USDC yield is a question about risk, not rate. How pooled lending and curated vaults fail differently, plus a five-point checklist.

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Safety · 2026-09-12

27 months

from FTX's bankruptcy filing in November 2022 to its first creditor payment

Exchange Collapse: What Actually Happens to Your Crypto

What an exchange collapse does to your coins: unsecured creditor status, the petition-date price freeze and the years-long wait, with FTX, Celsius and Mt. Gox.

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Agents · 2026-09-14

1.4 s

from HTTP 402 to settled USDC on Base

x402 Payments in Production: What It Costs to Get Paid by an AI Agent

x402 payments measured in production: 1.4 s from HTTP 402 to settled USDC on Base, who pays gas, what the facilitator charges, and how replays are refused.

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Payments · 2026-09-16

$0.33 vs 2¢

mining fee for a $50 on-chain Bitcoin payment vs Lightning routing for the same $50, computed 2 September 2026 from mempool.space and 1ML

Lightning vs On-Chain Bitcoin for Payments Under $50

Lightning vs on-chain Bitcoin for small payments: measured fees, settlement times and the Liquid-backed liquidity model, with every number cited.

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Payments · 2026-09-18

0.2 XRP

owner reserve locked per trust line on the XRP Ledger

RLUSD vs USDC on the XRP Ledger: Trust Lines Explained

RLUSD vs USDC on the XRP Ledger: both are issued tokens, so each needs a trust line and locks 0.2 XRP of reserve. Here is what actually differs.

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Safety · 2026-09-20

$2B

stolen across 13 cross-chain bridge hacks in 2022 alone

Native vs Bridged USDC: Why CCTP Changes the Risk

Native vs bridged USDC explained: bridged USDC is an IOU on a bridge contract, native USDC is minted by Circle. How CCTP burn-and-mint removes the lockbox.

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Recovery · 2026-09-22

3.79M BTC

the high end of Chainalysis's estimate of bitcoin lost for good, 17 to 23 percent of the supply at the time

Crypto Inheritance: Social Recovery vs a Hardware Wallet for Your Family

Crypto inheritance fails through silence, not theft. Compare a hardware wallet, a lawyer-held seed and SLIP-0039 social recovery, then build a family plan.

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Treasury · 2026-09-24

$1,500

swing in reported gain between FIFO and HIFO on the same one-ETH sale in our worked example

FIFO vs HIFO for Crypto Taxes: A Worked Founder Example

FIFO vs HIFO on the same ETH sale: a $1,000 gain or a $500 loss. What the IRS allows, why Canada requires average cost, and how CFO Books handles both.

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Payments · 2026-09-26

0 ETH

needed to send USDC from a SpendTheBits wallet on Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche or Ethereum

Gasless USDC Transfers: How Paymasters Work and Who Pays

A gasless USDC transfer lets you send USDC with zero ETH. Here is how ERC-4337 paymasters, EIP-7702 and permits make it work, and what it costs.

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About the author

Jay, Founder, SpendTheBits

Jay builds SpendTheBits, a fully non-custodial stablecoin wallet, and runs its infrastructure, support and treasury operations solo. Every figure in these pieces is either measured in production or cited to a primary source.

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